I was out two days last week and had 186 e-mails when I got back. It's my own fault, though. Nobody told me to sign up for Horoscopes.com and Dogscopes.com. Now I'm bombarded with e-mails I don't have time to read. I tried to cancel, but they still keep coming. And then one day I clicked on this flashing ad that promised to help me get in shape fast, only to find out I'd signed up to receive e-mails from MensHealth.com, so every day I receive e-mails about how to get six-pack abs or tips on how you can tell whether she's cheating.

Anyway, I'm back now, and it's Halloween night. What amazes me is what a big deal Halloween has become with everybody buying costumes and having parties. Randy Barfield and Nick Savi had their annual blowout a week ago at Julian Smith Casino. I know it was just fabulous, as usual. We couldn't go this year. Last year, I was a judge for the costume contest. Ernie and I went as pumpkins. As we were riding up Washington Road on the way to the party, people in the other cars were staring at us, and Ernie yelled, "What's the matter? Never see a pumpkin drive a car before?"

It might seem inconceivable in this day and age, when people even dress their dogs up in Halloween costumes and parade them around trick-or-treating, but I had never heard of trick-or-treat until I was in the sixth grade. One of my girlfriends in town said we should go trick-or-treating on Halloween, and I asked, "What's that?" She told me, and it sounded like fun, so I went home and told Daddy I was going to put a sheet over my head and walk up to the houses by the railroad tracks and play trick-or-treat. Daddy said if I did, I'd get shot dead. And that was the end of that.

HE'S GOT A TICKET TO HIDE: Pre-election events and rhetoric have reached fever pitch. Sign-stealing reports are up, and you just can't get away from campaign ads. District 5 Richmond County school board member Joe Scott came up with his own Democratic ticket, which he was passing around, and, of course, his name was on it although his race is nonpartisan.

I called Richmond County Democratic Party Chairman Lowell Greenbaum , and he confirmed it was true and said he sent word to Mr. Scott to "stop it." Dr. Greenbaum said the local party does have a ticket, but it doesn't include candidates in nonpartisan races.

"I wasn't happy," he said.

I called Mr. Scott about this, and he said he was in a noisy place and couldn't hear me and asked that I call him back later. I told him I'd already fallen for that trick a dozen times with people who wanted to avoid questions, and that I knew he wouldn't answer when I called back.

And guess what? He didn't.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Does anybody else think 10th Congressional District Republican challenger Bobby Saxon sounds just like Gomer Pyle in his radio ad?

NOTHING RECEDES LIKE SUCCESS: Twelfth District Republican challenger John Stone said he was three points up in his overnight polls over incumbent Democrat John Barrow after trouncing him in three debates.

"And now, we're paying dearly for our success," Mr. Stone wrote in an update to supporters. "After our debate in Milledgeville on Monday, Barrow had his staff in Washington down to help with damage control on his end. Barrow's camp is in full crisis mode and has resorted to vandalizing our signs, threatening our staff and slashing the tires on our staff vehicle."

In his e-mail calling on supporters to dig a little deeper, Mr. Stone said his success scared the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee into giving Mr. Barrow a $150,000 cash infusion to buy out the media. He said his ads were being bumped by Mr. Barrow's higher bids.

CHANGE WE DON'T NEED: Law enforcement agencies across the country are gearing up for possible rioting and arson after election returns come in Tuesday.

IT DOESN'T PASS THE SMELL TEST: Last week's unanimous decision by the Coliseum Authority to negotiate with Atlanta promoter Jerry Dickerson to plan for a new multimillion-dollar sports and entertainment facility smacks of so much behind-the-scenes political plotting as to make you wonder who, besides Mr. Dickerson, would benefit.

One member said five people, including a state legislator, lobbied him before the meeting to vote to negotiate with Mr. Dickerson. Some members who voted to negotiate are now trying to say that wasn't what they really did, but that is exactly what they did.

Before the vote, member Johnny Hensley gave a little speech about how they should fill up the existing arena before expanding to another one. Then inexplicably, before the vote, he praised Mr. Dickerson and his concept and voted for it.

The inside skinny is that some city commissioners and legislators are pushing for a new arena because they want to keep a grip on the entertainment business in Augusta. While you might have been thinking the legislators might do away with or at least reform the Coliseum Authority, they obviously had other ideas.

It should be noted that Booker T. Roberson's motion "to do business with Mr. Dickerson" and "work out details" was added to by member Jack Usry , who said they want Mr. Dickerson to "look not just at this facility, but the authority wants to be involved with entertainment in the community overall."

Tuesday's meeting lasted an unbelievable five hours and included a 30-minute grilling of CPA J.T. Cosnahan over his bills for straightening out the financial mess caused by the authority's refusal to acknowledge it for more than a year. He had to reconstruct a year's worth of financial records and create W-2 forms the previous financial officers didn't bother to do.

Then, so I hear, they raked their attorney, Ed Enoch , over the coals in a legal meeting to the point that someone asked whether they were going to make a motion to fire him.

Well, I guess they've got to do something to appear useful since Global Spectrum is now running the show.

GOODBYE, PARTY GIRL: We are saddened by the death last week of one of Augusta's most accomplished hostesses emeritus, Martha Boardman Fleming , a classically trained cook and author of The Grits Tree and Mycelium Madness! Fun With Portabella Mushrooms .

I interviewed Mrs. Fleming about her cookbooks and the fabulous Masters Tournament parties she used to hold. In a City Ink column about cookbooks last year, I wrote that in The Grits Tree , she tells how to plant a grits tree and harvest them by placing sheets on the ground around it. Usually in late July, when the full moon is high in a clear midnight sky and shining on the grits, the harvest begins.

"This sight makes a Southerner's heart palpitate so fast that a libation is in order," she wrote. "The finest aged bourbon -- for medicinal purposes only -- is brought to the harvest site in the oak barrels in which it was aged. Tin cups dip into the nectar."

When the barrels are empty, two or three volunteers grab the trunk and shake the tree, and the "grits come down like falling snow on the waiting white cotton sheets below." Then the grits are put in the empty bourbon barrels "to await their blessed destiny."

She said one tree grows enough grits to feed a family of 13 for a year.

"THAT OLD STUFF IS CRAP": I interviewed Mrs. Fleming in 1999 during a controversy about building and renovation restrictions in the Summerville Historic District.

She lived in Forrest Hills but owned property in Summerville, which she said she renovated without anyone's permission. She said she didn't know what all the carrying on was all about.

"There are some elegant, handsome, handsome houses, but a lot of that old stuff is crap,'' she said. "You can walk around and see some of the ugliest architecture that could use anybody's face-lift. Some of them you can't do anything with. Bulldozing might be the best thing. And then they make this big deal because they're in Summerville. I just say it's ridiculous.''