Another Halloween has passed. And I thought at my age I would be over the costumes and the candy and all the hoopla, but when your friends are all turning 30 and they have a death grip on their Peter Pan phase, it’s hard not to get caught up in all of it. 

Halloween and Jane have not gotten along very well. My earliest memory of the holiday was probably when I was in preschool and I wanted to go as Snow White to my class Halloween party. My mom sends me off in my hanbok, telling me “You’re the Korean Snow White.” I stupidly believed her, until I got to school. The most popular girl in my class had dressed up in the actual Snow White costume, with red bow and all! And of course, I remember her snotty little voice asking, “What are you supposed to be?”

I replied, “A Korean Snow White.”

Her crushing response? “NO YOU’RE NOT. There is no Korean Snow White! Hahahah!” I ran to the bathroom crying and had to be coaxed out by my teacher with candy corn.

What perplexes me now as an adult is that I wore that hanbok several more times, each one as a different character: the Korean Sleeping Beauty, the Korean Alice in Wonderland, the Korean Cinderella, the Korean Strawberry Shortcake.

So now I’m older and actually have money to buy a costume. And this year, John was in town for Halloween. Apparently, the Scots don’t celebrate it nor really know what the big deal is, so it was my duty to show him the ways. This year I was determined to be Snow White, not a Korean Snow White, but just plain old Snow White, with red bow and all.

I failed. Everyone thought I was a Korean peasant lady carrying a green apple. Meanwhile, John’s half-assed attempt at a costume was spot on. He was the Unabomber.

I’ve decided I’m going as a ghost next year.

Don’t Quote me
First of all, Asian players,
probably if you asked
them — and could
understand them — they
would like to stay on the
West Coast. But the money
that’s being spent by the
Yankees and Boston,
they’re having to make the
extra five-hour flight.”
— Lew Wolff,
owner of the Oakland Athletics,
on why the club hasn’t done much exploration of the Asian player market

Well Said
The wise words of korean-made products