Cartopumpkin

Halloween in England used to be a case of shut the doors, switch off all the lights and under no circumstance answer the door to a bunch of hoodie-clad yoofs wanting a 'treat' (ergo 'cash') for fear of getting your car keyed as a 'trick'.

In the US, however, things appear to be different. This isn't a blog entry about Halloween, or the thousands of dollars people seem to invest in turning their house into a Hammer House of Horrors set, but simply my small attempt to integrate and take part. So I got a pumpkin.

We hollowed out the pumpkin. Then the decision...what to carve out of our pumpkin. A quick search of the interweb revealed the astonishing lengths people go to when carving their pumpkin. Should I go for a Death Star, a KISS inspired Paul Stanley Starchild mask...possibly? Maybe traditional (contorted, toothless face) or a cat or something 'scary'? Or maybe I should do what I always do with globe type objects...make a map!!!

It seems obvious to me...it's a ball shape so it's a perfect canvas for a map. It actually surprised me how few map carved pumpkins I found online (actually, I didn't find any). So here we have it...my 2011 cartopumpkin which will be lit up in downtown Redlands this evening. It cost $2.99 and an hour of carving. That probably makes it the cheapest Halloween in Redlands this evening too. Only problem? As one of my colleagues pointed out...it struggles to accurately represent Antarctica. Agreed. Next year I'll create one in the Transverse aspect just to overcome this limitation.