Can Sarah Palin See This From Her Window?

At long last we can reveal the reasons behind Putin's increasing aggression of late:

It's all a plot to return the Tsars to the throne of Imperial Russia. All hail Tsar SpaceSquid!

Which reminds me, time I sorted out a costume for next week's Halloween Seminar. You can't write a talk entitled "The Imprecise Haunting of Markov Mansion" (in which penguins and pies have been replaced by spirits and salt-loaded shotguns) and not look the part.

Any suggestions for cheap and easily-assembled costumes? I've been leery of such things ever since I made that Edward Scissorhands costume for Halloween 2001, which took forever to put together and rendered me totally unable to grasp my pint.

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h/t to Big G for the rather disturbing photo-work.