Halloween 2015

The wildebeests have been and gone. I took a few photos, which I’ll be posting on Facebook somewhat later. Most popular superhero was Iron Man. There were also many Spiderman costumes; curiously, the vast majority of those were seven-year-old boys wearing heavy coats over the costume, so you could just see the Spiderman mask through the hood. Batman seems to be going out of fashion among children; while there were many Batman costumes they seemed to be worn only by babes in arms or adults. I counted three Supergirls, though I may have missed some. Somewhat more Supermans. A moderate amount of Hulks and Captain Americas (including two adult women!). One Thor, complete with hammer. Only two Wolverines; how the mighty have fallen. One adult woman wearing an excellent leather Catwoman outfit.

Lots of Power Rangers. LOTS of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, including one group that had green face makeup. Many of the classics: witch, princess, random serial killer, clown, cat girl, fairy, skeleton, vampire. Several Red Riding Hoods. About a half dozen Minions, one with a light saber. A nontrivial number of quarterbacks and SWAT members. Many ninjas. A few aliens and werewolves.

One teenage girl dressed as a credit card!

Just down the block at number six, they were scaring the HELL out of the kids, well done! Sound effect records played loud, much set dressing in the yard, and about a half dozen costumed people wondering about the yard and driveway looking creepy and occasionally actively attempting to scare passersby.

We didn't *quite* make it to 8:00 this year. Tom (with help) handed out a bit under 1600 full-size candy bars, making for an average of approximately one every seven seconds. Due to Charley's tweet, Supergirls got an extra bar, but there weren't that many of those...

Further Findings on Mysterious SF Porn Novel

So I eventually finished Burning Desires, by “Fred Sparkrock”, which I mentioned a while ago might possibly have been an early work by Eric Flint, but was definitely written by someone familiar with SF tropes and fandom. Possible clues as to authorship:
• Multiple references to “Yngvi is a louse”.
• Detailed knowledge of karate, with lots of specific jargon used.
• Some place names that feel like Tuckerizations, especially “Lindakar”.
• A bit that feels like it has to be an in-joke of some sort: a bird called an “ottuff-jay” that makes repeated calls of “jooooo deeee”.

Later: I think I’ve found out what that last thing was in reference to, as well as another possibility for who the real author is. Andrew J. Offutt was a science fiction author from the 1950s to the early 80s. He had a wife whose name was Jodie. AND, most significantly, the author of hundreds of porn novels. I don’t know if Offutt was the kind of person who would self insert as a silly bird, but I’m willing to bet that the author of this book at least knew him.

If you’re interested in reading it yourself, the text can be found online here.

ETA: Over on Facebook, Jack Haringa found two clear references to Fred Sparkrock as a pseudonym of Robert Vardeman.