Vampire State

As usual, should you require a colorful and comprehensive summary of the year's top news stories, then any local Hallowe'en party will undoubtedly supply your best source for such a retrospective, since every recent world cataclysm, international tyrant, celebrity death and social scandal is sure to be represented. It will be a sort of animated omnibus of global reportage from 2009. For instance, you might encounter a fellow reveler wearing deathly make-up and a droopy mustache beneath a glittering turban, consequently learning that the stage magician Ali Bongo is now the late stage magician Ali Bongo. Or perhaps you might witness someone else conceptually costumed as a devalued dollar, and immediately recall the economic downturn everyone just endured. And even those uncreative, old-fashioned party-poopers who turn-up dressed in Walmart Dracula capes and plastic fangs will either remind you that Christopher Lee became a knight of the realm in June, or that vampires are this year's media sensation. Nosferatu would be rolling in grave if he hadn't shipped the casket to Whitby.