The pumpkins have been carved, no thanks to the tough-as-nails rind on the bigger of the two. I recommend the nice, soft, organic pumpkins from Whole Foods for all you DIY carvers out there.

My son and I are primed for Halloween - he's got his airline pilot costume, we got ourselves a good dose of Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil, and I attended a truly frightening event last night and emerged from it mostly unscathed. Jeff Crouere's Ringside Politics With A Punch did its darnedest to have a little something for everybody...and it mostly succeeded last night, despite the no-show of one of its participants and the too-brief appearance of another. Don't think Halloween wasn't on the minds of the panelists in attendance, either: Virginia Boulet appeared in quite the Sarah Palin-ish getup, hair, glasses and all - except for the uber-conservative viewpoint of Caribou Barbie herself. Jay Batt said he'd be Fred Flintstone this year, and then, with some prodding, revealed he'd already tried out his costume at the Playboy mansion last week. How's that for family values?

So I sat at the back of the Cricket Club (aka, the former Red Room club and the former Eiffel Tower Restaurant) with the peanut gallery, sat through Bayou Buzz's Stephen Sabludowsky's silence-inducing introduction (there were supposed to be some funny jokes in there, but the chirping of crickets could be heard all the way out on the St Charles Avenue neutral ground), marveled at how much Crouere looks like a young Buddy Cianci, and sat back for a little off-the-cuff blather on the local and national issues and stories of the day.

The comments were a hoot and a half, with political satirist/cartoonist John Slade coming up with some real doozies. He commented on the system for catching any voter registrations turned in by ACORN workers, saying that it "isn't being trusted...and not just by the hippies." Slade's takes on a few local figures were also noteworthy:

John Kennedy: "I don't think you can call him a car crash - he hasn't gotten out of the garage." Ed Blakely: "He shouldn't have said that crane thing."
Miss Teen Louisiana: "You smoke that stuff before you eat."

The heaviest of the political heavies for the night were definitely Boulet and Batt, sitting, appropriately enough, on the left and right sides of the stage, respectively. Boulet was set up as the Obama spokesperson, and Batt went to bat for McCain/Palin. Straight Man of the Night was Joe Johnson, who reminded everyone that plumbers are people too and who couldn't understand why the Saints were going through kicker woes as of late ("They're a dime a dozen"). For the record, he thinks the Saints will be going 9-7 this year.

When all was almost said and done, however, Norman Robinson put in an appearance and stole the show. He was only there for ten minutes, but he denied any plans for a possible run for mayor in 2010 ("I'm already running for my life."), pooh-poohed any serious talk of Jindal running for president in 2012, and brought down the house with his take on Miss Teen Louisiana's predicament:

"It happens to the best of us."

Hell yes, it does, Norman.

Hope everyone has a safe, happy Halloween!