| If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re likely well past the age of the average trick-or-treater. Calvin Trillin certainly was, back in 1978, when he wrote for The New Yorker about the pleasures of dressing up outlandishly and celebrating a holiday associated with kids. Trillin’s Halloween observance might have been for the benefit of his children, but “there is also a theory,” he writes, “that I use my daughters as an excuse.” Whatever the case, Trillin’s playful essay captures some of the holiday’s less recognized powers, such as creating community in a diverse and chaotic city. Adult trick-or-treating bridges gaps between Trillin and his wife and inspires a spontaneity that can be hard to match at other times—at least for his own family, if not for everyone. “A lot of Villagers do not require a national holiday or even a Saturday night,” he says, of his Greenwich Village neighbors, “to dress in what people somewhere else might consider a costume.” | 
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