Halloween. It’s all about the candy. I like candy.

Instead of ranting about the midterm elections of next tuesday, I thought I’d share a few stories about my favorite non-religious holiday.

I love Halloween….candy.

My fav

Back in the day, in my neighborhood, we were all about the tricks, soaping’ windows, throwing corn at houses, canning cars. It started about two weeks before the big day. I lived next to family of six kids, with another family of six kids next to them(irish catholic families/of course related). The Keidel’s had three boys, me being the middle, misunderstood creative kid.

Anyhoo, we would start raiding the local corn field of rock hard corn on the cob, each of us filling up an old pillowcase of ears and hoofing it back to my neighbors basement.  The Graham basement was the gathering place for the whole neighbor hood. They had a pool/ping pong table and lots of room.

Corning was guy thing. We would shuck corn off the cob till our hands were worn raw. Then we would go out in the early autumn darkness and throw it at houses till the grownups came out and yelled…we’d run like scared dogs. Ocaisionally someone would give us a chase which was always bad idea, because if we knew anything, we knew the neighborhood, and we would lead the chaser into a briar patch with hidden escape routes, that only we would know. Cursing would follow.

Soaping was a total clan event, usually saved for the Halloween weekend, we would soap only cars, not houses.One year we did every house on the the street except our three houses. Stupid kids. Even stupider was the idea of using canning paraffin. We all got in trouble, don’t remember the punishment.

Canning was even more insidious, it involved a coordinate group effort.  We would tie coffee cans on a length of rope, both ends which was laid across the road. A car would come up over the rise and with a kid on each side of the road we would  raise the rap to snag the car. The car would drag the cans dow the road, we would run like wild dogs, laughing, chases inside, briar patch, cursing, aughter in the woods. We lived on a street with a sheer cliff on one side and houses on the other. Not once did we think of what happened if a car went over the cliff. Stupid kids, public school. Whatever.

Then on Halloween proper, we’d put on our costumes and beg for candy from the very people that we corned, soaped and canned. At my house there was no store bought costumes, you were a hobo or a ghost. It was the 60’s so the sheets were always bright colors.

Older kids would lead the pack of the motley crew, taking a protection portion of the younger kid’s stash. Again. pillow cases were used for the booty. My friend Cary, would save his candy till friction’ Easter. Dan, John & I would have ours down to the bare wrappers in a day or two. they were big bars too, none of these smaller shit they have now, full Mounds bars, Butterfingers and Charston Chews. Some moms gave homemade popcorn balls and apples. Homemade caramels. Hot pennys.

Now we celebrate with our kids, nobody’s every soaped me, canned or corned me. Linda has three full boxes of halloweenie stuff.. We carve a lot of pumpkins.  As I look back, those were the days. But today’s also full of good times and, of course, candy.

I like candy.

HALLOWEENIE

There’s only one word for this season’s political advertising…despicable.

I consider my self an expert in the field because of my thirty years of experience building and supporting Cincinnati’s iconic brands. I have created award winning advertising for LaRosa’s Pizzerias, Gold Star Chili, Skyline, Hudepohl Schoenling, it’s a long list. Not one negative ad.

When running a TV spot, I consider that I have been invited into my customer’s living rooms or with radio into their cars. I consider it an honor and not a place to shout or insult.

There’s nothing honorable about political advertising these days. What’s being played out in my living room is deplorable. The back biting, disclaimer riddled, lies and distortions are fatiguing and down right disgusting. Instead of running for an office and outlining their agenda, offering coherent solutions to the problems we all face, todays politicians use negative comparison approaches that literally turn off their constituents.

Crazy Juice

Don’t tell me about the other guy, tell me about you. What is your unique selling point as to why I should vote for you, pay your salary, send you to Washington to represent me? When did distortions become the norm? When did the old adage ” if you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything” become not i the standard. Just once, I’d like to hear an actual coherent good idea for change not a promise for fundamental redistributive change.

is Monzel the idiot? Or does Tarbell have the solutions?

We live in the best country in the world but every couple of years we forget about that fact and show our ugly underbelly that is the political landscape today. The world is laughing at us. I don’t really care what the rest of the world thinks, but for one, think it stinks. While my President thinks that anyone that disagrees with his agenda is dangerous or that the tea party people are bigoted and says so on TV, he diminishes he’s stature and the office he precariously holds. Can’t we just agree to disagree? Stop calling me names.

Now, to be fair, I must disclose that I am a proud Cincinnati Tea Party member, if they had a card, I would be sporting it. If you look at my site, I do have a political section, it is a ranting, seething conservative dissertation  about how  President Obama’s policies are poison for my country. I do think that there  is “Power” in saying “NO”. BUT, it’s on my site, I’m not beaming it into your living room, you have to go looking for it. And yes, I do stir the pot on Facebook and incite some heated discussion threads. I lose FB friends all the time and gain new ones. Nobody really wants to actually discuss politics in a rational way. It makes Facebook interesting, more interesting than your Farmville or 4Square status.

I think that politicians should knock off the negative crap. Hire a professional advertising creative and craft a positive message. Push a positive agenda, change the same old to look to the future. Be nice and shout down the negative fearmongers in public, not on public airwaves.

Otherwise, you are NOT invited into my living room and I won’t vote for you.