We love pumpkins. We love carving them, making pies out of them, and sometimes shooting them out of cannons. If you haven’t tried the latter, you should. But have you ever wondered how the pumpkin has become the quintessential symbol for Halloween? And why do we proceed to take a sharp object and stab, rip and gut the poor thing within an inch of its life only to stick a lit candle inside to have it burn all through the night? Well, we wondered the exact same thing. And this is what we found out.

The history of the Jack O’ Lantern actually comes from Irish folklore centered around a certain trickster who went by the name of Stingy Jack...

We all have that special someone in our lives we call MOM. Today, mine turns 60. The picture on the left is Mom and Dad. I think this is in Buffalo, New York. The three hooligans on the right represent the three children who they brought up through the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s.

Mom is an amazingly talented concert pianist. She’s seriously good and I’m going to be encouraging her this year to get a good digital recorder to share the goodness that she still plays every day. We can’t hear her play as often as we would like because Mom and Dad live in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mom’s an amazing cook...