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The Halloween costume party season officially kicked off Friday night with the sixth annual Nauti Night Masquerade at the Florida Aquarium.
Of course, the hosts did nothing to discourage people from thinking the party should have been entitled Naughty Night. Start with the fact that bartenders were dressed as drag queens, then throw in an appearance by a bawdy Snow White and you can understand what this fish fry was all about.
Family commitments had me at home by 9 (like my wife would really let me go to anything naughty) but my stunt double was there.
This time the stunt double was a white woman with red hair dressed like a vampire, but everybody thought it was me. It's pretty amazing what happens to the mind when the party features open bars.
Playing host for the evening was Jerry Springer, who appeared wearing a black suit with a black shirt. I guess he was disguised as a bad television talk show host. Famed Springer bald body guard "Steve" also was in the house, and also opted not to wear a costume. But I'm not making any jokes about him.
Creativity was at a premium. Consider the woman sporting a "I Love Dad" tattoo and wearing a black dress covered with photographs of a famous psychologist. Yes, she was Freudian slip.
Other standouts: a couple dressed like Ike and Tina Turner; a guy in a cardboard kissing booth box and his Hershey kiss girlfriend; a Hillsborough County jail inmate with a prom queen (jail bait?); and SpongeBob The Pimp.
SpongeBob a pimp? No wonder kids weren't allowed. I would have hated trying to explain that one to Matthew and Ethan.
Ben Wacksman doesn't recall much about his preschool years at a Head Start program in Queens, New York.
"All I remember is nap time," Wacksman said.
Yet research has uncovered positive effects Wacksman cannot recall from those Head Start years. Brain development is most significant for children up until the age of 5, so when kids are stimulated physically and challenged mentally in Head Start, it truly is planting seeds of knowledge.
"The name Head Start really says it all," said Wacksman, the former county commissioner who is now president of the Hillsborough Head Start Community Foundation. "It gives kids who wouldn't necessarily have that head start a better chance for success."
The Hillsborough County Head Start/Early Heard Start provides early childhood development and parental programs to more than 3,000 low-income families. But one of the foundation's goals is to create partnerships between businesses and specific Head Start centers.
Not only will the partnerships help with funding, but employees from each business should develop a personal stake in the centers. With workers getting to know the children and the caregivers, it should be as much a gift of the heart as a gift of the wallet.
Details of the plan will be introduced at the Head Start Community Foundation's second annual breakfast fundraiser Wednesday at 7:30 in the downtown Hyatt. Dan Mahurin, chairman and chief executive officer, will be the featured speaker.
For more information call 272-5140, ext. 3126.
Kudos to Blake High's Jhazmine Ruiz, who recently won a national holiday card contest sponsored by the Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation. The card featuring Ruiz's design will be sent to business clients in the United States and Mexico.
For her efforts, Ruiz will receive a $500 award and a professional art set, while her teacher will get a $250 gift and the school will get a $250 gift. Looks like Ruiz is going to brighten the holidays in more ways than one.
That's all I'm saying.
- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com