TODAY'S MISC. WORLD is dedicated to artist Paul Horiuchi, whose World's Fair mural still provides an elegant backdrop to every Pain in the Grass concert every summer.

AS PART OF A FREELANCE GIG I conducted with Everything Holidays, I've been looking in on what might be the top costumes this upcoming Halloween.

(I know, some of you around here in the PacNW don't want to hear about mid-Autumn during this Coldest Summer of Our Lifetimes. But some of the site's Eastern Seaboard readers might enjoy a beat-the-heat fantasy.)

Anyhoo, here's some of what I told that commercial Website might be in style this 10/31, plus some additional thoughts:

• The Phantom Menace. The movie was planned from the start as a vehicle for scads of merchandise, and officially-licensed character costumes will certainly be among them. The only question: Whether very many fans will go as Jar Jar Binks, the movie's controversial comic-relief character.

• Pokemon. The video game and TV cartoon with the dozens of different superpowered animal characters is a natural, for kids and adults alike. Partygoers could be any of the popular Pokemon critters: the cute Pikachu, the sad Psyduck, the sassy Squirtle, the bratty Meowth. If a group is dressing up together, some could be Pokemon creatures while others could portray the show's human heroes (Ash, Misty, and Brock) or villains (Jessie and James).

• Pro wrestling. Cable TV's year-round costume parties are a natural for Halloween. Adults without the requisite muscle mass could wear foam-rubber fake chests and arms to complete the look.

• South Park.The bratty-mouthed boys and their deranged fellow townspeople could be almost as popular this year as last.

• The Blair Witch Project. The year's biggest horror movie has no "costume" characters, but that won't stop partygoers from appearing as the doomed student filmmakers, carrying camcorders while running around acting terrified.

• The Y2K Bug. Any good insect costume will do, parcularly if the "bug" is accompanied by a bearded Nostradamus, a street-corner preacher predicting the end of the world, camoflage-clad survivalists, or a computer nerd with a giant flyswatter.

• The Iron Giant. More popular among young-adult sci-fi fans than among the Disney family audience, this movie's alien-robot title character will be a great homemade-costuming project.

• Powerpuff Girls.The Cartoon Network's trio of cute superheroines just might become this Halloween's answer to Xena.

• Teen pop singers. N'Sync and 98 Degrees don't have the trademark-costume sense of the Spice Girls, but matching black suits and some coordinated choreography could do the trick (or treat) for teams of boys.

• iMac and iBook. The first home computers in years to have "personalities," they could be impersonated via homemade papier-mache heads. Alternately, two people could go to a party as a Mac and a Windows computer engaged in a mock rivalry.

• Other possible hits this year: Minime and Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers sequel; Clinton with a cigar; George W. Bush with a bong; Jerry Springer and cat-fighting guests; the U.S. women's soccer team (particularly the sports-bra-baring member); the Dilbert gang; the ghetto family from The PJ's, rap music's Insane Clown Posse; disco-dancers; Drew Carey and his sitcom nemesis Mimi.

• In the sick-joke category: JFK Jr. (with aviator's goggles and a broken-off airplane steering wheel); trenchcoat teens.

• What You Won't See Much Of: There are few things sadder than a Halloween costume fad that never took off. In 1998, costume stores were dumping Power Ranger outfits at below cost. This year, expect Inspector Gadget outfits to meet a similar fate.

TOMORROW: We play with our food again.

ELSEWHERE: A healty antidote to the Nordstrom Way... Just when I was wondering when the feminization of the professional ranks would result in a further eroticization of men, here comes the latest look for dudes with "cool ankles"...

(For an explanation of the above, look here.)

Recent highlights:

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• Fun and inventive stuff in the fields of candy, gum, religious music, home design, and video.
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