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Postlude

A Tri-Cornered Hat Fit for a Peep


This creation by Claudine Hoover, BA '06, and Elliot Seibert, BS '07, was selected for The Washington Post's Peeps Show, an annual contest of hand-made Peep dioramas.

Courtesy Claudine Hoover and Elliot Seibert

George Washington, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Francis Scott Key are just a few of the prominent "peeple" featured in an alumni-constructed diorama chosen for the Washington Post's sixth annual Peeps Show.

This year more than 700 entries were submitted to the contest, which invites readers to make dioramas using the animal-shaped marshmallows each spring. "Trick or Peep in Georgetown," created by friends Claudine Hoover, BA '06, and Elliot Seibert, BS '07, won a spot in the newspaper's online gallery of 40 semifinalists.

"We thought about Washington experiences like cherry blossoms and last year's earthquake, but we decided a lot of them were too obvious or we would have too much competition," Mr. Seibert says.

They have known about the novelty of Halloween in Georgetown since their days at GW, where it is popular for students to take the short walk from Foggy Bottom to join the costumed revelers on M Street.

The diorama's Halloween scene, with the ghosts of George, Jackie, and Francis Scott "Peep" floating above, includes Peeps in costumes such as the Flintstones, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Batman (atop "Peep-NC Bank"), and Borat, the film character known for his skimpy swim attire. The duo also included one of the city's most famous spooky sites—the Georgetown steps where The Exorcist was filmed—complete with a priest falling down them as he does in the horror movie.

The alumni were also finalists in last year's contest with a diorama they made depicting the GWU-Foggy Bottom Metro station.

"Every year we learn a little more about construction," says Ms. Hoover, who noted that the Borat character presented one of the biggest challenges this year.

"It's really hard to paint chest hair on a Peep."

—Caitlin Carroll