It was a Halloween costume contest at the Tribune

By Tim Engstrom

Published Monday, November 2, 2009

The Albert Lea Tribune on Friday, Oct. 30, let loose with a day of Halloween fun. There was a potluck with great food, but most notably there was the annual costume contest. Workers voted for their favorite outfit, with Melissa Goodwin and Sarah Stultz running the contest. Geri Murtaugh (byline: Geri McShane) gets credit for organizing the overall Halloween festivities.

Let's see how the costumes shaped up:

Sales representative Angie Hoffman dressed as a cowgirl.

Photographer Brie Cohen was Poison Ivy, a supervillainess enemy of Batman and Robin.

Jack of many trades Danielle Boss came as an FBI agent.

Direct marketing consultant Desiree Garza dressed as a jellyfish. Watch out for jellyfish collectors SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick the Starfish.

If there was an award for best inside joke, reporter Ed Shannon's costume would win it. He came as a member of the Tribune Swat Team. He has swatters at his desk in which he marks notches for each fly killed. He has 37 notches on the swatter in present use.

Can you guess? Assistant Editor Geri Murtaugh is a sick pig with wings. Get it? The swine flu.

Graphic designer Kathy Johnson dressed as a gangster, complete with a car from which to commit drive-by shootings. Her husband is a sheriff's deputy, so it was fitting for her to be an outlaw.

Sales representative Laura Lunde was a roller-derby warrior, skating around the office ready to slam anyone who got in her way.

Sports Editor Nick Gerhardt came as the host of an infomercial. Complete with headset and apron, he sold — or tried to sell — the Slap Chop.

Gerhardt gave his co-workers an example of his sales routine.

Sales representative Renee Citsay donned a spider witch costume.

Creative Director Stacey Bahr was the character Abby Sciutto from the TV series "NCIS." She loves spatter.

I wore a battle-dress uniform from my days as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. They like to do push-ups in the gung-ho 82nd Airborne Division. That's real Army face paint.

Before casting ballots, everyone paraded around the newsroom so voters could get a good look at the costumes.

Third place went to the swine flu.

Second place went to the gangster.

And the winner of the Tribune's annual Halloween costume contest was the roller-derby warrior.

Happy Halloween from your friends at the Albert Lea Tribune!