Mid-October mailbag

Contingency, irony, solidarity — and whether to give to panhandlers

Years ago, when we were all new in town, my roommates and I wanted to throw a big fun Halloween party that all our friends and acquaintances would show up to. But we realized the Halloween party market was extremely crowded and that without many deep social ties or actual money to spend on anything beyond a keg of beer and some plastic cups, it would be hard to get to the top of the Halloween party list. So we just moved the date up two weeks, called it a Mid-October Party, put in virtually no effort, and tons of people showed up and it was a lot of fun.

The Mid-October Party tradition lived on for many years until kids and aging made such things infeasible.

But the spirit of the Mid-October lives on in my heart, and I always try to remember the lesson that differentiation is your friend.

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