Skeletons are popping up all around my town, swinging from porch ceilings, leering out windows, dancing in miniature amongst tree branches. As a kid, Halloween was my favorite holiday, and skeletons my favorite part. Who can resist those perpetual toothy grins?  I had a full-size cardboard skeleton I treasured for years. Even better was when skeletons cropped up in unexpected venues. Like the animated film we saw in elementary school music class, white skeletons against midnight black cavorting to Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens. Marvelous. I'm sure I remember it because a large number of us asked the teacher repeatedly to show the film again. Or discovering Dia De Los Muertos, first in Spanish class and then in Mexico. I stared endlessly, enraptured by the skull folk art and the small dioramas showcasing skeletons in all kinds of guises and activities. If skull and skeleton apparel is any indication, I'm far from alone in my attraction to bones. No longer just for rockers, bikers or punkers, skull-decorated items like Vans sneakers and Ed Hardy shirts, bags and hats are mainstream fashion.

Why the fascination? I'm captured by the physical freedom these bony creatures enjoy. Their knees and elbows bend all ways. Their heads can drop completely back to lie against their shoulder blades, then spring instantaneously back up to float on their spines. Their jaws, fingers and pelvis are loose and unencumbered.  And can they dance.

To move like that?  Only in my dreams...