You might be inclined to think that we are clowning around by writing this, but we are not. A wave of spooky clown sightings has touched off what some police are describing as mass hysteria, paranoia and dozens of copycat incidents from pranksters hellbent on trying to get a rise from freaked out children and their parents.

It started in Greenville, S.C., then worked its way to some Middle Atlantic States, including Pennsylvania. One of the first incidents occurred in Huntingdon County, about 120 miles east of Pittsburgh, but now reports have come from our area, too, most notably Pottsville and Nesquehoning.In Pottsville, Chief Richard Wojciechowsky said two men who frightened children in that Schuylkill County city fled in a gray or silver pickup truck. "If the intent was to scare children it was a callous and cowardly act," Wojciechowsky told area news media. "If it was more of a juvenile prank, it was a very bad decision."In Nesquehoning, there have been at least two sightings - one in the New Columbus park and the other at the footbridge. State and local police have received scores of report of these clown sightings, across the state and fear that the number will intensify as we get closer to Halloween.We are sure police have better things to do with their time than to check out people in clown outfits, but police departments in Carbon and nearby counties have warned residents to be vigilant and to report any suspicious activity.Obviously, these reports need to be taken seriously, because there is no way of telling whether someone is merely trying to prank "victims" or whether the person poses a threat to the welfare of the community.This is the kind of world we live in. What would have been brushed off in the past as some "kook" trying for a cheap laugh, today, we take the incident very seriously.That is one of the problems with this type of phenomenon. Some of these clown sightings are hoaxes, perpetrated by copycats. We assure you, however, that police and other first responders are not laughing. In one North Carolina community, police charged two pranksters with making false reports.The concept of the clown as the personification of dread is not new. Going back to the famous 1892 Italian opera I Pagliacci (Italian for "clowns"), Canio, the principal character who plays a clown in a traveling comedic troupe, kills both his paramour and her lover in a fit of rage.In more recent times, clowns took on a different persona, especially when they were popular circus attractions. Those who grew up in the '50s also had a great affection for Clarabell, the mischievous clown on the Howdy Doody television show. There was also Bozo the Clown, who was enormously popular from the 1940s until the early '70s. At one point, Bozo was played by lovable NBC-TV weatherman Willard Scott.But the perception of clowns changed in a much more sinister way with the airing of Stephen King's TV miniseries "It," featuring Pennywise the Clown. The real metamorphosis, which changed smiles to screams, occurred when serial killer John Wayne Gacy dressed up as Pogo the Clown. Gacy, who was said to have raped and killed at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s, was known as the original "Killer Clown." The 1988 film "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" did nothing to enhance the image of clowns either.King said that kids love clowns but also fear them. "Clowns with their white faces and red lips are so different and grotesque," he said. A 2008 survey of 250 children between the ages of four and 16 found that most of the children disliked, even feared, images of clowns.Actually, there is a word for the excessive fear of clowns - coulrophobia. According to the Smithsonian, few actually suffer from a pathological phobia of clowns, but "a lot more people just don't like them."In 2006, in Sarasota, Florida, someone's intense hatred of clowns resulted in dozens of fiberglass clown statues at a community art exhibition being vandalized.It is sure to be a rough patch for real clowns. Some have taken the extraordinary step to notify police to tell them where and when they will be performing so as not to cause panic among motorists or passers-by.Yes, it has come to this. Our advice: Be vigilant, but use common sense, too. Let's not turn this into a circus that hampers police from doing what we want them to do - protect us from the real predators.By Bruce Frassinelli |

tneditor@tnonline.com