TRICK OR TREAT! Fred copes with the Great Northeast Pumpkin Shortage...

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE HURRICANE GETS TO THE PUMPKINS FIRST!

YOU HAVE TO MAKE VEG-O-LANTERNS 

AND FRUIT-O-LANTERNS

HEIRLOOM TOMATO - O - LANTERNS AND GRAPE - O -LANTERNS 

 GRANNY SMITH-O-LANTERN  AND SQUASH-O-LANTERNS

 OF COURSE THERE IS AN ADVANTAGE: NO PUMPKIN SEEDS TO DEAL WITH!

UNLESS YOU LOVE THEM, OF COURSE, 

IN WHICH CASE IT'S A DISADVANTAGE.

and, because one cannot live on fruit and veg alone, here are some SCARY GHOST COOKIES.
I was going to include the recipe, because these things are really cute
but every single ingredient was a prepared food,
many of which contained other prepared foods
and unpronounceable chemical compounds.
Now that's scary.

Scheduled to post while we're in France

Catalog shoot outtakes? or rites of Spring (with a nod to M. Stravinsky)

We were discussing yesterday (the Whining Diner and I) how divesting ourselves of winter wrappings inspires us to spend money on spring-like trimmings, when all of a sudden cold wet semi-frozen stuff fell out of the sky and right down onto us. Obviously there is some minor deity one of our number has failed to propitiate. But be of good cheer, because right after the heavenly ice drips, we were able to view a shoot of what can only be a Certain Beloved Catalog's issue for a Summer Month. I feel privileged to share this with you. Click to watch the video, and be inspired. Stills with close-ups follow.

http://historically-inaccurate.blogspot.com/2010/05/frite-of-spring.html

Don't know about you all, but I'm certainly ready for Spring clothes, and Spring travel. And enough of this silly moderation in eating, I'll believe it serves a rational purpose when I can send the stems of my broccoli to the starving children in the flood plain of East Wherever (some country that had a broccoli shortage, no doubt).

National Grammar Day

Today is National Grammar Day! I couldn't commemorate it better than by posting a quote from the Commander in Chief who was in office when this, um, feast day was established:

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

You bet.

For more on National Grammar Day and its meaning to this great country and its many states, see nationalgrammarday.org.