The Pineappolantern

Hey, I figured out how to put pictures on Blogger (like it was hard).  This post is mostly about showing off this thing I have pictures of.

Halloween is a holiday I enjoy somewhat.  I haven't enjoyed dressing up in many years, but I still approve of candy in small pieces (the real fun of "fun size" being the ability to eat a Snickers bar, a Reese's cup, a 3 Musketeers, and a bar of dark chocolate in one sitting without endangering one's digestive stability).  I'm ambivalent about jack-o'-lanterns.  Drawing has always been an amateur-level forte of mine, and it's not every day of the year you get carte blanche to draw on things with knives.  Fire, also, is a medium I am seldom invited to work in.  But at least since I've been in the Hedgehog House, there's been an expectation that I would handle the design and execution of the jacks.  I think it started when I did this:

The problem is that I don't generally like pumpkins.  I can enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie in a Thanksgiving setting, but I certainly could never approach the enthusiasm that some of my housemates evinced at the prospect of fresh squash innards.  When I could, I got someone else to handle the scooping.  I think whether or not you find something appetizing can have a lot to do with how you feel about plunging your hands into it.

This year I didn't feel inspired with any clever pumpkin designs, and as usual I wasn't really feeling the pumpkin thing.  The people who would most expect me to perform have moved out now, so I could probably have punted.

But at the supermarket a week or so ago, I saw something that I hadn't thought was in season, and I got an idea.

An awful idea.

A wonderful, awful idea.

...

This probably isn't as big a reveal as it could have been, since it's right there in the post title, but check that out!  I'm pretty pleased with it.

Abby was doing some work at the dining room table and I didn't actually explain what I was doing--I just sat down with a knife and a tropical fruit and went to work.  She approved of the idea, and took the pictures when it was finished.

In the dark:

 That looks a lot better than I expected.  I'm just sayin'.  And you get this translucent effect all around the shell:

Here it is in its proper place, on the front stoop:

 

 

With a long exposure, the thing looks pretty demonic:

This is almost certainly my last Seattle jack-o'-lantern, and I think I went out on a good note.  I just hope it holds together until Halloween proper.