Mario Tama/Getty Images Everyone is larger than life at the Village Halloween Parade. Updated 6:35 a.m. | Jeanne Fleming is planning a very, very big party.
âWhen I get there, I know about 20,000 of the people,â she said. âBut then thereâs this other 40,000 that just show up. I never know what theyâre going to do till they get there.â
Itâs the Village Halloween Parade, returning after being wiped out by Hurricane Sandy.
The logistics of a celebration of mass chaos are daunting: the parade is put together on the spot.
Ms. Flemingâs field marshal surveys the crowd at the starting line.
âHe throws in a thousand people, then he throws in a float,â she said. âThen another 2,000 people, then a band.
âItâs about what needs to be there at each moment.â
This yearâs theme is revival â" of the city and of the parade, which needed a fund-raising campaign for the show to go on.
Giant puppets from the paradeâs 40-year history will be trotted out: The penguins. The eyeballs. The luna moth.
One float features superheroes in plain clothes: people who helped neighbors survive and rebuild after the storm.
The parade is Halloween night. We also have a guide to this weekendâs Halloween events below.
Hereâs what else you need to know for Thursday.
WEATHER
Sun with teeth: bright and cold, with a high of 55. Thatâs like mid-November. Low near 40 tonight.
COMMUTE
Subways: Delays on southbound 1 train. Click for latest status.
Rails: Outbound delays on Metro-Northâs Harlem and New Haven lines. Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.
Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.
Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.
COMING UP TODAY
- Joseph J. Lhota speaks on WFMU radio (91.1 FM) at 7:45 a.m., holds a news conference on policing on a corner in Bedford-Stuyvesant and attends the One Hundred Black Men mayoral forum in Harlem.
- Bill de Blasio is on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC at 11:20 a.m.
- Downtown business owners, children and pets march to a spot beneath the Brooklyn Bridge and pour buckets of water into the East River in memory of Hurricane Sandy. 10:30 a.m.
- Take part in an attempt to set a world record for âmost participants in an apple-crunching event.â Itâs as simple as biting into an apple at a city greenmarket. Noon.
- The city Sanitation Departmentâs anthropologist-in-residence, Robin Nagle, tells tales of the garbage men at the Mid-Manhattan Library. 6:30 p.m. [Free]
- The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival at the Broadway Comedy Club. 8 p.m. [$15]
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
HALLOWEEN HAPPENINGS
Today
- Watch creepy cartoons from the 1920s through the â40s in the cafe of the Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg. 7:30 p.m. [Free]
- Get your Grumpy Cat on at the HallowMeme costume party at the Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn. 8:30 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]
Friday
- Venture, if you dare, into the haunted house at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. [Free]
- A Procession of the Ghouls at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, followed by a showing of âThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.â 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. [$20]
- Check out the âEdgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soulâ show at the Morgan Library, which is free on Fridays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Sleep over at the American Museum of Natural History. [Expensive]
Saturday
- ⦠is dog day. Thereâs the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade at noon.
- And the Great PUPkin costume contest in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, also at noon.
- A pumpkin festival at the Central Park Bandshell. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Free]
- Wander through the haunted train tunnel on the High Line. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Free]
- Investigate the paranormal at Lawrence Cemetery in Bayside, Queens. 3 p.m. [$10, reservations required]
Sunday
- Halloween Kidz Karnival at Hudson River Park. noon to 6 p.m. [Free]
- A flotilla of jack-oâ-lanterns sets sail on Harlem Meer in Central Park at twilight, preceded by a parade. Starts at 4 p.m. [Free]
AND FINALLYâ¦
A menace has come to 36 of New Yorkâs 62 counties.
It destroys crops, eats bird eggs and kills fawns.
And its population can triple in a year.
We refer to Eurasian Boars (a k a ârazorbacks,â âRussian boars,â âwild boars,â âferal swineâ), which have escaped many upstate hunting preserves and are notoriously hard to control.
Now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a boar ban bill.
By the end of 2015, you will not be able to import, breed or hunt the beasts in New York.
Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.
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