Last night was Halloween, and the first kids arrived at my door around 6:45 p.m. Three out of the first four had UNICEF boxes that I contributed coins to. I had 20 more kids the rest of the evening and none of them had UNICEF boxes. I don't want to be accused of racial profiling, but the three kids who had UNICEF boxes were East Indian. Maybe they understood and had more empathy for what children in poorer countries than Canada go through because they may have relatives in Indo-Asia, or their parents have told them about it. When I was a kid, almost everybody went trick-or-treating with UNICEF boxes. I don't know whether it's kids or parents that don't care anymore, but I was disappointed nevertheless. Or maybe these people are all on to something that I'm not.
Warren Campbell told me that, while he was in Texas last week, he found a radio station "that was all conspiracy radio all the time. They hated Bush but they were extreme Right Wingers....they felt that sucralose and aspartame and all that kind of stuff was made to poison us. They also said that the money collected for Unicef every year is part of a grand conspiracy and that money went to fund a New World Order."
Warren's sons Rhys and Evan came trick-or-treating, and Rhys asked for a baseball. I told them to come in for a moment, while I ran upstairs, got a baseball, and came back and dropped it into his bag. I gave Evan extra chocolate.
One kid came to my door holding a football. That was it. That was his costume. I told him that it was very lame and that he should be ashamed of himself, but I gave him a chocolate bar anyway. A black kid who had done nothing but colour his hair white came to the door. When I asked him what he was supposed to be, he said, "Dennis Rodman." I told him that he was lame, too, then gave him a Wunderbar and sent him on his way.

np Pilchard - Dowabetty