DanMargarita.com

Recently, while looking up something in the Stoneham phone book, I saw a listing for "The Boogie Man"(right below "Boodakian, Koko & Sons"). Of course as in any phone book, a business that begins with the word "The" is always listed by the second word first, so it's actually listed as "Boogie Man The." This bureaucratic style listing tends to take the fear out of the name. For example, it's a lot less frightening to think of that Victorian era mass murderer as "Ripper Jack The."

Since it is Halloween week I thought "I've got to call this phone number."

I felt a little silly dialing a number and asking for The Boogie Man, but I didn't have worry because after letting the phone ring a few times, a voice answered "Hello, this is The Boogie Man."

After determining that that I'd dialed the correct number, I confirmed my suspicion that the voice on the other end of the phone was in fact, a disc jockey.

Bob Shaheen is his name and he's lived in Stoneham for fourteen years. He works weddings, birthday parties, corporate functions and other occasions, playing a variety of music from swing to rock and dance music.

Though figuring he was a DJ I thought I'd better prepare some questions if he was in fact the universal symbol of evil. I tried to imagine how Mike Wallace or Morely Safer would've approached it. Here's how it went:

Q. Have you ever intentionally frightened a small child?
A. No.
Q. Have you ever lived in the closet or under the bed of a child?
A. No.

Shaheen went on to explain that part of the reason for the moniker besides the music double entendre, was that as a youngster, like all children he was frightened of the unknown, so he wanted to be able to lessen the fear of children.

"I tell them 'I'm the Boogie Man and there's no need to be afraid of me.'"

Occasionally Shaheen gets some prank phone calls, particularly from teenagers "because they think it's funny to call The Boogie Man."

Naturally, this set my mind to thinking of some other Halloween oriented names that people could use for a business.

The Grime Reaper Cleaners
Satan's Placement Service
The Devil's Advocate (A law firm)
Lucifer Lipstick Inc.
The Witch Way Map Co. (serving Salem, Ma.)
The Wear Wolf Clothing Store
Drac Cola
Frank and Stein's (you pick the business)

The Boogie Man is not to be confused with The Boogey Man. The former is the DJ and the latter represents fear and evil. I have no desire to meet The Boogey Man, but The Boogie Man seems like a pretty nice guy. If you run into him don't be afraid, just dance. Happy Halloween.

Oh yeah, boo.