For those of you who don’t know, today is Halloween. (Who doesn’t know today is Halloween? They must be confused as heck when they see people walking around dressed as gorillas and demons and Groucho Marx.) And everyone loves Halloween because you get candy. Now, I am not here to judge the people who give less than delicious candy to the loyal trick or treaters, but I would say that I am a little bit perplexed. When you walk into your local supermarket, what do you see? Snickers, Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Crunch Bars, Milky Ways. The standard yummy candy. So what I want to know, is how do you even FIND a store that sells Charleston Chews? It is really worth the effort? Just give us a Snickers and we will be happy. As opposed to perplexed.

You know how parents always say, “Don’t take candy from strangers?” Well, since Halloween is all about taking candy from strangers, it got me thinking. And I’ve decided that I won’t say that to my kids. Instead, I will tell them, “Don’t eat candy from strangers; bring it to me to inspect.” That way, if it is dangerous, like it’s poisoned or drugged or something, I would have saved them from harm. And if it’s not, hey free candy.

Halloween is only 2 days away, and I have still yet to hear “The Monster Mash” on the radio. This is unacceptable. So I propose that the radio stations draw lots and the winner must play “The Monster Mash” 24 hours a day for the entire month of October. Come to think of it, they should play it year round.

In yesterday’s post, Johnny said he wished his name were John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. So going along with that, here’s this week’s Game Time question:

If you had to change your name to something ridiculous, what name would you choose?

As usual, post your answers in the comments and feel free to provide as much explanation as you want.

I kinda wish my name were John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. That way, whenever I went anywhere, people would always shout out my name. On second thought, that would be pretty annoying. Never mind.

You know how people sometimes say, “I’m sorry, you dialed the wrong number”? I like to respond, “No, buddy! You picked up the wrong phone!” And then I slam the phone to hang up.

What’s the deal with unicorns? I get the uni- part: they’ve got one. But corn? They don’t have any corn. They’ve got a horn. One horn. So they should be called unihorns. Or monohorns. Or knightless jousters.

Ever had the awkward situation where you are reading an email and someone says, “Here are your potions,” and you think, “Ha ha, yes, yes! My potions! Yes, with these potions I can control the world! Ha ha, yes!” And then you realize that it was a typo, and he meant to say, “Here are your options”?

Me neither.

A while back, Mike wrote a post about having a state named after him, and he called it “Mikeland.” That’s right, Mikeland. To quote the Reluctant Dragon, “Not very good, is it?”

For the first edition of our new section, Game Time, we at the Pake Shlake Band are giving everybody a chance to do better.

For those of you visiting from outside the U.S., replace the word “state” with “province,” “district,” “county,” “ward,” or “what-have-you.”

So post your answers to that question, and the best answer might just get a shoutout on Monday. But don’t hold your breath. Unless you are in a particularly stinky room, then by all means, hold away.

Hello, again.

As you may know, we at the Pake Shlake Band don’t post over the weekend since we disapprove of working on weekends. In fact, we disapprove of working during the week as well, but since society dictates it, we usually turn a blind eye. And a cold shoulder. And a few heads. And a … next paragraph!

Anyway, since we know how much you love our site, we’ve begun a new section here at Shlake.com: Game Time. The way it works is, we’ll be putting out fun things to do every Friday, and you, the reader, will get to play along. Basically, we’ll pose some sort of question, and whoever wants to can throw out their answer in the comments. And if you think of a new answer over the weekend, post another comment; it’s the gift that keeps on giving. (I thought that was fruitcake). (Or the plague).

So check out the new stuff, post your responses in the comments, and check back on Monday to read everyone’s responses. It should be pretty fun.

(P.S. And to answer the title of this post, it’s 2:19.)