October 30, 2011  Some room for flexibility on Halloween   ----
— When the moon rises, and the dead crawl from their graves, and
ghosts, goblins and ghouls wander the earth — on Halloween —
residents of this, and most any college town, are presented with
a dilemma:  What to do when the college students come trick-or-
treating at your door.  I understand that, technically, the
federal government does not have official guidelines on who can
and cannot trick-or-treat. To me, however, the cutoff age is,
oh, about 13. Kids can opt out sooner than that, and those who
are slow to reach puberty can hang on until 14. Anything past
that age is awkward. College kids, for example.  In my
neighborhood, the college-age snack seekers outnumber the cute-
but-greedy toddler types by at least a 2-to-1 margin.  To be
fair, a little harmless trick-or-treating is probably preferable
to hoards of students wandering the streets overturning cars and
setting aflame children's imported Halloween costumes.  The
Halloween visits from the