A rant about Hallowe'en - warning: curmudgeonliness ahead...

[littlehoudini]

Just got back from a Hallowe'en party - strictly speaking, a Hallowe'en event. This was a fundraising charity ball (the charity doesn't matter). The venue was one of the most expensive hotels in the city. I was hired to be freaky / scary / weird (my stock-in-trade, really). After some discussion with the event co-ordinator, it was decided that

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[doc__holliday]

Bah. They all can't be winners. Buck up; I *almost* took an "eyes wide shut" themed gig at a swingers club for tonight....thankfully, it fell through.

[littlehoudini]

Huh... actually, that sounded like it could have been fun, maybe.

I'm debating whether to do a political charity gig in a couple of weeks. I'm neutral on the political party, it's not too far from the house and they only want an hour of close-up. At worst, I'll get a free meal and a little networking. [mulling, mulling]

Jesuswe'en.

[elbowfetish]

Catch up to the rest of the world and enjoy Jesuswe'en.
Scary is bad.

Re: Jesuswe'en.

[littlehoudini]

Jesuswe'en (apparently, according to their website, pronounced "Jesus win") has gone viral this year - I've been told about it by a few people. I considered that they might, along with the bibles and scripture they're avocating people hand out in lieu of candy, also give out an embossed invitation reading "please egg my house"... but that seems redundant.

Lately I've been hearing about public schools banning costumes all together to ensure that no-one shows up in costumes that are violent or offensive.

People make me sad.

[stevetassie]

Dude, most people hate rats. When are you going to realize that? Not "are put off by" or "made uncomfortable by" but hate. Yes, you love them. You see cute, furry friends who need your love and care. Most people see dirty, sewer-dwelling vermin with tails that look giant worms. Our culture raises people to fear rats. Aside from Ratatouille, when do we see positive portrayals of rats in movies/TV? You don't. That's why the average person gets freaked out by you & your rats.

And isn't it possible that what you perceived as "presenting" the rat was more aggressive than you realized. I'm not saying you were "shoving" the rat in their faces as they perceived, but the reality is likely somewhere in the middle.

[littlehoudini]

See, my experience isn't that most people "hate" rats - when I'm at the renfaires, I'd say about half the people think they're cute and want to touch them, about a third are nonplussed, and the rest are maybe freaked by them. Now, you might argue that renfaire-goers somehow correlate with rat-lovers, but I'd need a reason for that argument.

(Most of my friends / visitors to the who've met my rats have been good with them as well, but in that case I'd argue that people in my sphere are animal people.)

Whereas at this event, the vast majority of people were seriously, run-away scared. Not digusted or bothered by, but seriously scared of. And I don't understand that, either - I'm not a big fan of tarantulas (though I've held one once or twice), but if someone's holding it, I don't need to put 10' between them and me. I don't particularly want to hold it, but I'm not actively scared if someone's handling it.

[stevetassie]

Renfaire patrons may not = rat lovers (no hard data to support or disprove), but I think it's pretty safe to say that renfaire patrons do NOT = ordinary. And if your choices are ordinary or not ordinary, they must be not ordinary, therefore their responses to your rats cannot be taken as the benchmark for an ordinary person's reaction to rats

[littlehoudini]

Okay... we're missing all sorts of data here for an actual, data-based conversation, but we're both bright enough to see where we're missing data, so working with that

[pseudomatic]

I think it's odd that the organizers didn't think about what the patrons would find fun, there seems to be some kind of disconnect between what the organizers wanted and what the patrons wanted. They hired "freaky/scary/weird" for a pretty "vanilla" crowd by your description (uninspired, expensive rental costumes). So... organizer "fail" for sure. Can't undo (or really, explain) years of conditioning to fear rats, ya know, like, the plague? I knew people who would jump onto a chair if there was a mouse in the other room and refuse to come down unless the mouse was killed or otherwise gotten rid of. Normal people are weird

[littlehoudini]

I have no idea what or where normal people are.

You noticed the other guy had an adolescent python? How well-versed are you in pythonese that you knew it was an adolescent?

But yah - cool that these guys were just sort of hanging out, for the fun and interactiveness of it.

[astrocrabpuff]

A much belated follow-up to baby-rat rescue (and fuel for rat-hating-loving saga).

The baby rat we found was not there the next morning. We are hoping it was found by its mommy.

Some co-workers have (against rules and without informing mgmt) removed the poison placed to kill the rats on the grounds that it is a cruel way to die.

HOWEVER - I freaked out many of my co-workers when I handled the baby-rat (picked it up, allowed it to cling to my hand (for warmth?) and placed it into the box lined with paper towel) saying things like rats are dirty, have diseases (communicable implied), etc. which pretty much relates how little they've investigated/examined their own ingrained beliefs/fears about disease and dirt.

[littlehoudini]

I think that assuming it was found by mommy is the happiest assumption. And honestly, a pretty good one - momma rats are pretty protective of the young'uns.

It's sad but true - rats have lousy PR. Maybe *that* can be your new job. Of course, you only get paid in Cheerios...