Pumpkin Spice Madness and Perplexing Pumpkins

Stop & Shop, Watchung

Autumn no sooner arrives than some people simply must have pumpkin spice everything to mark the season. My son happens to fall in this category. So far he is drinking pumpkin spice coffee and eating pumpkin spice Oreos, but it won't stop there. Click the link to see a complete compendium of Pumpkin Spice 2016 products, I only got halfway through the 58 slides before I quit, but I definitely will try the Kind Bar if I discover it at Stop & Shop.

The weather forecast for 80-degree temperatures may have you thinking Autumn was just making a cameo appearance last week, but it has been my experience that the third week of October tends to get very warm, as does the third week of April. If you have put all your summer clothes away already, you may have to unpack a T-shirt to get through the beginning of the week. Don't worry, it will cool down toward the weekend.

"Varietal Pumpkins"

Is there no end to our need for novelty? Picture some warty, dull white pumpkins on your doorstep. The beige, white and multi-color ones are intriguing, but the lumpy ones look like examples of unfortunate skin conditions. Turns out the warty ones come in various colors, are called knucklehead pumpkins and according to one source may need 10 years of crossbreeding to develop them. Other names are Warty Goblin and Superfreak, though be careful doing an online search for the latter, as something other than pumpkins might show up.

The Stop & Shop had an impressive display of pumpkin-carving tools, good for fun with the kiddies. 

So carve a jack-o'-lantern, sip a pumpkin spice latte, enjoy the weather and forget the goblins and superfreaks of politics for a little while! 

--Bernice