Sign of the season

Halloween is coming, and this is a holiday that New Orleans fully embraces. What could be more in keeping with the spirit of this city than a holiday that combines remembrance of the dead, macabre spookiness, and the opportunity to dress up in costume?

This morning walking to breakfast along Royal Street in the Bywater, I encountered a man carrying a plastic skull under his arm.

"Good morning!" I said to him.

"Good morning," he replied. Then with his hand he worked the movable jaws of the plastic skull.

"How ya doin'?" it said.

Then, "Oh, don't mind him," said the man. "He's such a chatterbox!"