Yesterday, there was a Halloween party at McKinley Elementary and, of course, the whole family went. Mika doesn’t start school until next year, but we joined the PTO early as we figured we need to start working for the school now. It needs it! š
I signed up to work at the Halloween party because I love Halloween. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been into horror movies – I used to watch them at night tucked into my mother’s bed with my mom and siblings – or because I never had Halloween as a kid. By the time I came to America I was already 12, and too old and shy to go trick or treating. In any case, I love it.
My job last night was to attend to the “Fear Factor” booth. We had three boxes with scary things hidden inside. You could stick your hand and feel creatures (cat toys), worms (spaghetti) and a brain (a jello brain). It was really fun. Some of the kids actually felt the “creatures” move and were convinced they were alive, some even thought they were snapping at them. The worms were more weird than scary – though several kids wouldn’t touch it. And the brain was just puzzling, though again, many touched it and then recoiled. In all they had a LOT of fun. So much so that some kids came 4 or 5 times – and we had a few parents try it too.
There were other booths as well, and great Halloween music (we got a semi-professional DJ!), and the kids seemed to be having a blast. My own two stuffed themselves with cookies and cupcakes, did crafts and just ran around. Mika came to my booth four times – but I think it was for the prize she got at the end.
Author: marga (Page 113 of 158)
I think by now the idea that we went into Iraq to “liberate” Iraqis has lost so much credibility that it is laughable. Our liberation has brought about a civil war, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, hundreds of thousands more refugees, the establishment of death squads, a systematic policy of torture and disappearance, and plenty of other horrible consequences. When we say “liberate”, we really mean destroy.
Having Iraqi women sold into sexual slavery may be a small evil in comparative terms, but for the victims it’s just as horrifying. This article by IRIN covers the issue.
Report, IRIN
26 October 2006
DUBAI – Mariam, 16, relives the day her father in Baghdad sold her off as a domestic worker in one of the prosperous Gulf nations. Instead, she was forced into the sex trade.
The Press Association Newswire reports:
“A row has erupted in liberal Netherlands over plans to send
prostitutes to war zones to accompany Dutch troops.
‘The army must consider ways its soldiers can let off steam,”
Annemarie Jorritsma, mayor of the town of Almere. ‘There was
once the suggestion that a few prostitutes should accompany
troops on missions. I think that is something we should talk
about,” she said, adding that the prostitutes would keep
soldiers from turning to local women.
A very cool story from Egypt. It doesn’t say, however, if the tomb discoverers were indeed eaten by a crocodile and a snake.
(AP)October 22,2006 | SAQQARA, Egypt — The arrest of tomb robbers led archaeologists to the graves of three royal dentists, protected by a curse and hidden in the desert sands for thousands of years in the shadow of Egypt’s most ancient pyramid, officials announced Sunday.
The thieves launched their own dig one summer night two months ago but were apprehended, Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters.
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