Brian Lehrer: Don't worry, that wasn't me screaming, but it was somebody screaming at me. Now on the last Brian Lehrer show before Halloween, a call in on your COVID safe Halloween plans and your on the news costume ideas, 212-433 WNYC 433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. The CDC says outdoor trick-or-treating is back, even that is unlike last year. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said, put on those costumes, stay outside and enjoy your trick-or-treating.

Of course, trick-or-treating and many other Halloween activities are geared toward younger children who aren't approved for the vaccine yet, as we were just discussing before the news. We're still waiting to see when 5 to 11-year-olds will be eligible. Many parents might still be carefully considering COVID safety like masks and social distancing in your trick-or-treat plans. Notice the emphasis from the CDC director on outside Halloween festivities. If you're like me and you live in an apartment building, you might be used to seeing indoor trick-or-treaters roaming the hallway searching for candy in past years.

In fact, many buildings, in my neighborhood at least, are not allowing indoor trick-or-treating this year. Listeners, what about yours? What did your landlord or co-op or condo board decide? 212-433 WNYC. 212-433-9692. In general, with the lingering pandemic in mind, what are your plans for Halloween or Halloweekend and how are you staying and keeping your kids COVID safe, 212-433 WNYC, but still allowing them to have fun and go roaming the streets or the something for candy? 212-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer.

Maybe you've got a trick-or-treat route mapped out only stopping at houses you're familiar with to limit contact with strangers or sticking to outdoor trick-or-treating like the CDC recommends. If so, how do you do that? If you live in a place that's mostly apartment buildings, obviously it's easier to trick-or-treat outdoors. If you live where there are private homes, you just go up to the door and you're outside anyway. What about if you live in one of those neighborhoods that's all buildings, what are you going to do? I know kids go to the stores sometimes, on the shopping strips, is that it? Is that enough? What's your plan? 212-433 WNYC 433-9692.

Will you be checking vaccine cards of the parents or the children at the door? 212-433-9692. Here's the more fun part of this call-in, who's got a costume that you would describe as being on the news? Call in and shout it out, 212-433 WNYC. Is anyone going as Dr. Anthony Fauci? Are they selling Fauci masks? Would people recognize Fauci masks? Are you going as Kyrsten Sinema maybe or Mark Zuckerberg? You could spend all night pitching the Metaverse like Zuckerberg did with his company name change yesterday. Have a red beret lying around, why not put together a quick Curtis Sliwa costume?

Or maybe you've got a more abstract idea. Have you figured out a way to dress up as a coronavirus aerosol or the climate crisis? Forget Dracula, those things are today's true frights, but can you even have fun with them in any way, or is that in bad taste. In any case, tell us about your news related Halloween costumes, 212-433 WNYC. 212-433-9692. I'll spare you the story of the time I went as Bernie Madoff, 212-433-9692.

While Joe Biden visiting the Vatican now is probably your only chance for a Biden and the Pope couple's costume. That might be easy for some folks to put together, but you have to fit it through the door. How about COP26, the UN climate conference coming up, anybody going as Greta Thunberg? It's looking like an exciting race for governor coming up. What about a very local and specific group costume of Kathy Hochul, Letitia James, and Jumaane Williams, or should Bill de Blasio be in that set? 212-433 WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer for your on the news costume ideas plus your plans to keep this Halloween COVID safe and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: No, that's not the Brian Lehrer show theme, but you know what it is and it's much better for this call-in, isn't it? 212-433 WNYC or tweet @BrianLehrer for your on the news Halloween costume ideas, plus your plans to keep this Halloween COVID safe. Let's start with a costume. Raul in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Raul.

Raul: I thought this would be ideal. The old Schoolhouse Rock bill through Capitol Hill, with a nice bandage on the corner of my head.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Now, wait, you're talking about a bill trying to get through the house of representatives?

Raul: If you remember the ABC Schoolhouse Rock cartoons that they used to play on Saturday mornings, and it was I'm just a bill on my way through Capitol Hill and it used to be a lesson about how bills get through Capitol Hill.

Brian Lehrer: There you go. I don't remember that visual, if I even ever saw it. What does it actually look like?

Raul: No, it's a very funny cartoon of, again, a bill essentially wrapped up in parchment and with a belt on and a bandage on his forehead and he has this [unintelligible 00:07:32] and complaining to-- not complaining, suffering tone about how hard it is to get a bill through Capitol Hill and then they would show the left and the right and then people arguing and then--

Brian Lehrer: Very cute. For you, would you wrap yourself in parchment?

Raul: Yes, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to get enough parchment together to cut myself around it.

Brian Lehrer: Then do you have to take a marker and write on it bill back better or something like that?

Raul: I was thinking just going with the original Schoolhouse Rock, but that's actually a good idea, but he's wearing a ribbon that just says bill.

Brian Lehrer: Got it. Raul, thank you very much. Good start. Donna in Manhattan on a COVID safety question. Donna, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Donna: Hi. Are you there?

Brian Lehrer: I'm here. Are you there?

Donna: Okay, I am. I am here.

Brian Lehrer: Your co-op board decided, drum roll.

Donna: Yes, we decided to allow trick-or-treating. Actually, we allowed it last year, but we don't have that many children in the building, honestly. We have about a dozen and last year we asked people to sign up, who wanted to participate and they just left candy in the bowl outside their door. This year they have the option and everybody in the building still needs to wear masks in the public area, so everybody will be masked through this trick-or-treating, and they have the option, people have the option of opening their doors and actually giving the stuff to the kids or leaving the stuff outside.

We also provide some treats and toys and stuff in the lobby with the doorman. I usually get a bunch of stuff and then the doorman lets the kids pick what they want. It works out great.

Brian Lehrer: Here's one question for you, Donna. If you're going to leave the candy in a bowl outside your door without you policing it, do you ask nicely or do you put a sign that says do not under any circumstances take all the candy for yourself?

Donna: I don't think we're threatening any of the kids. They've been pretty good actually and most of them are young and they go with-- the parent goes with them. Hopefully the parents will have the sense to tell their kids they can't hog all the candy. Hopefully that will be the case. It has been the case in the past so not really too worried about it.

Brian Lehrer: How many of those mini candy bars do you think one kid should be allowed to take?

Donna: I don't know, four, maybe? The little ones.

Brian Lehrer: Oh four?

Donna: Maybe four make up one.

Brian Lehrer: Four is relatively a lot, Donna. Thank you very much. Bruce in Newton has a costume. Hi, Bruce, you're on WNYC.

Bruce: Hello, Brian, great honor. My costume is going to be the vaccinators. I have a bandolero of pre prepared syringes. I've made a giant syringe out of a sight glass from a tank farm that actually functions. I'm probably going to fill that with red wine and give out doses.

Brian Lehrer: Wow, aren't you afraid that's going to scare off those 5 to 11-year-olds from actually getting their COVID shots?

Bruce: Well, I'm going to some adult Halloween parties and I figured I'm going to be scaring some adults because a lot of my younger friends in their 20s and 30s do not want to get the vaccine.

Brian Lehrer: It would scare them too. Nobody's going to think that the syringe-- that you're getting ready to shoot up something else. That's what you're going as.

Bruce: No, yes, it's a big scary politically incorrect, appropriate Halloween costume.

Brian Lehrer: The vaccinator, thank you very much. Justin in Astoria. You're on WNYC. Hi, Justin. Do you have a costume?

Justin: Yes, first I want to say Bruce, I could just imagine it at a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the vaccinator. Anyway, I'm going as critical race theory. I am critical race theory.

Brian Lehrer: How do you do that? That's the scariest thing to the republican right this year.

Justin: It is exactly the reason I'm doing it. I'm making something that looks like a book and it's going to say critical race theory on the cover. I'm just going to put a ghost-like hood over my head in black and just go around, I am critical race theory.

Brian Lehrer: Nice, Justin, thank you for sharing it. Susan in the Bronx wants to talk about what her building is doing that's COVID safe. Hi, Susan, you're on WNYC.

Susan: Hey, Brian? I love Halloween, my kids are already grown up. I really missed what I had with them when they were little. I'm really going to miss having the kids coming to the door. This is what my building is doing. We are two buildings that face each other. In this complex, we have a lawn and sidewalks between us. Starting at one o'clock, we're going to have a Halloween parade. We've invited all the kids to come and [unintelligible 00:12:43] in their costumes. All the other neighbors are going to bring candy to be given out. There's going to be music, there's going to be a photo booth. We're just committing on having a lot of fun.

Brian Lehrer: That sounds like fun. Ben in Astoria, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ben.

Ben: Good morning, Brian. Happy Friday. I absolutely love some of the costume ideas I've been hearing. I just wanted to share a quick story in a sort of caution against maybe too on-the-nose costumes. I'm a guy in my mid-20s. When I was in middle school, two of my funnier classmates decided that they would dress up as a molecular readout of the H1N1 virus after the H1N1 outbreak. All my classmates found it absolutely hilarious. Teachers, not so much. It was quite the thing to see. It was very intricate but I've got to say, again, loving the costume ideas, I would maybe just caution against something that's maybe a little too on the nose, especially for those who still can't get vaccinated as you were talking about, 5 to 11-year-olds.

Brian Lehrer: That's also why I raised in the intro, the question of where the line is on things that are super serious, like trying to dress up as a COVID aerosol or something like that. How did they dress up as H1N1 virus particles, what was it visually?

Ben: It was impressive especially for a bunch of middle schoolers. It was two of my classmates who got pieces of large cardboard boxes, molded them, and then heated them and had spike proteins put on them, I think with maybe Styrofoam or something like that, and painted over them. You could see the kind of atypical morphology of a virus with spike proteins on it. It was honestly amazing, especially for young kids.

Brian Lehrer: First-time people heard spike proteins who don't work in the field, maybe back then and of course, people are hearing it today. Thank you very much. Jessica in Brooklyn has a costume? Hi, Jessica?

Jessica: Good morning, Brian. I have a hopefully noncontroversial costume idea, last minute, credit to my coworker Emily, who told me this idea. Essentially, you just wear your suit, a collared shirt, or any kind of nice professional clothes that you would wear to work or the office, put a plastic bag, a dry clean bag over you, make a wire hanger that you would use for dry cleaning as a headband or put it over your head somehow. Maybe even put your dry cleaning ticket stapled onto your bag. You are dry cleaning, and you're ready to go.

Brian Lehrer: That could be just noncontroversial off the news or it strikes me that if you do it in a certain way, it could be my professional suits that I put in storage because I'm now working from home.

Jessica: Exactly, exactly. You haven't had much use of them. It's a good way to get them out and wear them finally again.

Brian Lehrer: Jessica, thank you very much. Oh, those lonely dress shirts. Kyle in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Kyle?

Kyle: Hi, Brian, big fan.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. What are you dressing up as?

Kyle: I am going to be a supply chain bottleneck.

Brian Lehrer: How?

Kyle: I'm going to get a bottle and I'm going to put it on a chain and I'm going to wear it around my neck.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] That's hilarious. How many people do you think will get it though?

Kyle: Well, I mean, I don't actually have any Halloween plans. I think I'm just going to sit home and smug satisfaction. Maybe walk around and see if anybody notices.

Brian Lehrer: That is great. Let us know who gets it and who doesn't. Supply chain bottleneck with a bottle around his neck on a chain. I think that's my favorite so far. Dierdre in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Diedre?

Dierdre: Hey, Brian, I am going to be a spotted lanternfly. Everyone's monster of the year, invasive species. What's more scary? Maybe the Coronavirus molecule--

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Brian Lehrer: You have to hope that nobody tries to squish you.

Dierdre: I did try to get my husband to come around with a giant flyswatter but no, he's like, "I'm not going to do that." I hope no one that I don't know comes up and tries to smash me.

Brian Lehrer: Dierdre, thank you very much. Ross in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Ross?

Ross: Hi, I was going to be Giuliani this Halloween.

Brian Lehrer: How?

Ross: I'm going to wear a Sylvester the cat costume and just say 9/11 a lot, suffering succotash, 9/11.

Brian Lehrer: Giuliani.

Ross: I'm just adjusting my microphone here. They sound the same, the older he gets.

Brian Lehrer: Ross, thank you very much, with a Giuliani costume, we leave it. Thank you for all your calls. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. More to come.

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