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“You call that six inches?” - Sharon, my first real girlfriend
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I bought some music online the other day from an outfit named " CD Baby ." They specialize in selling independent music of all genres and…
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I never played football growing up because my mom wouldn't let me. I was accident prone enough without adding eleven guys to the equation, all in pads (read: armor)…
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After succumbing to the inevitable metabolism death, I underwent The Great Diet Switch . Since that fateful day when I swore off regular sodas, I have rarely to…
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The Original Rudolph BookletThe song of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dates from 1939, when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company asked one of their copywriters to come up with a Christmas…
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I had a birthday this past Thursday. I turned 37. Getting older means different things to different people. Thirty-seven isn't a magic number by any means, to most people, but…
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The world is an amazing place. Doctors and scientists find cures for diseases every day. We communicate through tiny waves sent to space in spectrums that we can neither see…
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People can be divied into two types and it seems as if most women belong to that one group I don't. You know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about…
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It's here, it's finally here! I never thought it would come but now it has. Dove Season officially opened in North Carolina on Labor Day!!
Yep, you heard me. …
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Among the many number of things I did wrong with my two wives, I did a great many correct. It takes a lot to make a marriage work and outside…
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Old people like to eat certain foods that no one else eats. Or at the very least, foods they are stereotyped to eat because it's a dying food. Like them.
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Written by Ross Cavins
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Wednesday, 31 October 2007 01:09 |
 Hallowee, a license to pretend.
Since the earliest days of my memories, pretending was part of my life. Before my sister came along when I was four, I had pretend play-friends. I remember playing with them in the sandbox, pushing the hardened cat turds around with my yellow Tonka bulldozer, pretending the entire sandbox was a construction site.
(I always wanted the write the word turd.) Pretending isn't just a part of a child's life, though, it's a part of everyone's life. We're always pretending, only as we age, we call it little white lies. We tell our girlfriend she looks great in those jeans. We pretend we're happy at our dead-end jobs. We fake our reaction when the neighbor gushes over how beautiful their new baby is.
Then one day a year, we are expected to become something we're not. We can pretend to be somebody else. We can even pretend while being ourselves and then say and do things we want to every day, but can't because societal norms won't allow us. The co-worker that comes to the Halloween party dressed like a hooker? More than likely, she didn't have to borrow those clothes. That guy who comes as the Godfather? He's always had some deep-seated psychological issues. That guy who comes in a dress and blouse? Need I comment?
 More pretending.
Americans are so pent-up most of the time from our inherited Puritan values, that I believe we've come to need this holiday more than any of the others. Sure, at Christmas, we exchange gifts and talk about loving one another in that Christmas spirit. But show me another holiday where it's accepted practice to scare the bejesus out of someone? That's the gift that keeps on giving.
I vote Halloween as America's most sacred holiday. It's probably the only one that doesn't honor a single person or actual event in our history. It exists simply to exist, a holiday that is fun for its own sake. And sometimes, that's exactly what we need.
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