I’ve never enjoyed Halloween because it reminds me that I’m not very fun. Maybe it’s my childhood memories of fake cobwebs, canned moans, candy corn, and those plastic spider rings that pinched your fingers—it all feels sticky and feverish.
But I doubt anyone’s having much fun this Halloween. America hit nearly 100,000 new infections yesterday. Britain declared another lockdown tonight, joining Germany and France. A study says the president’s campaign rallies may have caused seven hundred deaths. In North Carolina, police pepper-sprayed a get-out-the-vote rally. In Texas, a group of Trump supporters in pick-up trucks swarmed a Biden-Harris campaign bus and nearly forced it off Interstate 35. The president cheered them at his rally. Despite these horrifying tactics by the state, voter turnout remains stupendously high, and I have faith this augers well. And there was one promising if slightly unnerving piece of news: artificial intelligence might be able to detect COVID-19 by listening to your coughs.
Tonight I’m grateful because the clocks will rewind an hour and we’ll have longer nights. And tomorrow is All Saint’s Day. Although I’m not a Christian, it’s one of my favorite days simply for its cadence—and it’s the beginning of the end of this year.
