Ok, how do I say to one of my fb friends that her child's Halloween costume is inappropriate and kinda racist? (former in person friend in our 20s, haven't seen her in over ten years, she has an 8 year old with some extreme special needs, so I know she picked the costume: it's a fake "Indian headdress" of feathers and a fringed buckskin sort of shirt). I'm in no way close to her but feel like I have to say something??

Did you end up saying anything?

I know Halloween is past now. When I saw the date on your post, and the child's circumstances, I thought to myself I probably wouldn't have said anything on Halloween day, after the costume was bought/assembled, and would have to think about saying it with more advance notice, if the friend and I weren't still close.

It might be the kind of idea the mom never thought of before, and that you could float on Facebook a few weeks away from Halloween.

Like sj mentioned, you could use an article and even post it as an open-subject (i.e. not focused on this woman and her kid) for discussion.

Like, "I read [this] and I thought it made some good points about cultural appropriation. Our parents didn't really think about this, but I've come to think it's something people should avoid. What do you all think?"

Thanks Cindy—yeah, I may do that later. (Kid is non-verbal (not autistic, genetic disorder), so I'm pretty sure she picked the outfit without much help from him). I feel like she has a really tough life...but also, geez man. I thought everyone (especially those who used to be queer* and lived in large east coast cities where that sort of thing was politicized) knew it wasn't cool to stick a feather headdress on and say you're an Indian!!

(*i say used to be queer because when I knew her she was, but she later married a dude and had a kid, and then posted on fb a couple years ago "as an ally", which made me go "so, you're not queer anymore???")

I didn't have any trick or treaters. We rarely do in my apartment complex, but if any made it down the dark, twisty shortcut through the woods, or along the busy road, I wanted to have something on hand for them. Now the Lindt truffles are in the breakroom for my coworkers. Well, the ones I didn't snack on last night, anyway.

We had far fewer trick or treaters than normal and a lot of candy leftover.

It's cold and dark and getting out of bed seems like a terrible idea.

It's cold and dark and getting out of bed seems like a terrible idea.

Seconded. I nominate all day as Naptime.

I'm always mad this whole week about the extension of daylight saving time. We should have changed the clocks last week! It would be dark in the afternoon, but at least it wouldn't be pitch black out when I (try to) wake up at a perfectly reasonable hour!

Just merged in an important code fix for work. I'm happy nobody in the review objected to using 'terminateWithExtremePrejudice' as a function name.

I have a new car! Pictures on FB. It will take me a bit to get used to the acceleration thing. As in you don't use the brake because when you stop accelerating it stops. I pretty much acclimated with driving a bit around the neighborhood. It was a 20 min drive home on the highway but I couldn't test the cruise because the car was still calibrating. Shiny!

Halloween was good. A ton of kids, and not so much kids, and adults. DH bought candy so we gave out nearly 100 bags of popcorn, many to adults, along with candy. Gave them a choice. Popcorn is very tasty. Son & wife, and her parents came over because they don't get kids. We ate stuffed orange peppers and pumpkin soup. A good time was had by all.

Yay, Laura!

All my love and respect to teachers today. ltc hasn't listened to a single thing I've said today. I imagine teachers are dealing with the same today.