somebody should get Satan some tinfoil

a few years ago my friend Oliver threw one of the best Halloween parties I’ve ever been to. good food, some friends I hadn’t seen in a long time and some great costumes. as I remember, I came in a lucha mask and the hosts were Julius Caesar and the conspirators. another friend was a terrific Mr. T, with “gold” chains he’d bought by the foot at a hardware store. there was even a cowardly lion and some other people who I think dressed up as drunk revelers. and, for any humbugs who came in just their street clothes, there was a giant roll of aluminum foil on hand for them to fashion their own costumes at the door. you have to at least make an effort, right?

I’d been there an hour or so when a 7 foot smoldering figure darkened the door. he came alone, had blood red skin and some pretty big horns. even more impressive were his incredibly credible goat legs; hairy, with hooves and the bandy hocks of the ungulate superorder. I heard a few conversations trail off and heads turned toward the doorway.
clip clop clip clop clip clop clip...
as the new arrival ducked through the entry and began making his way to the kitchen my friend Oliver leaned over to me and said, “somebody should get Satan some tinfoil.” in the end it turned out that everyone was pretty OK with this. some settings are more appropriate places for Satan than others. and if he’s not welcome to have a couple drinks at a Halloween party then, well, he’s just going to wander off and cause trouble somewhere else.

today Dick Cheney is flying in to talk to a stadium full of graduating college students about, oh I don’t know, probably making a difference in the world: something nobody could deny that he has done, and continues to do. not only did BYU invite him out but they’re giving him an honorary degree of public service or something.

here are some details from democracy now and npr.

it’s one thing to give an international war criminal such a platform and still another to go on to kiss his butt, piling on honor, laud and glory. we don’t seem to know where to quit. I say we although I’m not an alumnus. but my wife, sister and other family and friends have gone there so I feel like part of the community.

since security’s supposed to be pretty tight and nobody will be able to get Mr. Cheney’s tinfoil through all the metal detectors, there’s an alternative commencement that some of us are planning to attend. should be really good.