Copyright berkshireeagle
Halloween is just around the corner, and despite all the ghosts, ghouls and goblins, there’s one thing that should scare you most of all: having the same boring costume as everyone else at the jack-o’-lantern carving party. Sadly, this year that’s even more of a concern than usual. You’re embarrassed because you’re standing around in the same costume as three other people, talking about what to do with the fact that this giant orange gourd has been around so long that it’s already rotten inside even though it’s mostly empty, the face is a little scary but mostly pathetic, and the people who should have thrown it out want to keep it for three more years. You definitely don’t want to have the same costume while trick-or-treating, either. But you also don’t want to buy a costume and only wear it once. (Originally, that’s what people did with wedding dresses, but everyone thought it was too wasteful — which is why they invented divorce.) Luckily, there’s a simple solution: Accessorize! Just a few carefully chosen accessories can help transform your unremarkable costume that looks the same as everyone else’s into a bespoke, individualized costume designed just for you — and the two other people reading this. Inflatable frog costumes were everywhere in the past month, so just going out as a frog for Halloween is almost cliché at this point. Here are some improvement suggestions to augment your frog (not a euphemism): Wear your frog costume with a large trench coat and a British flag to go as London Frog.Wear a denim overshirt and a red bandanna with white spots to become Rosie the Ribiter.Wearing a crown of giant waves will let you become The Under Toad.Wear a hockey jersey and carry a golf club, and you’ll be Hoppy Gilmore. There were also a number of bear suits on display in recent months. Again, a few simple alterations can help take your bear costume from bare-bones to bearrific: Draw some angry eyebrows on your inflatable bear costume to become Bear Stearns.Wear an apron and carry some barbecue tongs to go as Bear Grylls.Get a Morticia-style dress or a Wednesday-style striped school jacket and go as Grizzly Addams.Wear a solid-color button-up and carry a cup of coffee to be Jerry Ursinefeld — ideally go with your friend in a panda costume carrying latex samples, the salesman from Pandalay Industries. The inflatable T-rex is perhaps the most popular inflatable costume, but its appearance in so many videos makes it essential to zhuzh it up a little for Halloween. Some modest suggestions: A dinosaur with a cowboy hat and a six-shooter makes it Tyrannosaurus Tex.Instead, try a sombrero and a pair of maracas for Tyrannosaurus Mex.A witch’s hat and a magic wand will let you be Tyrannosaurus Hex.Or grab a “Happy Mothers Day” bouquet and some fake blood for your eyes, and go as Oedipus T-rex. Finally, there’s the classic chicken suit. Since people will no longer recognize a chicken in a Red Sox jersey as Wade “Chicken Man” Boggs, you need some new accessories for your chicken suit: A mohawk and patchwork vest will turn you into Punky Rooster.Half of a white mask atop your chicken suit is all you need to become the Bantam of the Opera.A baseball glove and a Tori Amos CD will let you go as Chicken Catch-a-Tori.And a chicken with a spreadsheet and calculator is a Buck Buck B’gacktuary — don’t amortize those chickens before they’re hatched! These suggestions will help ensure that you won’t suffer the embarrassment that comes from having the same costume as someone else — mainly because they wouldn’t want to wear these. Happy trick-or-treating!
