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Brian: What were you going as for Halloween and how are you keeping safe? Vierra in the Bronx, you are on WNYC. Happy Halloween, Vierra.

Vierra: Thank you so much. This is great to be on. We decided because we're from big, tall residential buildings that it's not safe to go in. I have a long rope, utility mountain climbing rope that I'll place, and that's 6 feet apart. Each family or kids could safely hold onto the rope. We have a little parade with drums, so the kids can have a little bit of a kick-off having fun. Then instead of going into a building, we're going to have a little table we volunteer and few candies, whoever wants to chip in and have fun standing in front of each building and that way, each kid can take their candy and all can be safely done while having fun outdoors.

Brian: Nice one, Vierra. Good start. Thank you. Have fun out there and good luck. It sounds like a lot of work on your part, too. Jim in Freeport, you are on WNYC. Hi, Jim.

Jim: Hey, Brian. How are you? Thank you for taking my call. My wife told me about this one. I'd never heard of it before. We're doing a trunk-or-treat. We're getting up together with her sister and a bunch of her friends, about a dozen friends, and we're going to park together at a big parking lot and decorate our trunks. Then the kids are going to walk around, I guess in a big circle and go from trunk to trunk and get candy and do the traditional trick-or-treating. It's going to be all outdoors, socially distanced, and safe.

Brian: That is cool. Trunk-or-treat something you can do if you have a car, Perfect for Freeport, where you're calling from and other suburbs, I guess. Michael in Jersey city, you are on WYNC. Hi, Michael. Michael once, Michael twice. Let's try Julia in Greenpoint. Hi, Julie, you are on WNYC. Happy Halloween.

Julia: Yay. Happy Halloween. I have a shop in Greenpoint and it's tradition that my son and my husband join and they give out candy. This year there's a lofted space above the retail space, so they're going to be safely up there with a shoot, like a candy shoot. I've got to really get on that right now with my son, out of PVC pipe. Two or three customers at a time will come in. We have all the doors open, so at least my son will be warm upstairs.

He got really into My Octopus Teacher on Netflix. He's going as an octopus, my husband's going as a snorkeler and I've got to do this full moon theme, so I'm going to be a full moon. I'm going to be the only one down on the floor, helping customers and greeting everybody. I'm excited we're going to make it the best we can.

Brian: They sound like such creative costumes. How do you do an octopus?

Julia: Okay. For the first time ever a store-bought, because I can give it to his little friend after, but we're adorning it with all sorts of recycled plastic garbage to have a climate change eco. I was going to go as a drowning polar bear, but I thought let's keep it light.

Brian: That's hard.

Julia: Yes, we always add stuff to it, but usually, it's all handmade, but this year, Oh my God, I need a little help.

Brian: Were you describing putting candy literally down a chute so it falls down through something into somebody's hands or basket so then-

Julia: Yes, into the basket.

Brian: -nobody wants to touch anybody?

Julia: Exactly. I am going to use some leftover PVC pipe, maybe cut the top off so you can see the candy going down or it'll just be an excitement. I think we might adorn the bottom of the chute to look like something, maybe like a witch's mouth or like a ghost or something simple that I can do within 24 hours. He can't go to school. He's been doing blended learning, but we're just trying to make it as nice as we can for him.

Brian: Oh, it sounds like you're a great mom and gone above and beyond. Thank you, Julia. What a creative thing, maybe other people will pick up on that now have some kind of a shoot that you can drop the candy down through into somebody's bucket or basket or plastic pumpkin or whatever they're carrying around. Aaron in Key West, you're on WNYC. Hi from New York, Aaron.

Aaron: Hi there, Brian, I'm actually a Brooklyn resident, but yes I'm at Key West at the moment. I work as a paranormal journalist for the Travel Channel and I came down here to do a first-ever type of thing. There's this haunted doll down here called Robert the Doll and I'm on a full moon on a blue moon, I'm busting out the Ouija board. I'm going to be doing a live stream paranormal investigation with the Robert the Haunted Doll that everybody can follow along with.

Brian: Okay. How can they do that?

Aaron: Well, they can give me a shout @aaronsagers on Instagram and also follow along youtube.com/aaronsagers A-A-R-O-N S-A-G-E-R-S. Hey, if they leave me a comment or give me a shout, we'll ask the questions that they want us to ask of Robert the Doll, he's a very spooky doll. Annabel gets a lot of credit, but I think Robert is even spookier.

Brian: Aaron, thank you very much. Happy Halloween. Maria in Mars Plains, you're on WNYC. Hi, Maria.

Maria: Hey, Brian, a big an of your show. I'm a born and raised in the Bronx so I know what trick-or-treating is like in New York. Now I'm in New Jersey, on the other side of the Rio Grande there. Just like the other caller was saying, remember also going along that PVC pipe, I'm actually looking for that today and, or going to the FedEx store, remember those round little made out of recycling brown paper bags or recycled paper but it's strong enough, that's what I'm using to shoot pre-packaged candies out of a tube so it's socially distant.

Brian: Cool. The thing from the FedEx store, there's a poster board holder kind of thing.

Maria: Exactly. Where it's further away, but at the same time, you're able to safely give the kids the candy because there's a couple of people that they are very fearful and they're like, "No, we're not going to give out candy." We can't rob the kids of Halloween. I know it's a tough year, but let's try to be creative and try to think outside the box. Let's keep Halloween alive.

Brian: That is so great, Maria. Thank you very much. Kemmy in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kemmy.

Kemmy: Hi. I was just calling to tell everybody what my Halloween costume is going to be this year. I usually go all out for Halloween, but I'm doing something a bit more scaled back this year. I'm taking inspiration from somebody's basically propaganda van that was parked in my neighborhood a couple of months ago. All over it, it was painted with words like, "mask-wearing zombies need their head examined," and "COVID isn't real" and stuff.

I've actually been making masks since the beginning of the pandemic and donating the proceeds to charity. I am a mask-wearing zombie and that's going to be my costume this year, it was my own homemade mask.

Brian: What does it look like?

Kemmy: I'm basically just going to be wearing the mask and doing like zombie makeup with black eyes and contacts, and I'm going to do some scars and cuts on my face and blood on my clothes.

Brian: Kemmy, thank you very much. Have fun with that. Michael in Jersey City is back. I think we have him for real now. Hi, Michael. You're on WNYC.

Micheal: Hey, Brian. Good to hear from you.

Brian: Vice versa.

Michael: I'm a filmmaker. I'm originally from New York City. I was so bummed that we weren't going to be able to do Halloween this year, that I decided to create a virtual event that will basically be a variety show of acts from drag, to burlesque, to aerialists and cirque performers and music. I know that there's a lot of other events that are also doing this kind of thing and so you really don't have to go out this year if you don't feel safe, there's so much great entertainment out there.

Brian: That is cool, Michael. Thank you very much. How about Lauren in Bergen County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lauren.

Lauren: Hi, Brian. Love the show.

Brian: Thank you.

Lauren: What my family and I did was last weekend, my daughter's three years old and we had three of her best friends over for a socially distant, I call it a "Fauci-approved" Halloween. I did a candy hunt in the backyard and cellophane bags, filled the girls' buckets. We did pizza outside, every mom brought an activity for the kids to do. We did like freeze dance. We did an art project, but everything outside, everyone wore masks and the kids had such a blast. just seeing each other and getting candy.

Brian: Nice. How come you did it a week in advance?

Lauren: Just because that's what everybody's schedules worked out.

Brian: Yes, and how about tomorrow? Are you going to do anything? Now that you've set up your kids to have fun like a good mom, are you going to do anything for yourself?

Lauren: Probably not for myself. We do have candy and my husband bought one of those long pant clothing, where he can take the candy and hand it to the kids who are outside and trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, because my daughter's three, it's not like she's really aware of the calendar yet so she's not going to be too upset that she had Halloween a week early.

Brian: Happy Halloween, Lauren. Thank you for calling. Neil in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Neil.

Neil: Hello, Brian. I am a member of the Gowanus Dredgers, a canoeing club that has a small fleet, a dozen canoes that it gives out to the public for paddling on the polluted waters of the EPA Superfund site. We have become more of a full-service canoeing club offering unusual types of canoeing trips. Tomorrow night for Halloween, it's also the full moon and we have organized a full moon canoeing armada, taking out all our canoes onto Gowanus Bay, into the Halloween full moon.

Brian: Wow. Don't fall in.

Neil: It's amazing how few people have fallen into the Gowanus Canal over the years. We strongly prefer people do not fall in. We're very strict on that.

Brian: That is one creative Halloween parade from Neil in Brooklyn from the Gowanus Dredgers. Thank you very much. Sam in Ridgewood, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sam.

Sam: Hi, Brian. Big fan. Thanks for taking my call.

Brian: Thank you. Happy Halloween.

Sam: Yes. I have two little ones and we've been watching the Great British Baking Show nonstop, so we decided to do a little Halloween bake-off competition. We're going to film them and they're going to get dressed up just to bake and we're going to watch the whole creation at the end. That's going to be our Halloween.

Brian: Awesome. Thank you very much. Jennie in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi,

Jennie.

Jennie: Hi, Brian. This is Jennie Livingston of Paris is Burning. I've been on your show before.

Brian: Oh wow. Thanks for calling.

Jennie: I love your show. I'm in a section of Brooklyn Windsor Terrace that has a lot of Halloween houses. It's a big thing here. Looks like people haven't lit up. We're just going to carve the jack-o'-lanterns. We're going to put the candy out on the fence with some signs pointing saying, "Treat," so the parents and the kids know where to go. We just hope the teenagers don't grab it all but that's the risk we'll take.

Brian: Yes. Are you going to put a sign or anything like, "Please only take one or two pieces," something like that?

Jennie: I think we'll just point to it and say, "Treat." That's a good idea. Maybe we should do that.

Brian: Yes. I don't know if it's not necessary but maybe it instills just enough guilt in some kids who are like, "Hey, you can just take."

Jennie: That's true.

Brian: There you go.

Jennie: We'll do it. Thank you for the suggestion.

Brian: Okay. Thank you. Happy Halloween. One more. Do we have time for one more? Yes. Ally also in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ally?

Ally: Hi, Brian. I am normally super excited for Halloween. It's my favorite holiday, but this year I'm finding myself so exhausted between the pandemic and the election. The best I could master was going as a sexy registered voter. That's my costume this year.

Brian: What would make it sexy if you can say it on the radio?

Ally: I've yet to figure that part out, but it's still going to be a sexy version of anything that Halloween seems to be sometimes. I don't have kids but my friends do and rather than trick-or-treating, we were inspired by this whole initiative to bring joy to the polls and we're going to go pass out candy to voters sitting in line.

Brian: What a great idea. That is great. A great way to end. Ally, everybody, be safe, have fun, have a great weekend. Next week we'll cover something really scary on Tuesday.

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