Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Today we've been through the lofty existential question of voter suppression and the survival of our democracy, to the way down-to-earth question about rats in the streets of New York City, the conversation we had with the sanitation commissioner. Just now the dollars and cents question about how to pay gig workers and treat them as full human beings.

What is left to talk about? Halloween Costumes, of course, I know it's only October 18th but that means we're less than two weeks away from Halloween. For all of you out there who love Halloween, and for whom October is a month of figuring out and maybe even creating your Halloween costume. Now a call in for anyone who wants to tell the rest of us what you're making this year or planning to wear this year, even if you aren't making it, or for the parents out there, what your kids are wearing this year, or what they are tugging at you to buy for them in the stores.

(212)-433-WNYC, (212)-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer. I will say that we've had the, "What are you wearing for Halloween? What are you going for Halloween?" Conversation in the past, but we've always done it on Halloween or maybe the day before Halloween. One of my producers suggested that we do it earlier than that because really the conversations are taking place and the planning is taking place.

It may be no surprise to you that that producer is a parent currently raising kids at home. One of the issues that she brought up was, "Decide already. You say you want to be this, you say you want to be that on Halloween. If we're going to make something or even choose something for purchase, decide already. We have to start. We can't wait till October 29th and then go to the discount store and there's only going to be junk left."

Early adopters of any Halloween costume practices, this is your opportunity here on October 18th to tell everybody about it (212)-433-WNYC, (212)-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. You can also share with us when you call if you like why you love Halloween so much. Was it always a tradition for you? Are you normally shy but love dressing outrageously and donning a persona once a year especially when you're wearing a mask, not a COVID mask but a mask-mask that hides your identity? (212)-433-WNYC on that feeling of transformation or anything else related.

What are you going as on Halloween this year? If you know already, what's the process for deciding in your household? (212)-433-9692 or tweet at @BrianLehrer and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC, now to your calls on what you're going as for Halloween this year, or what the two weeks, it's one day shy of two weeks still to Halloween conversations are like about Halloween costumes in your family. I'll say one of the things I realized is that asking some of you to talk about your Halloween costumes is a bit like asking a magician to reveal their tricks before they even pull the bunny out of the hat, but you don't have to get 100% specific if you have some private copyrighted tricks. (212)-433-9692. We'll start with Laurie in Eastchester, which is east of Westchester. Laurie, you're on WNYC, hi there.

Laurie: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be on.

Brian Lehrer: Obviously, I'm excited to have you. I see you have four kids.

Laurie: I do, I have four daughters. They are the best ages. Junior in high school down to a kindergartener.

Brian Lehrer: You've got your hands full, that's for sure.

Laurie: I do and this year they're so cute. They've decided to coordinate. I am going to have my four daughters are going to be the four seasons.

Brian Lehrer: No.

Laurie: It's cute because it goes along with each one of their personalities. We have winter, she's more elegant so she's going to be a snow queen. Spring is my spunky daughter and she's going to be like a butterfly on a flower. For summer is my hilarious child and she's going to have like a flamingo inner tube around her waist at a full party and then my calmer child is going to be a fall and she's going to have an all-leaf crown. Anyway, four daughters four seasons.

Brian Lehrer: That is amazing. Now if you want the really special though be obscure to most of the doors that they knock on. You could have all these The Four Seasons playing in the background as they walk.

Laurie: I love it. I love it. Great suggestion.

Brian Lehrer: That is really really special. Thank you. Thank you very much. What a great start. All right. Oh, gosh, and now further down in the age range. Kiki-- I guess that caller had children all over the age range, but we're going to go to Kiki in Island Heights. Kiki, you are on WNYC, hello.

Kiki: Good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Good morning.

Kiki: Hello?

Brian Lehrer: Hello. Can you hear me?

Kiki: I can, Brian. Thank you. I love your show. We're going to be Alice in Wonderland characters. I'm going to be the queen of hearts. My daughter who has three children, she's going to be the Mad Hatter. My other daughter is going to be Alice. Daphne, her oldest daughter is going to be the Cheshire Cat and the two little boys are going to be Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. We've got two callers in a row here who have these big family-wide themes with the costumes. What happens? I could have asked the other caller too from Eastchester and I know Eastchester is in Westchester not east of Westchester, that was a joke. You knock on the door and somebody comes to the door and they see all these characters, a lot of people aren't going to get it. A lot of people are going to get it. Do you have to communicate like, "Look, we're all the characters from Alice in Wonderland?"

Kiki: We're mainly doing this for their annual Halloween party, on this coming Friday the 21st. All the kids from their second and fourth grade and preschool are invited, parents, neighborhoods. They do a lot of things. It should be, I'll be running around screaming off with their head and these kids are dramatic so everybody will get it.

[laughter]

Brian Lehrer: That is awesome. Kiki, thank you for chiming in. Okay, after those fun ones, the Alice in Wonderland characters and four kids going as the four seasons, here's Margo in Manhattan, who I think is going to get political on us, which is what we usually get in these call-ins. Margo, you're on WNYC, hi.

Margo: Hi, good morning. For me, it's all about the punchline. One year I did white leggings, a white clown face, a twist tie in my hair, and a white garbage bag, and I was white trash but what I'm doing this year is I have a deck of cards and I've printed out things like some of my best friends are Jewish, your check is in the mail. It's compatible with your operating system. The election was stolen. I'm going as a pack of lies.

Brian Lehrer: You're going to hand them out.

Speake: No, I actually have them attached to a fixed wire and I'm going to wear it.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, wow.

Margo: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: So people doing the most scrutinizing case will stand and stare at you for a while trying to read the different cards?

Margo: Ideally, and at least this time, they have a reason. This is good.

Brian Lehrer: That is cool. My last political one was a bunch of years ago now. I bought in Target, I think a Bernie Madoff mask. When that was the current thing at that time with that scandal and I put on a suit and a tie so I looked like a Wall Street guy and Bernie Madoff. What was funny to me was that some people got it but a lot of people didn't get it because who really knew his face all that well? I was surprised to even find it. I thought that was political and funny and yes, so I went as Bernie Madoff.

Margo: That's excellent.

Brian Lehrer: I got various comments from people along the lines of this, "I don't know who you are, but I know I don't like you."

[laughter] Just from the look.

Margo: That's great.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Margo: As long as you got candy. Thank you, Brian. Have a great day.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] I got candy for my kid. All right. Jane in Andover, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jane.

Jane: Hi Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Can you hear me okay?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear just fine.

Jane: Great. I'm in a book club and I'm 64 so I should be past the costume days, but I'm not. I just love Halloween. A couple of months back, our book club read Remarkably Bright Creatures. It's one of the best books I've read in at least the last year. I'm going as Marcellus, who is an in-captivity Pacific octopus. I'm actually making the costume today.

Brian Lehrer: How do you simulate the eight legs or arms of an octopus if you do?

Jane: Oh no, I'm making the costume, it's going to be a hat. So the head of the costume is going to be around my head and I've got different fabrics for the eyes and I will have breathable mesh or something in there. Then I will make the eight legs and I have bendable wire to make them look like legs in action.

Brian Lehrer: That is great, Jane. Thank you very much. Who else is out there who like Jane maybe is way past trick-or-treating age, but still goes in full costume out around town? I guess if we just go to grownups' Halloween parties we might be going in full costume, but do you walk around the neighborhood? I'll tell you one thing that I did in the first year of the pandemic. I didn't want kids knocking on my door that year and I walked around the neighborhood seeing kids trick or treating with their containers and dropped candy bars into it. I think we're past that point by now.

It was fun to dress up a little bit and go out and be in that crowd and be distributing rather than having people just simply come to me. All right. Artie in Flatbush, you're on WNYC. Hi, Artie.

Artie: Hi. Both me and my dog are going in matching costumes probably to the dog run. We're going as spotted lanternflies.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. Spotted lantern flies, a very current, at least from the summer reference of a new threat. How are you going to dress as a spotted lanternfly that people are going to know what you are?

Artie: I made the wings already out of craft home and they're pretty distinct. They've got these nice-- They're actually quite pretty, but they've got gray outer wings and a deep red inner wing. I tested it out at a party and people seemed to recognize it.

Brian Lehrer: Really Cool. Thank you very much. To Kyle in Astoria, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kyle.

Kyle: Hi Brian. I'm so excited to be on. I love the show. This year I'm going to be dressing as a zombie as I have the past couple of years. I'm a part of the ThrillerNYC dancing crew that's part of the Halloween Parade. We dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller choreography the whole parade route. It's really fun.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. That's at the Halloween Parade, so do you take it from there into trick or treating world or be dressed up as people come to your door?

Kyle: I'm probably just going to go home and ice my feet because it's just a really long parade route. It's quite a marathon. I think we do the number, it's between like 25 and 30 times over and over. It's pretty exhausting, but it's really fun.

Brian Lehrer: Very cool. Thank you, Kyle. Here's another political one, I think coming in from CJ in Manhattan. You're on WNYC. Hi, CJ.

CJ: Hi Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: I'm okay. What you got?

CJ: I'm going as Donald Trump's brain,

Brian Lehrer: Is it a very small costume?

CJ: Yes, it is. It's a decomposing, extremely tiny pea.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] I thought I was making a joke. How do you dress as that?

CJ: Just a tiny little green pea on my head.

Brian Lehrer: Any other identifying characteristics? Is it a green, bright orange pea on your head or anything like that?

CJ: I'm going to be completely orange underneath it.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] There you go.

CJ: I'm going to be very reminiscent of a nacho cheese cracker. Something like that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much, CJ. Now one of my producers who loves political costumes wants you to tweet a picture. Really we want everybody to tweet who's called in and everybody else to tweet your costume pictures when the time comes. I have a particular request for that one and for the caller before who said you're going as all these politically incorrect cards.

There it is. Please tweet @BrianLehrer. Are we going to leave it there or do we have time for one more? How about Robert in River Edge, can you do it in 20 seconds?

Robert: Yes. Very quickly. My son years ago went as a pizza delivery boy, which we now call them a pizza delivery person. It went very well. We painted a shirt because they wouldn't sell it to us. When we got to people's homes, they looked quizzically and said, "Did I order pizza today?" He thought that and then we said trick or treat. Of course, we had no pizza for them. We had the box though, of course.

Brian Lehrer: Of course, and then they had to give you food.

Robert: They were thankful that they hadn't a delivery. We hadn't delivered an actual pizza to them, so there was a sense of relief.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Thank you very much. That's a great story. Thanks for all your 13 days in advance Halloween costume calls.

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