For forty years, West 69th St. in NYC has been closed to traffic for Halloween. Instead of trick or treating in buildings, kids go trick or treating on the steps of brownstones and in the lobbies of apartment buildings. The buildings try to outdo each other with ghoulish decorations. One particular brownstone always is the winner -- not only do they have various huge hanging spiders, body parts, crypts et al., but each year they perform a show in which actual people rappel up and down the side of the building in theme costumes (Star Wars this year, Spider Man last). Even a Church (Christ and St. Stephens; Episcopal) gets into the act, decorating its lawn with ghosts, etc. and real priests and deacons.
As a result of my kids' fixation on "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," I had no choice but to wear a Greek-themed costume (Hercules - $29.99 at Ricky's).
I had fun saluting people up and down the block, and eventually I reached the Church. I walked by a Church person in a white robe costume with what looked like stones sewn into it. He smiled at me and said:
Your people did this to me.
Being Jewish, I said "What??? I thought you Episcopalians were the liberal ones."
I thought, "Anti-Semitism in a liberal church on the Upper West Side? We really have not yet reached a post-bigotry nation."
I looked up at him, ready to dare him to say it again, and he said, "You know, your people, the Romans, stoned me (St. Stephen) to death." A flash of realization hit me -- my costume actually looked more Roman than Greek (Ricky's costumes are not always perfectly accurate historically -- for that, you have to pay $39.99).
In fact, most people on the block were hailing me as Caesar until I told them I was Hercules. In light of that, "St. Stephen" was perfectly justified in his accusation.
So the martyr and I parted amicably. Just another Halloween night on the Upper West Side.