Because I’m all about that mace (or: My “Kevin Vickers, Sergeant-at-Arms” Halloween costume)

While a handful of my fellow Canadians decided that it might be funny to dress up for Halloween as disgraced former radio host and accused abuser Jian Ghomeshi, I chose to go with a suggestion I’d made earlier on this blog and dress up as Canadian hero and Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers.

For those of you who don’t know about his recent act of heroism, I’ll let Stephen Colbert tell the story:

And for those of you who want more details, here’s Evan Solomon from the CBC explaining how Vickers saved the day:

I assembled a quick Sergeant-at-Arms costume on Halloween afternoon, and here’s how it turned out:

Here are its constituent parts:

• Black suit and white dress shirt (already had them)
• “Historical hat” from the Goodwill Tampa Superstore and bent into the right shape ($5)
• Metal lawn torch from the Goodwill Tampa Superstore ($10)
• Metallic gold spray paint from Loews ($6)
• Pimp chain from the nearby Spirit Halloween pop-up store ($5)
• Finial ribbon from Walmart ($2)
• More-awesome-than-I-realized toy gun from Walmart ($8)

When I showed up at my friend’s Halloween party down here in the Accordion Bay area, I was both surprised and pleased to find out that people recognized the outfit, thanks to the tribute piece that Stephen Colbert had done the night before.

Mr. Vickers, I hope I did you proud.