Halloween

Brooklyn is a very civilized place, assuming that the ultimate measure of civilization is whether it knows how to celebrate halloween properly. (I think that's a fair assumption.) Not only is it possible to get a pumpkin without having to buy it two weeks in advance (Cambridge, I'm looking at you), but there's also some serious trick-or-treating.

Getting home at 6:15, I was worried that I might have already missed the peak of the ritual. Ha. My first batch of candy was gone in 20 minutes. I dutifully went over to 7th Ave and bought another three bags of candy. They were gone in 10 minutes--an average rate of about 6 kids a minute.

I wonder if there's anywhere where the trick-or-treating balance is really maintained. I know that when I was growing up, there was always a big bowl full of candy left over, usually more than I took in myself. There weren't enough trick-or-treaters to cover all of the houses there. Here, on the other hand, there's a lot of kids. (I had no idea how many until tonight.) But with nobody else on my block on handout duty, I felt like they couldn't possibly be earning as much candy as I used to.

Clearly someone should study the economics of halloween and figure out what's going wrong. On the other hand, the kids seem to be having a good time either way.