He Said
By Joe Polito, Commentary

Some people love Halloween for the ridiculous amount of free candy. For others, it’s the good old-fashioned neighborhood vandalism. But for me, it’s got to be the costumes.

I have always taken pride in my costuming abilities. Over the years, I have won many costume contests and received numerous awards for my creativity. When coming up with one of these award-winning ideas, I always stick to a few guidelines: funny, topical and group-themed.

In middle school, when Britney Spears’ and Jennifer Lopez’s music careers were taking off, my best friend and I dressed as them.

Another year, we were Siegfried and Roy— complete with glitter, makeup and stuffed animal tigers. I even put blood capsules in my mouth and had my tiger attack me on stage during the judging portion of the costume contest.

I thought I would go with a similar approach this year — try to find a funny costume that people will know.

An idea I had was for my roommates and me to be the “Century-Village People” — just like the Village People, but old and decrepit. This idea looked fun but proved to be too expensive.

When I was little, my parents usually helped me out with my costumes. But now that I have my own budget, I came up with a costume that was cheap and practical: a Beer Pong table.

For this homemade costume, all I need is a shirt, jeans, Velcro pads and red cups. If I bring two ping-pong balls with me wherever I go, I’m pretty sure I can get into any party simply by laying on the table.

Something cheap, such as my Beer Pong costume, is recommended for students looking to dress up this Halloween. Making costumes out of household materials is much more fulfilling than spending a lot of money on things from a store.

She Said
By Robin Roup, Commentary

The reason why many girls dress like strippers for Halloween has been analyzed over and over again in countless publications. Yes, I get it: Halloween is said to be the one night a year a girl can dress suggestively and other girls can’t say anything about it.

But what about the array of themed parties such as “Lingerie or Less,” “Anything but Clothes” and “Office Hoes and CEOs,” that allow girls to do the same thing?

Halloween isn’t all that different. It’s another themed party, or a weekend of parties, with many more choices for attire. There are the usual costumes like police officers, schoolgirls and nurses that have stemmed from role-play fantasies, and then there are the stripper versions of storybook characters.

Seriously, what is there to analyze? Maybe for some of these college girls, there’s just a small, secret longing to be a stripper, and the rest are just following the crowd. Or perhaps girls just want an excuse to dress suggestively for a night without being judged.

The total lack of creativity in costumes is more concerning. Last year I saw about a dozen cops, a handful of gangsters and at least five Alices (from Alice in Wonderland) and Dorothys (from The Wizard of Oz).

I did see a group of people dressed as the cast of Futurama and some very pale guy dressed as Flavor Flav. But these unique get-ups are rare at most Halloween soirees and usually donned by the men there.

Why not try to branch out a bit? Girl costumes are not limited to bunnies and angels. Instead of being Dorothy, how about being the Tin Man? Costume companies make female versions of the entire cast of The Wizard of Oz.

Local costume stores usually just have the most popular costumes, but Web sites such as flirtcatalog.com, allcostumes.com and 3wishes.com sell a wide variety.

Girls, feel free to keep using Halloween as an excuse to dress suggestively, but try to get more creative this year. And save the pirate costumes for Gasparilla.