Boo! (Scared you.)

Happy Halloween from all of us! May you follow the yellow brick road to the land of tricks or treats.

As my wife astutely pointed out to me, our updating of the Wizard of Oz theme in many ways (unintentionally) embodies the message of the original story:

• the brainless scarecrow (that's me, by the way) has a PhD in philosophy and works at an Ivy League school;
• the heartless tin man (or robot, in our version) probably has the biggest heart of us all;
• the cowardly lion is likely the most confident of us all;
• the homesick rural Dorothy was actually born in a very urban Asian city—very far indeed from Kansas; and
  
• the original Toto (at least from the movies) was both dark haired and, well, alive.
  

Here's to finding that what you seek has been right there inside you all along.
Or, barring that, may you fill the empty void with fun-sized sweets.