A local TV station was doing a story about how everybody is going to be wearing patriotic costumes this Halloween. They chose my wife's shop as the place to get the story.

They interviewed my wife. Lots of questions, but the main one was "are you getting a lot of demand for patriotic-themed costumes so far?" Answer: "A little, not much."

They interviewed some customers. "Are you wearing a patriotic-themed costume this year?" "Probably not."

So, of course, the story was that the hot costumes this year are all patriotic themes. I've had the impression for a while that news stories on TV are written before the interviews, and this, in my mind, confirms it. I think they picked up a few details, but the main point was decided already, and the lack of supporting evidence didn't change it.

And we aren't about to complain - we got several minutes worth of free publicity with the name of the shop repeated several times, and we think we may have become the default costume-shop for that station whenever they need a costume shop quote or picture. Notice that the name of the shop does not appear in this post, in order to avoid potential googling.

They asked if we had any Osama Bin Laden masks - and of course we don't. We wouldn't if they were available. I called a mask supplier while they were there, and the supplier didn't carry them. The guy on the phone didn't know if they would be carrying them in the future. The line on the news that night sounded pretty definitive about the ObL mask not being produced, but I'm pretty sure I was the only source on that.

I will say this for them: Kim had a point she wanted to make, that she will not provide costumes that could be worn to make fun of Musims or Arabs because we are about fun, not hate. And they aired her saying that.