This Halloween, Lee-Anne and I were invited to a neighbourhood hotdog gathering. The person hosting it was someone that I had met while supervising one of the WALES members at their volunteer placements. Turns out we live on the same street.
One of the people at this event was somebody that I regularly say hi to on my way to work, but whom I'd never formally met. We introduced ourselves, and he indicated his house as being "next to where MJ used to live"
I spoke on MJ in a post that I made in May 2025 titled "Outdoor Cats". He was a big friendly tabby with a high-pitch mew. Very affectionate, and would approach anyone fearlessly. Here's a pic
He had been notably absent for some months, causing us to wonder if something had happened to him.
Apparently something had. Earlier this summer, he was found with a leg clot. He was brought to a vet but there was nothing that could be done. At least it's good to get closure.
At this hotdog event, there was an onrush of neighbourhood children that I guess were starting the night off before trick or treating. There was a kid wearing a costume of a symbol, which I recognised as the old English letter, or Scandinavian rune Thorn: Þ. He was daring people to guess what he was, and let me know that I was the first person to get it right.
I'm a big fan of Thorn. Why should a distinct sound waste two letters? There should also be a single character for "sh" and "ch" while we're at it. And "Q" shouldn't exist. What's the point of a letter that is only useable if paired with a second? And "C" is redundant, it only has the quality of "K" or "S", so why does it deserve it's own spot?
Of course, "ph" as a stand in for "f" can remain in the specific instance of "gryphon"
The problem with Thorn is that, if spelling itself, it has a fairly awkward appearance in modern-day context. Here, I'll show you: Þorn.
How did you you pronounce that in your mind? Was it "Thorn" or something else?
We left the barbeque to hand out candy to Trick or Treaters. I couldn't remember how many we had in previous years, but the number forty came to mind. Our upstairs neighbours have kids that are still of the age to participate, so they usually leave some candy for us to hand out. The father mentioned that there are usually between 45-50 kids that come by, and so he had prepared 50 treat bags.
We wound up getting 45, so it was high by my estimate, and medium-low by his. Pretty solid either way. When the kid with the thorn costume came by, he said I was still the only person to recognise it.
The day after Halloween is the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico, and we had enchiladas for dinner as kind of an homage. This celebration honours the memory of those that have passed. In North America, most people know about this tradition through the Pixar movie Coco.
Unfortunately there are a few people at the forefront of my mind that have passed recently. One is Ivan, who I did a blog post about in September. There was another person that I worked with, Nicholas, who passed about a month after, that I was similarly close to, also gone because of cancer. And of course, there's MJ.
