Letter from the Editor

When I was little, I desperately wanted to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. (I know she’s in a coma or something, but my rationale was that she gets to skip around in a magical land with her cool new friends and wear those pretty shoes. I was 4.)

So my mom made that dream come true: She sewed me a Dorothy costume for Halloween. Since then, I’ve been a big fan of Halloween.

It’s the one night of the year when you can just be someone else. Day-to-day life often requires a certain degree of posturing — you have to act this way in one situation, that way in another — but Halloween is the one day that takes that concept and runs with it. It celebrates you pretending.

Hallowbaloo Music and Arts Festival director Mark Tarone says that there is nothing quite like Halloween in Hawaii. For the past several years, his event has been a huge contributor to that. Get the full story on this year’s Hallowbaloo and other Halloween events on Page 12.

But if you do have to be yourself every other day of the year, we covered some ways to be your best self in this issue: On Page 9, columnist Christa Wittmier shares her journey of how she has made some big leaps lately — and how a sweet iPhone app helped. And in a Q&A with chef Andrea Devon Bertoli, she discusses ways that we can live healthier on Page 10.

And speaking of posturing and being different versions of yourself, here’s an exciting social media thing: Metro currently has the Metro Launch Hashtag promo going on right now. From now through the end of the month, tag any of your posts from Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #MetroHNL and you could win a $500 Visa gift card.

We’ll choose the best post, so make it good!