Sunday, November 01, 2009

Halloween Costume

Every year I try to make my Halloween costume something humorous; a visual pun, a political statement, something unexpected. This year in planning my costume I had thought about going as Sarah Palin’s speech writer.

The gag was that I was going to go with a bag full of slips of paper, each with a random comment on them: “I don’t want to talk about that let’s talk about energy,” “I can see Russia from my house,” “Lipstick,” “I’m a maverick…” that sort of thing. Then when ever anyone asked me anything I would reach into the bag and grab a handful of them and read them off as my answer.

Unfortunately, it was pointed out to me that with speeches as rambling and poorly constructed as he has there was no way she used a speech writer so the gag kind of fell apart.

Then, talking to my sister on afternoon, we hit upon a new idea. Off to my scanner and PhotoShop I went. After scanning and altering some Monopoly® money with pictures of myself (and Saga for the Million-Dollar Bill) I printed off stacks and stacks of money which I gave out freely at the party I went to.

“Buy yourself something nice, like a car company.” Was one of my lines I used. “Here’s your bailout fund. Pay it back when you are back on your feed. (Nudge. Nudge. Wink. Wink.)” Was another.

My costume? Timothy Geithner.

For the people who knew who that is, it was a pretty funny costume. Oddly, it was the children who liked it most! One little girl kept coming back asking if she could have some more money. A future CEO, no doubt!

Perhaps I went a little overboard, though. I am not at all sure that I needed to print a full ream of paper into money. I still have a good portion of it left over. (And when have you ever heard that about a government program!?)

Wherever you are today, I hope that you’re having a lovely day!

Don Bergquist – November 01, 2009 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA

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