October 18

Saints o' the day include, but are not limited to, Saint Gwen of Cornwall, Saint John of Bridlington, Saint Justus of Beauvais, and Saint Luke (patron saint of butchers, bookbinders, painters and artists in general--especially those who use color and brush, sculptors, glassworkers, lacemakers, and surgeons and other physicians). Saint Luke, interestingly, is represented in art as an ox.

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Many happy returns of the day to Chuck Berry (77), Peter Boyle (69), Pam Dawber (51), Martina Navratilova (47), Ntozake Shange (54), and Wendy Wasserstein (52).

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Circleville, Ohio's annual pumpkin show starts tomorrow, October 19th. (This year, 2005, the dates are October 19-22.) More than 100,000 pounds of pumpkins and 350,000 humans are expected to have attended. Circleville, normal population 11,666, appears to be about thirty miles south of Columbus. Highlights include the Little Miss Pumpkin Show contest, Miss Pumpkin Show contest (notice how bundled up the winners are--it's COLD in Ohio), a baby contest, hog calling contest, and, of course, biggest pumpkin. This celebration is touted as the "Greatest Free Show on Earth" once more proving the truth in the old adage, "you get what you pay for."

Now here is something kind of touching..."The World's Largest Pumpkin Pie." Lindsey's Bakery in Circleville apparently whipped out this 400 pound beauty. It is six feet in diameter. After all that trouble, you would have thought they could have put a little more effort into photographing their accomplishment. Maybe put in something for scale?

But while Circleville baked up one big pie, I think they were stretching it when they said it was a record-breaker. Vancouver Island, B.C., got the Guinness World's Record for pumpkin pie in 2002 and made an even larger one the next year. Of course, their pies weren't round. The pictures were a whole lot better, though.

Back to October 17
On to October 19
Back to the Farm

© Marilyn Jones 2000-2008