On Tuesday, October 18th, just two days before he was executed, Time suggested Muammar Gaddafi as one of its "10 Best (Topical) Halloween Costumes for 2011." "You'll need," Time suggested, "An unruly black wig (or this mask)." READ MORE

I'm not sure I really even know what cosplay is, other than that lots of people do it, and not necessarily for sex, just for fun and coolness, but the other night I was watching The Switch, one of the best movies of 2010, despite its problematic insemination issues, and (no spoilers!) at one point there's a kid's birthday party and all the adults are dressed in pirate hats and you can't help but think: wouldn't it be sexy and fun to dress up as a pirate or a lion or something like that sometimes? It'd be like you were in an Adam Ant video all the time! There just aren't enough excuses these days to dress up in elaborate costumes. (Also, think of the truly excellent costume party in Beginners! Who wouldn't want to meet Ewan McGregor when he's dressed as Freud and also carrying a puppy? I mean, what more do you need, shoes made out of chocolate cake?) Anyway, Comic-Con is coming and the goose is getting fat, please fashion for yourself a complicated hat. But who to dress up as even? I totally get stumped there. Just don't leave your sexy funtime costume thingies laying around or half of Chicago gets evacuated.

tonight i am DJing a loft party in midtown for halloween and on the subway ride here there was a zombie sitting next to me playing solitaire on her iPod nano, a samurai trying to secure his sword to his belt by tying it up with excess fabric, and two Nicki Minajes with pink wigs and pink eyelashes dancing on those poles on subway cars that you hold on to so you don't fall down when the train lurches. right now i am in the loft setting my computer up and one of the organizers is off somewhere getting me a cable to connect my hard drive to my computer because i forgot mine at home. they hired security guards for this party and one of them is standing about a hundred feet away from me by the back door, arms folded and feet spread apart, already in position even though nobody is here yet except the staff. my friend angelica who came with me is picking some choice candy for us out of the big candy bowl near the bar, i told her i don't want any of those off-brand hard candies or assorted-color tootsie rolls that i only see around halloween, you know what i'm talking about READ MORE

SO JEALOUS of this kiddo. Do enjoy this photo shoot of Kiddo Robocop tooling around Detroit. Maybe I don't actually want to poison children on Halloween! (via)

There are some words that should never be combined with “sexy.” “Clownfish,” for example. Yet the “Sexy Clownfish” costume is a hit at the Halloween superstore in my neighborhood. I’d like to meet the creative team that came up with that brilliant idea. Did they just pull words out of a hat and attach them to “sex?” A sexy clown would be terrifying and a sexy fish is... just gross, yet “Sexy Clownfish” gets the green light for production. Some stores market the sexualized fish as a grown-up “Nemo," but in the end it's just slutty get-ups modeled after a character popular with children. Just like provocative Cookie Monsters and sultry Sponge Bobs. But if you are dying to put a mini-skirt on a childhood icon this Halloween, why don’t you try going as one of my favorite idols? Like those four independent women you know so well. They were aspirational, successful women—as well as sexy, spooky and magical. READ MORE

Celebrating Halloween is like going to the opera: some people hate it, some love it, some people hate it but pretend to love it, and everybody’s dressed like an Italian swashbuckler. Halloween and the opera are also alike in that they’re both journeys that couples seldom embark upon separately. (Who spends girl's night out savoring the libretto in Don Giovanni?) The couples who enjoy Halloween tend to do so because it’s a chance to show off bilateral creativity while hanging with friends and maybe getting wrecked. At this very moment, legions of couples are anticipating this coming weekend with greater fervor than the Snickers-craving rugrats for whom the holiday ostensibly exists. The ones who’ve been together long enough to have sifted through and itemized each other’s garbagey baggage are probably in for a killer time. With a new relationship, though, it’s a different story. When couples are still finding their footing, neither person really knows who the other one is. If you’ve only started dating recently, Halloween is the moment when the masks come off. Boo. READ MORE

During a recent visit to New York City to, amongst other things, check out this Manhattan JC Penney location everyone is talking about (more on that next week!), I did a little Halloween costume shopping at the New York Costumes superstore on 11th street and Broadway. And keeping with the recent theme of Halloween costumes for racists and bigots (and their dogs), I found the perfect costume: Chief Culturally Insensitive. READ MORE

Don't you get the sense that, in this over-Twittered, hyper-Tumblr'd time, that Halloween is going to be super-competitive this year? I'm almost scared to go out dressed as this ____. (Not telling!) Yet here are some more costume ideas from The Morning News, with frugality in mind. Including this bit, from Paul Ford: "Get a plastic saucer-sled ($10 or so) and attach two fake arms to it, then hang that off your shoulders. Put on a little nightcap and a pair of pajamas. Congratulations, you're a bedbug! Now go to a party. Be kind of obnoxious. Refuse to get off the sofa. After a few minutes, say goodbye and leave. Wait about five minutes. Then go back to the party and ring the buzzer. When someone opens the door, 10 or 20 friends, also dressed as bedbugs in pajamas and saucer-sleds, should run through waving their arms and yelling and throwing food on the floor and basically rubbing all over everything and rolling around in the muck and so forth."

The offensive costume is a Halloween staple. Because some people, you just can't reach teach. Combine a need for attention with alcohol and some markers and duct tape and sometimes you get something great. Sometimes you get something else. But we do expect businesses to know better. Read on for this year's most bigoted, misogynistic, racist costumes. All available from legitimate retailers. Including Amazon.com. READ MORE