Sunday was the Half-Hallows if you will, the midpoint for minions of the month before the 31st, and the yard decorations are starting to show it. So it could be called a Black Sabbath, and what pray tell, did the band actually mean when taking that name?

It was perhaps fitting that it was on a Sunday, a Sabbath, that we — that’s most of us — reached the halfway point in October before Halloween, as it was the 16th at the turn of midnight. But the bustle of this holiday was already underway, as shown with decorations such as the following in the yards and ways and byways ..
A buddy of mine who thinks he is big and scary may have met his match, with The Last House Left On The Circle, which he says, repeatedly, is the baddest and thusly best — as he mentions this every time we are within eyeshot. Starting BO, as in Before October. So the first in (this) series of stuff, until you have had enough.
Next the beloved BOH and their mega-decorating-spree last year of creatures hanging around their brick building in the NH car shops, which still had months and maybe a year later — or even as we speak — the chalk line of a (presumed) body leading the way to the display past multiple blacktopped avenues and medians. But will there be a sequel at BOH to last year’s success? Consult your local medium. Or this bat channel.
The earliest hangers-on — actually the originators around Hudson — were typically houses with small front yards and loads of small monsters, so there is room for the more the merrier. Think many more than a dozen and always beginning with ghosts. Even in a Lucky 13 line up the side of their driveway.
Then there is that big bat, vampire and dragon combo that marks the way up to the Hill District. As the main metal monster of such themes, Dio often said in-concert while glancing to the back of the stage, “everyone can’t wait to see the dragon!” See this parrticular show on cable most Halloweens. Just as it streamed so famously on the usually-sports tube at the old Dibbo’s — another icon — on a memorable night right before midnight and costume judging, and before streaming was a big deal.
The windstorm that was gave an opp for everyone to cut up logs and pile them in the middle of their yards — and give the nearby Halloween creatures something to hide behind and for perhaps the first time needed by the flamboyant, a way to camoflauge themselves.
Like at the library, and behind the curtain of Police Line Do Not Cross tapings, a single hit taken to a single area where the third floor yields to the roofline, exposing plywood. No word on if the heated rooftop patio across the block, as the crow flies, at Mallory’s took such a hit, as bringing the heat might not have been a good thing when the straight line winds struck. Leave the amp up in temp to the main-level kitchen.
And the best take on So Much Depends On The Weather, in combo with all the home improvements that the people stir crazy at home do, a neighbor was tiding up her car/driveway and during the length of the task was actually barefoot. Their big cat, however, did not set such as an example, as it was plopped during that entire time on the blacktop all-four-paws-down. This long-basking kitty seemed unscared by all the Halloween decorations around her, both already placed and those at the time going up.
And now what you truly have been waiting for, even more than the dragon, as Dio sang in HIS Black Sabbath days, that we all need To Look For The Answer. Drum roll??
The name Black Sabbath is also the title of one of their first singles, about a chance encounter with the devil himself on a fateful Sunday night, the Sabbath that is referenced. (And this is a story, a work of fiction rather than fact, not not a documentary, for all you literalists. Ozzy has never met with Satan personally).
On the single, named Black Sabbath, Ozzy wails in a lament to God to save him from this horror. He is not a Satanist, but a self-styled Christian. And another of the band’s songs, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, continues the metaphor.
And it is this type metaphor that got another metal band, Iron Maiden, in a spot with conservative Christians. It is the notorious Number of the Beast, about a similar late-night meeting with the Evil One. This time it is also a lament, but a bit tantalizing as well.
Then the clinker in the lyrics. The Devil’s number, 666, is called “the one for you and me.” The reference, of course, is the Christian belief that we are all sinners and to make such a statement is simply an aknowledgement of that blunt truth. Maiden takes the metaphor too far, in producing a theme that is rampant throughout metal, “there but for the grace of God go I.”
Frontman Bruce Dickinson, in a concert I attended, playfully introduced the song in a way that really stuck it to one of the actual fathers of Satanism, saying “take this …” A first thought that came to mind was another introduction, to Christian communion, “take this and eat of it, for this is my body and my blood. Do this in memory of me.” Another corrollary?
So to all you conservatives who don’t want your child to go trick-or-treating, or don’t want to take in beforehand the silliness of all the Halloween decorations, such as those described at the start of this piece, take heart: The Devil will not be in attendance. So just enjoy.