Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tricks and treats

Lenore Skenazy, Wall Street Journal:

Even when I was a kid, back in the "Bewitched" and "Brady Bunch" costume era, parents were already worried about neighbors poisoning candy. Sure, the folks down the street might smile and wave the rest of the year, but apparently they were just biding their time before stuffing us silly with strychnine-laced Smarties.

That was a wacky idea, but we bought it. We still buy it, even though Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, has researched the topic and spends every October telling the press that there has never been a single case of any child being killed by a stranger's Halloween candy.

Joel Best has his argument; the National Confectioners Association has theirs.

2 comments:

Ethan said...

For a second I thought the whole City of San Carlos website had a picture of a cop car on the top, which would have been adorable.

Randal Graves said...

Another year, another increasingly Mrs. Lovejoy-esque plea, yet they always forget to mention to watch out for knife-wielding maniacs, the true danger.