The Trailing Edge
Trick or treat?
While it is not celebrated universally all around the world, Hallowe’en is a big deal here in North America. What’s weird is that recently it seems to be celebrated more and more by grown adults revelling in what some now call ‘cosplay’. That’s short for ‘costume play’ which pretty much sums it up. Don’t get me wrong, we love seeing the kids who can barely comprehend what they’re dressed as come knocking on our door and inaudibly whisper something while their parents stage whisper ‘trick or treat’ from the sidewalk. The pint-size ladybug or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle still has the power to make our hearts melt. Seriously. We love it.
That’s the treat part.
The trick part is that retailers used to have the common decency to not put up Christmas decorations until after Hallowe’en. But now it seems that at the first hint of the leaves almost imperceptibly changing from vivid green to barely visible yellow (or vice-versa in the Southern Hemisphere) that’s all the incentive they need to roll out the pumpkin spice everything, the ‘seasonal decorations’ and the pervasive, inescapable Christmas music. In December, we get it — even enjoy it — but in mid-September? C’mon. And in what we think a Tom Clancy-esque novel might proffer, the supply chain and shipping nightmare we’re currently experiencing might actually be some dark web conspiracy to make us get to the shops even sooner.
But there’s an inescapable truth in the headlong, near panic rush to start the holiday season — 2021 is pretty much over. It was supposed to be a better year than 2020 and while we don’t know about you, it has still been a distinctly mixed bag for us, to be entirely candid. But we can’t help but think about what it is for which we have to be thankful — and there is plenty, to be sure — while we hope that 2022 is another measured step back to the life we loved. Ain’t anything wrong for hoping for better days ahead, is there?
Speaking of things of arriving fast, it is never too early to start thinking about next month’s issue. Like right now, with the deadline for submission for the November issue being later this month. Yep, October 31st — Hallowe’en! Given that you may be cosplaying it up towards the end of the month, you may just want to get started on that magnum opus now.
New in The RCSD Store
In case you’re ever wondering how we manage to provide all this great, commercial-free content for FREE, it’s through the hard work of the RCSD Store. Their recent efforts have resulted in the June edition of the quickly-becoming-very-collectible RCSD Cover Photo T-Shirt. The cover photo is by our good friend and RCSD contributor Stéphane Ruelle taken on June 6th, 2021 at the site of the US GPS Triangle Nationals at the Siskiyou County Airport in Montague, California. Or, if you prefer, you can order the January, February, March, April or May editions of the RCSD Cover Photo T-Shirt in the Store. We manufacture and ship worldwide. Be the first kid at the field or slope to have one. And, our comments above notwithstanding, it’s never too early to order for the holidays!
Make Sure You Don’t Miss the New Issue
If you want to be absolutely sure you don’t miss the November issue of the NEW RC Soaring Digest make sure you subscribe to our Groups.io mailing list or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.
That’s it for this month. Thanks to all of our contributors in this issue and above all, thank you, the RCSD reader — without you, we’re nothing.
Now get out there and fly!
Read the previous article or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
