Happy Halloween!

October 31!  All-Hallows eve, when people dress up, kids have an excuse to get wired on candy, and disturbing theme dishes suddenly become ok.  


Oh, it's also the day that NaNoWriMos everywhere enjoy their last breaths before the insanity begins.


Yup, that's right.  I will be writing a novel this upcoming month.  It will be a minimum of 50,000 words, but I'm going for more.  Look for me at Panera, Mad City Coffee, Borders, Casey's Coffee, and similar places.  I'll be the brunette tweaked out on caffeine and adrenaline. 


What does that mean for SwimWriteRun?  Well, posts will be shorter, but I'll still hit the schedule at a minimum (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday).  My column will still appear in Columbia Patch - check out the next one on November 12!  You can also watch me zoom and/or struggle through my word count using the widget to the right of the screen.


But that's a whole some-number-of-hours away (12:01am on Nov 1! ...during which I'll be sleeping).  Until then, I plan to enjoy Halloween - and I hope you do to!  As you're trying not to eat the candy that's supposed to be for the kids, take a minute to read about the All Hallows Read program started by Neil Gaiman. This is a cool idea, one I might try next year! (when I have more time to scrape the egg off the front of our house)


Happy Halloween, be safe, and have fun!

Pumkin' Thunkin'

Hey there blogfans, time for some fun and festive facts about a fall favorite: pumpkins.

Pumpkin' Chunkin', that fun, family-friendly past-time that involves building huge siege weapons for the sole purpose of launching gourds at Many mph, is growing in popularity.  The first competition was in Delaware in 1986, and twenty-five years later, it's stronger than ever.  Check out Clark's Elioak Farm, which will be trying out its calabaza cannon on the weekend of Nov 6 and 7.

See some cool Chunkin' videos from the Science Channel here, here, and here.

If high-velocity isn't your cup of pumpkin, carving isn't just about Jack'o'lanterns anymore.  As you may have seen on the Food Network and other places, pumpkin sculpting is the new thing. 

The largest pumpkin pie in the world was made in New Brehman, OH, this year.  The pie was 20 feet (6.1m) in diameter, 3,699 pounds (1681.1 kg), and fed 5,000 people.  Pass a fork and the cool whip, please.

Pumpkins have been around for a long time.  The oldest seeds have been found in Mexico, and date from 7000 to 5500 BC.  Today, the US produces an estimated 1.5 billion pounds (680,000,000 kg) in states like Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California.  There are many varieties of pumpkins.

Check out the history of the pumpkin and the Jack'o'Lantern here.

Enjoying a fall romance?  Don't give him a pumpkin if you want things to work out.  Check out the Ukrainian custom of rejecting suitors with the orange vegetable. (Although, technically, it may be a fruit)

When you're carving a pumpkin this year, don't throw out the seeds: they're packed with nutrition.  And while any variety is edible, some species are better for eating than others.

Finally, this year the Guinness World Records awarded the heaviest pumpkin record to Chris Stevens in Stillwater, MN.  It will not, in fact, be made into a giant pie.  The 1,810.5 pound (821.23 kg) pumpkin will be carved on Oct 30, 2010, by Scott Cully in the New York Botanical Garden in NYC.

Hope you enjoyed these fun facts!  If you have any more tidbits of knowledge about pumpkins or Halloween, leave them in the comments!