It was very fun while it lasted and amazingly it lasted a long long time but like most good things, nothing lasts forever.
The streak is officially over folks but darn if it didn’t take over a half a century to break up the party.
Yes this 51 year old man finally won’t be celebrating Halloween this year as a few obstacles have gotten in the way—blame work and maturity.
My girls are finally past the age of being trick or treaters and trust me, no Dad out there had more fun doing this with them than me…
As for the ole man well on Halloween night, I’ll be on an airplane heading cross country for a work trip instead of passing out candy at my own home—-remarkably the first time that’s ever happened.
Having never flown on Halloween, I wonder if I can lobby Delta to replace peanuts and pretzels with Snickers and Skittles??
Not Likely.
It’s really strange and sad at the same time. One day I hope grandkids will fill the void and I’m always up for a great Halloween party but this year no pumpkins for my pumpkins.
Sorry Halloween, I’ll be back with a vengeance next year but I’ll miss everything about you. You are never high maintenance—no tree, turkey or excessive shopping needed–just throw on a costume and collect the candy.
Simple and very sweet. You are the best holiday and I”ll miss you.
Happy “Holloween” 2019 the first stop in this week’s trip around the Naborhood, as always thanks for stopping by.
CANDYLAND: So everyone has there go to candy right? For me you can’t lose with the old reliables Butterfingers, Baby Ruth’s the ever elusive Whatchamacallit’s and the best of the best the highly underrated “100 Grand Bar.”
What are your favorites? A recent survey done by bid-on-equipment broke it down by city and even state by state. The results show the more we change, frankly the more our favorite candies stay the same.
This interesting candy filled survey found on candyindustry.com found in a not so surprising move that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the most popular candy in 12 states. Check out the results in all 50 states:
This fascinated me—I get the love for the mainstays but how about those outliers—Wyoming going with “Sweettarts,” Colorado opting for “Nerds” and you gotta love North Dakota “and” Nebraska choosing “Hot Tamales,”???
The study had M&Ms doing the best in big cities and the candy was the crowd favorite in New York City, San Antonio, San Diego, Fort Worth and Columbus.
The full list of each city’s favorite includes:
- New York City: M&M’s
- Los Angeles: Jolly Rancher
- Chicago: Kit Kat
- Houston: Milk Duds
- Phoenix: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- Philadelphia: Milk Duds
- San Antonio: M&M’s
- San Diego: M&M’s
- Dallas: Snickers
- San Jose: Hershey’s
- Austin: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- Jacksonville: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- Fort Worth: M&M’s
- Columbus: M&M’s
- San Francisco: Milky Way
- Charlotte: Milk Duds
- Indianapolis: Life Savers
- Seattle: Milky Way
- Denver: Jolly Rancher
- Washington D.C.: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Other fun revelations from this Halloween research project found that people with children spend on average $35.01 on Halloween candy, $10 more than the national average. And, 48 percent of Americans support moving Halloween to the last Saturday in October.
The study also showed that the ideal trick-or-treat hours are 6 to 9 pm., and 15 years old is the age when people become too old for trick-or-treating. In addition, 81 percent that prefers to hand out candy, while 12 percent prefer to leave a bowl on the porch.
FOOTBALL GHOSTS: Keeping with the Halloween theme, recently Jets quarterback Sam Darnold was mic’d up for Monday Night Football where his highlight or better put lowlight of the night wasn’t his play versus the Patriots it was him being caught on the sidelines saying “he was seeing ghosts.”
Darnold was lampooned by the media for saying this on national TV but I hated to see it. First of all many quarterbacks have seen ghosts when they face the Patriots D but the bigger issue is this— we crave athletes to be honest with us and when they do often like Darnold they get ridiculed for it. Quite the contraction.
The second year player has handled the aftermath well but wouldn’t it be great on the eve of Halloween if he showed up at his locker for his next round of interviews wearing a ghost costume? I think he’d gain a lot of fans and frankly the New York Media would be something we’re not used to…speechless. Do is Spooky Sam, we’re behind you!
JEFF BEZO IN SPACE??: In this day and age of very biased media coverage from both sides of the aisle, I really enjoy my monthly installment of “The Atlantic.” Great long form articles which often give you terrific insight, outstanding writing and thoughtful commentary.
This month’s issue spotlighted Amazon founder Jeff Bezo who seemingly has taken over the planet, well now he wants to move outside the planet. Bezo’s latest venture and frankly longtime goal is creating life in space and this article gave us interesting insight into his plans.
Bezos, a Star Trek fanatic from his youth when he was not shockingly the valedictorian of his Miami Palmetto Class of 1982 said even in his speech back then he dreamed of the day when millions of us would gather to colonies in space. He said back then his intention was “to get all people off the Earth and see it turned into a huge national park.”
Well almost 40 years later Bezo is trying to make it happen. This article outlined all the great things he’s done in building Amazon yet also pointing out its shortcomings yet the part that struck me is Bezo’s desire to keep his dream alive by creating Blue Origin which according to author Franklin Foer, ” is a venture which builds rockets, rovers and the infrastructure that permits voyage beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.” Bezo finances this project by selling a billion of his Amazon stock each year.
Bezos calls this is his “most important work.” That is surely saying something from an American pioneer who has changed our culture in so many ways, but clearly it’s only the beginning of his life’s work. This will be an interesting story to follow in the near and distant future.
AQUAMAN : If you think arguably the best Olympian ever Michael Phelps is going to make a comeback at the 2020 games next summer in Tokyo? Well he recently told Dan Patrick that wouldn’t happen but Phelps still has time to change his mind?!
The best swimmer ever still is only 34 but it seems like he’s been around for 54 years. The most decorated Olympian ever with 28 medals offered some interesting perspective on Patrick’s show this month.
On spending so much of his life in the water, Phelps says his relationship with the pool was “kind of like home to me. I spent more time in water than land and am now finding out what walking feels like, so that’s interesting.”
I remember how much work it took to just be a very average high school swimmer so I greatly appreciate all the time Phelps spent attaining all of his goals but never thought about it that way.
Phelps now admits he is at the point where he doesn’t dread the water and actually looks forward to going to the pool where “it’s almost a therapy session, an outlet that helps me be the best me I can be.” He also shared that people these days even challenge him at his local country club pool. “Every now and then you’ll get a guy at the country club that might push off the same time as you and you’re like guys, just stop just stop.”
You wonder is Phelps will ever stop, listening to him he was convincing but if not Tokyo I still think he’ll come back again at some point–stay tuned.
NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT…. My favorite baseball team growing up were those Houston Astros because they had their spring training in nearby Cocoa, Florida. Those were great times learning the game along side my Dad who took me to so many spring and minor league games where the Stros’ Class A team played there during the season.
This postseason the Astros may be dominated by pitching but their best player is their smallest player and I can only imagine how much I would loved Jose Altuve as a nine year ole boy back in the day.
Altuve is a legitimate 5 foot 5 but stands tall among all of his peers. Growing up in Venezuela he heard he was too small and was only offered a 15,000 bonus in high school but every day since he has hit and hit and hit.
His walkoff against the Yankees sent the Astros to the World Series which was just another line to a resume which includes an MVP trophy, a gold glove , three batting titles, six all star appearances and he’s not even 30 yet?!
Just another example of beating the odds, love you Jose Altuve but would have loved you even more as the smallest guy on my little league team back in the early 80’s.
EXTRA POINT: This is why I love our country, love baseball and frankly love beer. Only in America and at a baseball game would a man saving two beers while catching a home run ball become a national social media hero and get his own Bud Light endorsement…good for Nats fan Jeff Adams…..may we all salute you!
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike Nabors
@mikenabors
PHOTO CREDITS: The Atlantic, candyindustry.com, Hotel Cesare, history.com, Team USA, New York Times, Houston Chronicle, National Post & AP/Julio Cortez