Boy, are you naive if you think turning out your light gets you a pass on Halloween. They still ring the bell, peer in the window, call out rudely, and sometimes vandalize.

Dear Annie,
I agree with the woman that is irritated by Halloween. I use to love sitting out on my front porch and giving out candy. But now in my neighborhood, the kids are bigger and older, dont bother dressing up and just come door to door with a pillow case! They come back for 2nd and 3rds!!!! So I just dont bother anymore!

We live in an area of town that gets over 300 'visitors' every Halloween. My husband (when he's home) or I will sit on the front steps, and dole out the candy. That way we don't have to get up and down, we can have a good idea of who's coming by, and sometimes even have time to chat with a supervising adult. Halloween is what you make of it.

I don't see why anybody would get bent out of shape over this. Good grief, compared to what else we do in washrooms, a bit of foam down the drain is nothing. I have been brushing my teeth at work for decades and nobody has ever commented. In fact, most of my colleagues also brush their teeth in the washroom at work. I'd rather that than smell people's lunch on their breaths.

i'm with cindy. a public restroom is the place to brush, not the parking lot. i fail to see what is so unsanitary-was someone planning on licking the sink? after several thousand dollars worth of dental work due to gum disease, i wish i had been one of those brushers the writer was complaining about!

There is nothing wrong with brushing your teeth in a public bathroom. It's no worse that changing a baby's diaper in a restroom, and not as unsanitary. Would you really rather see someone brushing their teeth in their car and spitting it out in the parking lot?

Adopt the universal sign of the non-observant and turn off your porch light.

There are plenty of people who do not observe Halloween for religious reasons and that is absolutely their right. Even if it's just that they don't want people coming on their property all evening, once again--their right! I have to take a day's vacation from my job every year on Halloween because they strongly "encourage" us to decorate our cubicles and to pass out candy to employees' children who are allowed to traipse through all afternoon in their costumes trick-or-treating. Seeing witches, demons, and devils parade by my desk for hours is offensive to me. That is why I use one of my vacation days, but I shouldn't have to. I like children, I like candy, I like fun. I do not like having Halloween forced on me. And no--they have never threatened to fire those of us who do not observe it, but you just know that someone is taking note and it's not helping your career any. Same thing with Christmas. I don't like that one either because of its commercialization.

I can't NOT sympathize with this person's feelings about trick or treat. After years of giving out candy when I and my siblings were young and also trick or treated, my Mom called it quits. Mostly because some of the neighborhood kids spoiled it for the others by being so nasty the rest of the year. No way Mom was treating those misfits, and I don't blame her. She just turned off her porch light for the night and drew the drapes.

I and my brothers never did such nasty stuff to our neighbors as the next set of kids did, and it has even gotten worse since then. A great example of how bad it is getting, and getting worse yet, is kids bringing weapons to school. I was in a school of 1,000 and nothing like that ever happened back then at my school.

The only other choice is to live on an unlit dirt road in the country with a 600 foot unlit driveway, and there'll be no trick or treaters then. Saves on candy.

That's just gross. Teeth-brushers should have a bottle of water and a brush in their cars, brush, swish & swallow there.