Boo

Doubtless I will get scorned for this admission: I don't like Halloween. I don't like having to put costumes together for my kids. I can remember that either my mother went to Woolworth's and bought us costumes in a box or we made them ourselves. The drive to Woolworth's and back was the zenith of parental involvement, so far as I can recall. I simply didn't understand mothers who sewed their children's costumes. I still don't. It seems like so much work for just a few hours--wildly inefficient. I know a woman who sewed her daughter's wedding dress, and that was clearly a labor of love. This, on the other hand, would just be labor. I'd be resenting it inside of three minutes, I know it. So I bought costumes for my kids. And I'm hosting a pizza party for them and their friends and the parents of some of the friends before we all go out. After the whole thing is over, I plan to make myself a big margarita--now that will be a labor of love.

Speaking of labor, it will be as light as it can be on October 31, due in part to the intense effort of...the candy lobby. The extension of DST by three weeks began this past spring as a way to cheaply save some energy, without having to make much sacrifice. Whether it actually saves anything is another matter. (Cynics know it's really for the benefit of retailers, and when you drive to the mall more than you otherwise would because it won't be dark when you get out, there's no energy being saved.)

The candy lobby (I can't write that term without giggling) apparently had much to do with the 2005 Energy Act, but my question is: does another hour of sunlight mean more candy will get purchased? Does anyone, when they're contemplating how much candy to buy, standing there in line getting angry at how ripped off they're about to be, think: Hey, better get more. That extra hour and all. I don't think so. I've looked outside. It's already dark by 6:30, so it's not like anyone is staying out way later than before. Note to candy lobby: You're boneheads. No matter when DST ends, trick or treating ends by about 8 pm.

So bank on my sipping that 'rita by about 8:03.

Source:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7779869