The Best Costume Award Goes To . . .

A toilet. This kid in my friend Taylor's neighborhood went as a toilet. He clearly was very proud of his construction. The toilet was 3-D - it had a tank and a bowl and everything - all white cardboard. The best part was that he didn't have a separate trick or treat bag - his goodies went into the toilet bowl!! He simply lifted up the lid, which read "Trick or Treat" on the inside, and you put the candy in the bowl. Hilarious. When he turned and walked away, we saw another clever touch: a toilet paper holder and actual roll of toilet paper on the side of the tank. Brilliant. He even allowed the people handing out candy above Taylor's place to take shots to see if they could "make a basket" with the candy they were distributing. I think they made at least one.

Dishonorable mention: Women over the age of 30 trick-or-treating. You think it's bad when 17-year olds show up at your door? That's nothing compared to what you see in Eastern Market. At first, it was a few moms or grandmothers following their kids around. The kids came up and got their candy and then the parental figure came forward too - with her own separate bag. But the BEST was this woman who came BY HERSELF sans costume (well, none of the adults collecting had costumes) on her CELL PHONE and said to Taylor and me (while still on the cell phone), "I'm a big girl, but I still like my candy." In a way, you had to hand it to her for having the balls to do that. But still - ridiculous!