Animals

It’s a Pottery Barn Halloween, Charlie Brown

Okay maybe moving to the damn suburbs has done it to me, but I’ve been frequenting Stanford Pottery Barn; to browse mind you, and mostly because Illuminations closed and they used to have the coolest Halloween decorations.

I’ve noticed Pottery Barn’s Halloween decorations are not at all what you’d expect coquettish housewives and soccer moms to purchase, nay, even allow in their mecca. A few seasons back, there were swooping bats and sewer rats complete with matted (albeit soft and downy) fake fur. (Not to mention the “Scary Tree Tea-Light Holder” which was recalled due to candleholder flaring.) This year, they have opted for the sweeter black mouse model, with cartoonish glazed eyes and curlicue tail. Your choice of teeny titmouse-size (3 for $19) or portly laboratory-test-size ($5). (If you used to be a proofer/editor like me, you will snigger along at the typos on the website for this item.)

And if you want to have a particularly fiendish yet realistic food-chain-homage type Halloween display, you’ll be happy to know that the rodents’ mortal enemy, the owl, is also available for a mere $39.  Bird’s gotta eat, right?