Everyone knows Halloween is the national gay holiday, so dust off those top hats and wig ’cause its time for the second annual Leather and Lace Ball, which will take place Saturday, Oct. 21, at Rich’s.

This party was mentioned in the last installment of “Pit,” but in case you missed it, this will be a decadent masquerade and all people are invited to attend. The organizers are hoping this party will bring out your “darker side,” so be ready to drop your inhibitions, let your hair down (or off) and let the good times cum!

The theme is “Forbidden Planets, Forbidden Lives,” and the evening will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a buffet-style dinner served in the front lounge. For us older, nostalgic folks, there will be projections of video clips and posters from the movies of the Lost in Space (Danger, Will Robinson! Dr. Smith wants to boink ya!) and the Forbidden Planet era. You even get a mask if you don’t have one, and some of us really should have one – to be in the spirit of Halloween.

The majority of the profits will benefit The Storefront emergency shelter, San Diego’s only emergency shelter program for homeless, runaway and “street” youth. The price will be somewhere around $20, but it shouldn’t matter since the money raised will benefit the less fortunate. Hear that! It’s a benefit, so stop whining about the price! If you can pay $100 to go to a circuit party that benefits no one except your dealer, then you can pay $20 to benefit street youth.

After the masquerade, you have admittance to the L.L. Bear dance, thanks to Rich’s. We love us some L.L. Bear, where the men are hairy, sweaty and horny. Again, Rich’s is participating in another community event, so remember to tip your bartender ’cause the tip ain’t part of the admission price.

A few weeks ago, men dressed like ants under a magnifying glass made the trek to Palm Springs for the 2006 West Coast Rubber Weekend. Ya gotta love rubber in Palm Springs, where men stuffed like sausages smell like old tires on hot asphalt.

The hugely successful weekend included a Full Gear Dinner, a Get Gummi Blackout Party, a Slime Pit and “high stakes” wrestling. Don’t ask what was in the slime pit. Just don’t go there!

Of course, there had to be a contest. What’s a fetish weekend without a contest – besides fun, relaxing, sexy, etc? Rubber people, like bear people and leather people, manage to get “their” words into everything. There was the Geared Up Rubber Image section, Geared Down Sexy Rubber competition, and the final Geared to Go Fantasy Rubber section. After all the squeezing into salami casings, Michael O’Connor was named the new Mr. West Coast Rubber 2006. Good luck, Michael, but you can’t eat until Labor Day 2007 ’cause rubber is unforgiving!

The San Diego Leatherboys are already doing their “boy” thing around town by assisting the Leather Foundation’s “Halfway Inn” beer bust and handling their beer bust ticket sales. In addition, they did an “opportunity drawing.” If you’re not sure what an opportunity drawing is, it’s a “boy” thing – I think! Michelle, one of the founding members, donated three baskets to the event, which raised $180, and donated 50 percent of the proceeds to the Leather Foundation. Like I always say, “boys do it best.”

It’s Tom of Finland time and we’ll be heading up to Los Angeles the weekend of Oct. 6-8 for the 12th annual Erotic Fair. Most of you know Tom of Finland artwork as jack-off material, but the foundation takes things further by promoting and protecting the work of erotic artists from all over the world. Therefore, you can thank them for the hours and hours of quality adult entertainment. Hopefully, it doesn’t take you hours and hours to be “entertained,” but it’s great to have the option. There is a reception on Friday from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the home where the Tom of Finland spent his last years. The Art Fair on Saturday from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. will feature more than 75 artists from around the world, life drawing and photography all afternoon, a symposium on erotic art and lots of hot men with little to nothing on posing for the “artists.” The Tom of Finland Foundation is a beneficiary of the Mr. San Diego Leather contest, and is always supportive of our Finest City endeavors.

I have to go rest after my two-day “tour” of Blow Buddies in San Francisco. If you must, you can write me at inthepitsd@aol.com. G’nite!