The October Country


Something warm this way goes (don't be too angry with us, Ray Bradbury).


Photo by Joe the Cat
Halloween just walked in the door.
Or maybe not Halloween precisely, but its tempestuous cousin.
A bona fide "Skeleton Shelf Sitter" (made in China, no less) joined the crowd at The Doodles Dog offices this evening. "Skeleton Shelf Sitter." A highly descriptive yet charm-free term for what we might have called a "Dia de los Muertos" mariachi figure. He came to our shores, all the way from China, via Target. Quite the urban outpost is Target.
Mr. Doodles Dog is calling Skeleton Shelf Sitter (which sounds vaguely Native America as in "Skeleton Who Amuses Himself By Sitting On Your Shelf") by his real name: Guy. He must be viewed as the Harbinger of what is becoming a new holiday, Halloween/Day of the Dead.
Now he's a Doodles Guy and he's sitting with Mr. Doodles Dog and we're thinking ... summer is packing its bags, fall is at the airport waiting for a shuttle and our favorite time of year is within view.
Our first sighting of Halloween/Day of the Dead merchandise was June 30 at HomeGoods. The annual glut of hellish supposedly grotesque but too-cute objects is well under way. We noticed it had about three weeks of primo store space before Thanksgiving and then Christmas crowded it out. Other holidays are soon to follow.
But we are so happy to have found Guy. He is right at home here.
We dogs understand what it's like to have a season named in our honor.
We have Dog Days, after all. In Florida, that means the height of summer, or the depths of misery, the mosquitoes at their most insistent and the humidity at its most unbearable.
Yes, we have Dog Days in our honor.
In China, according to their zodiac, every 12 years they have the Year of the Dog, even if some dogs will be eaten over there to commemorate the event.
And over near Richmond, Virginia, there's a well-known professional football player who tortured and executed dogs. He gambled, too, which to many is the worst of his crimes.
How culturally important, how newsworthy, we dogs are becoming.
But Halloween just walked in the door, not in the form of Guy, but in the guise of cooler and dryer weather. We're no longer hitting 90.
Cause for jubilation and celebration.
Just don't eat one of us while you're doing it.


Photo by Gimlet
Sammy reminds Joe the Cat to act as bouncer and show summer the door.
Joe the Cat subtly reminds Sammy that it's almost the start of Black Cat Season, or Halloween,
and he'd appreciate it if Sammy would watch his back.

Posted: Wed - September 19, 2007 at 09:10 AM          

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