T.G.I.H.A.F.

Halloween Edition

By Henry Allen

Washington Post

April 3, 1983

Satan? You gotta be kidding. Didn't science fix that superstitious wagon for good? Didn't Valium and birth-control pills, those aspirins for the soul, chase him away like a mild headache?

Satan is that hooves-and-tail number that ended up on the cutting floor of the big movie we call the 20th century. Satan is the backwoods preaching bit they do right before they start handling the snakes. Satan is what used to explain crime and craziness before we learned it was a lack of job- training programs or sex education.

Check out the words of the 20th century's favorite prophet, Sigmund Freud. He said that Satan is a father substitute…