Halloween is always a good day for some foolishness. Here’s some stupidity that went down this year.
1. Last night, NHL forward for the Phoenix Coyotes, Raffi Torres showed up with his wife to a team party dressed as Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The two unabashedly appeared in blackface much to the party’s enjoyment. Teammate Paul Bissonnette was so particularly delighted with the costume that he snapped a photo and tweeted it last night from his phone. Naturally the public received their costume choice with total outrage. This, however, did not deter the Coyotes from dismissing the racial ignorance of the costume in a statement released today reading, “There is absolutely nothing racist about Raffi and his wife’s costumes…Raffi is a huge fan of Jay Z and his wife loves Beyonce. It was a Halloween party. The fact that this was reported is ridiculous.” (Via LA Times.)
2. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pretty well known for sharing the wealth on Halloween, giving out full sized candy bars to children who grace his home’s walkway each year. Not this year, apparently. Although a policeman standing outside Bloomberg’s doorway claimed that a thousand dollars’ worth of candy had been given out all day, kids were walking away with the same bite-sized Kit Kat bars that all the non-billionaires give out. Bloomberg may have been too busy with his unfunny Conan appearance to be bothered. (Via NY Times.)
3. Maybe Bloomberg should have gone down the same route that a woman in Las Vegas did after he ran out of candy. A dry erase board on her door read, “Porch light is off… You know what that means??? No candy here, cunts! Run back to mommy + daddy, cuz I’m a witch. Don’t look back motherfuckers!” (Via Gawker.)
4. There doesn’t appear to be any legislation on what you can put on your door that may be offensive to children, but in California there are extreme precautions made to protect kids from convicted sex offenders. Operation Boo, which has been in effect for the past 18 years, prevents sex offenders from answering the door on Halloween. They are also not allowed to have any Halloween decorations or exterior lights on at the premises. Transient sex offenders are also required to report to designated centers from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. It’s a bit excessive for citizens that are trying to move on with their lives, but considering there hasn’t been a sexual assault on children during the existence of Operation Boo, California state law keeps it in effect every year. (Via LA Times.)
5. Lastly, a pastor in Hillsboro, Ohio, publicly apologized for a pamphlet he was handing out to children on Halloween, depicting violence to children, one by suicide. The pamphlet was meant to educate kids on fearing God with an emphasis on fear. Rev. Kenny Cousar stated, “We deeply apologize for it. We were careless. We did not flip through and look at all the pamphlets. We don’t create them. We purchase them from a company, and because they are in comic-book style, we figured kids and teenagers would like them…We were careless and we will not let it happen again.” (Via Times Gazette.)
That’s all for Halloween 2011. At least it didn’t snow.
