Column: Say yes to the Halloween creep

Dear readers,

Look, October has arrived.

September is the new October. The Halloween decorations on the lawn of the house on the northeast corner of Broadway and Miller streets have started to appear. This year it all began with a giant grave digger complete with shovel and pet wolf.

So why are we beginning the Halloween celebration during the first week of September? It is because of holiday creep. The trend all started with retailers starting their Christmas sales earlier and earlier every year.  Now the other holidays must be pushed to an earlier date on the calendar.

I have heard some people complain about holiday creep. As for me, I’m for it. Holidays are always fun and the sooner the better. However, it will seem strange when those holidays defined by a date are affected by the creep.

I’m not sure it would be the same to celebrate the 4^th of July on the 4^th of June or Cinco de Mayo on the 5^th of April.

On an entirely different subject, I learned who invented the countdown this week. I was listening to an interview of movie director Quentin Tarantino. It was mentioned that German director Fritz Lang invented the countdown. Unlike things such as the wheel, the airplane, and electricity, I somehow never even thought about the countdown having an inventor.

We have Fritz Lang to thank whenever we hear that thrilling sequence that makes our hearts race. Nothing holds our attention like those decreasing numbers, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, whether followed by launching rockets or just microwaving popcorn. It was the brainchild of German filmmaker Fritz Lang. Yes, the same Fritz Lang who gave us the dystopian masterpiece Metropolis and the creepy classic M.

It was in the late 1920s. In America, Tallulah Bankhead and Zelda Fitzgerald were waking up every morning in Long Island but on a different lawn. In Germany, Fritz Lang was busy writing and directing a science fiction film called “Woman in the Moon.”

Lang, ever the visionary, decided that his moon launch needed something dramatic, something that would keep viewers on the edge of their seats. And so, he invented the countdown. Yes, that’s right. The countdown that we now associate with every rocket launch, New Year’s Eve Times Square ball drop, and dramatic moment the hero is deciding which wire to cut on the bomb.

Lang’s use of the countdown was a stroke of genius. It added a sense of urgency and drama to the film, making the audience feel like they were part of the action. Little did he know that this cinematic trick would become a staple of real-life rocket launches and microwave popcorn.

See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

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