So, Governor Ralph Northam’s of Virginia had a tough couple of days.
Interesting, because it brought back memories of painting my own face on Halloween. Wore a robe once, too. As a matter of fact, painted the face and wore a robe on the same day.
But unlike with Governor Northam, my face was painted white and my robe was black.
The getup was supposed to be some sort of phantom druid or something, who the hell knows. What do you expect from a weird teenager who’d seen too many 60s British horror movies.
But it’s easy to remember doing it — and that’s why this Ralph Northam thing’s so strange. It seems to me that you’d recall wearing blackface or a Klan robe on Halloween when you were in college.
Fast forward to 1986. The Mets had just won the World Series, and the legendary Mookie Wilson/Bill Buckner play in Game 6 was a very big deal. So this guy — a friend of mine — showed up at work on Halloween in his Mookie jersey and his face painted as black as coal.
Think about that, walking into work in blackface. Pretty crazy. And I don’t think the boss did anything about it, except maybe tell him not to go see any clients dressed that way. He was in sales, and God forbid his Mookie costume cost the TV station some money.
Today he’d be fired on the spot.
Halloween’s a funny thing. How far is too far when it comes to costumes? Or is Halloween like stand-up comedy, where anything goes and no topic is taboo or too offensive?
Either way, it’s a different world out there. If pictures of me in whiteface emerge, I could be in hot water with the phantom druids.
What the… where did you work?
That wss at WNYT. Nobody involved works there anymore, and I’m probably the only person who remembers this incident — besides the guy who dressed as Mookie.
Watching Northam reminds me of a 4 year old explaining how they didn’t eat the cookies/let the dog out/paint the cat/put dad’s shoes in the washer. The difference is that 4 year old knows enough to take only one stab at the implausible excuse.
Unbelievable. I think he could have just come clean and managed to stay in office.
I don’t think acting like a jackass 34-years-ago sjoild be grounds to lose your job, buf handling the situation badly might be.