Back patent leather bustiers reign at the Masquerade, but not all tricksters aim to emulate women of the night. Children--shockingly, they still exist outside of our hallowed Ivory Tower--don darling guises that garner enough candied corn to put any stained Gap dress to shame. The cute crowd's preferred costumes this Halloween were, as perhaps expected, a smattering of superheros, monsters and children's movie characters.

This year, girls snapped up Madeline ensembles by the handful, though Cleopatra, Xena and Jasmine costumes vied for first place as well, at least according to Jean, manager of Broadway Costumes. Phoebe Huth (age 5, daughter of John Huth, Professor of Physics) said she planned to dress up as the mermaid of Disney fame since, as she put it, "I like Awiel." Her getup: "It has spawkles all over it. It looks like it's silver in the middle and it's a dwess and it's gween on the bottom to look like a mewmaid. And I'm going to paint my hair wed to look like Awiel." [sic] And where did she find her costume? "I buyed it."

Although gaggles of girls go for heroine and princess gear, some youngsters, like Radhika Garland, tried to be creative. While browsing at Boston Costume, she decided to dress up as "an Amazon because it's something new. I'm always a witch." An amazon? The river, perhaps, or maybe the Imax movie. Alessandra Davin initially planned on being a hippie, and then the devil, but ultimately settled on "Dracula...because...um...I just thought of it." Clever! While all frightening characters were moderately popular, the Scream-murderer attire proved to be a particular favorite. Marta Bezoari said she wanted to go as Scream "because the older you get the scarier you wanna be."

Boys play the game too, with Spiderman, Darth Vader, Batman and Zorro emerging as the most common trick-or-treaters. At Boston Costume, Puritan Boy outfits and Greek tunics sat untouched while a bevy of boys with tired parents weighed the dilemma of Superman versus the bleeding monster. Closer to home, Michael Zanger-Tishler (age 3 3/4, son of Abby Zanger, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures) said he was dressing up as a fireman because "that's what I am!" The delightfully precocious boy was happy to eloquently detail his outfit.

"Well, I just have equipment and a belt," he proclaimed. "And a turnout coat and boots, a helmet and an ax and a walkie talkie and a flashlight."

James Huth (age 8, brother of Phoebe, son of Professor Huth) had more complicated plans: "I'm gonna be a Velociraptor with wings, from the ad on TV with the mutant dinosaurs. Me and my family made it--it's actually some green clothes with spray paint and cardboard."

Kids clearly rule when it comes to playing dress-up and Jean explains that "adults are more into period clothes, playboy bunnies, regular stuff, monkeys--y'know, with the organ grinder." Either costumes for adults are overly involved--incorporating rented masks, wigs and clothing--or terribly boring (e.g. "I'm going as myself."). Kid Supermen and Jasmines concur: "time to give it up, grownups!"