He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.

-- Paul Keating

My little dog's going trick-or-treating tonight as a skeleton. It was the best costume I could get for him from the Doggie Department, and it features bones.

Little dogs like bones.

I considered a Royal Dog costume with a kingly crown and cape, but he reigns our household pretty well without it.

Another Halloween costume for pets featured a miniature leather jacket, a real tough-dog look, but I was afraid he'd just chew it up.

So skeleton it is.

The white "bones" on the black costume are glow-in-the-dark, too, and he looks weird running around the house when the lights are off.

I have to work tonight, so my teenager will be in charge of taking the dog around for treats.

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SPEAKING OF CHILDREN: One woman was bragging to her next-door neighbor about her son, a college student at Mercer University.

"Why, our son is so brilliant, every time we get a letter from him we have to go to the dictionary," she said.

"You're lucky," the neighbor said. "Every time we get a letter from our son in college, we have to go to the bank."

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TRAVEL NEWS: Corky and Debbie Holloway are "back again for our annual Cherokee, Gatlinburg, Smoky Mountains October fall vacation. The leaves are beautiful."

And Illinois Jones sends a postcard from Israel showing Indiana Jones in a fire scene. "Kind of hot here," he writes.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Scott Gay , of Waynesboro, Ga., points out, "A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

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POLITICAL DISCOURSE: Joe Harris agrees with my Sunday comments on campaign commercials and writes this: "The hyperbole, meanness, hatred and disrespect among colleagues in government have stoked the fires of animosity in the public to a point not equaled since Vietnam War days -- when there was at least mutual respect at some levels. The world doesn't need this kind of model from the most admired nation in the world."

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I SAY: You're right, Joe. The world also doesn't need those automatic phone calls that have awakened me twice this week from post-lunch naps.

Meanwhile, George de Baca writes about Tuesday's column on men's clothes.

"Now my wife realizes I'm not the only one and she is dealing with a 'male thing' -- much like when we deal with 'female' things.

"By the way, you forgot to mention the ragged bottom of the cuffs. In spite of me reminding her that no one looks at the cuffs of men's trousers, she thinks that is a panic excuse to buy a new pair immediately."

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TODAY'S JOKE: Here's one shared by Charlie Williams .

The pastor, an avid golfer, was taking part in a local tournament. As he was preparing to tee off, the organizer of the tournament approached him and pointed to the dark, threatening storm clouds that were gathering.

"Preacher," the organizer said, "I trust you'll see to it that the weather won't turn bad on us."

"Sorry," said the pastor, shaking his head. "I'm sales, not management!"