It would not let me get a closeup of its magnificent wattle.

I went back to the pumpkin patch that had turkeys. It was a wild scene today with hundreds of cars kicking up dust, families with costumed kids in tow, wheelbarrows full of pumpkins. Over to the side, there were these turkeys in a pen. This one came right up.

It usually means my connection is going to be iffy for awhile, which it certainly is this morning.

A strange crew on the ship tonight.

We left before this one was finished.

I still get nervous when my kids are around sharp tools despite the fact that they aren’t really little anymore.

Some insides were goopier than others.

The body was burned after being shot and stabbed. The clues were small and seemingly insignificant. But a tenacious detective, Bert Deane, pursued the case until he found the murderer.

It was called nuggets without chicken, found in the frozen foods section.

If your skies are clear in the mid-northern latitudes, you should be able to see a very bright Mars tonight.

Its grin almost goes from stem to stem.

The pumpkins were taller and slimmer here.

Pickings were slim at the video store, compounded by the fact that I didn’t want something that I couldn’t eat during. My expectations were very low for Hidalgo, all I knew was that it concerned a race in the desert, and featured Viggo Mortensen and Omar Sharif. I could probably sit and watch the two of them play checkers, and still have a great time. Yes, it did go on and on, but it wasn’t bad.

One Never Knows from their No Sun in Venice soundtrack.

A friend surprised me with these. I think they would have frightened my kids when they were younger.

I will have hairy, shiny, pelt-like, but very soft feet when I pad to the door Monday night.

In the desperation following the earthquake, impoverished families are selling their kidneys for cash. After a broker claims a share, the payout is about $3000.

A group of Afghans removed kidneys from the bodies of quake dead, thinking to profit handsomely. What they did not know was that kidneys removed from the dead are not usable. By the time police caught up with them, they had 15 kidneys in coolers.

Something a little different for those times when you want to stand out a bit, but not distastefully so.

Designed by Anzevino & Florence, it also comes in women’s sizes and other colors.

The fine can be six months in jail per bird plus a $300,000 fine.

However the judge in the case involving the Leduc Golf and Country Club and 80 Canada geese was lenient.

A club spokesman said the geese were being killed or maimed by golf balls, and moving them was for their own good. But it is a federal offense to move such birds without a permit.

They are both low pressure systems with potential for tremendous destruction in populous areas. In the northern hemisphere, they are called hurricanes, in the southern hemisphere, cyclones. In the latter, the system rotates clockwise, or in a cyclonic direction.

Winners from the City of Heroes contest.

Shadow and Lantern Marsh are pretty spooky sounding. There’s still time to make a second Halloween CD, if I can get my act together.

I’ve read enough about the barbecued turkey legs sold at county fairs. A critical step, apparently, is the brining, which I’ve never done before. But if my kid that is still in college is caramelizing onions in his spare time, maybe it’s time I learned to brine.

The real trick is finding a good movie to accompany such a meal.

At this site, there are many pumpkins with images based on patterns and photographs.

Rice planting involves long, long hours in a bent-over position, putting seedlings into muddy rice paddies. For centuries, planters have endured this laborious method.

Now there is a robot that can plant at a rate of 1,000 square meters in 20 minutes.

Here it is the 28th, and your kids still don’t have costumes? Or is it you that needs one?

Once again, no need to spend big bucks at a store. With a little time, some glue and things you have around the house, you can whip out a presentable look.

Tales from a museum herpetologist, who must deal regularly with airport security as he transports creatures from other countries. Because it is so difficult to translate his purposes and to explain the mysterious powders and fluids that are part of his occupation, he sometimes resorts to a kind of benign trickery to get through customs.

It is currently labeled a tropical storm, and threatens the Nicaraguan coast. Weather experts think it could reach hurricane strength later today.

Cannot be trademarked, even though a French company very much wants to. However, the trademark smell of freshly cut grass was granted to a Dutch company to use in its tennis balls.

It glows in the dark too.

Mars and Venus, they say. Locals who saw them say maybe not.

Some of us miss X-files (when it was good). And we want to believe.

Tenderly, from the Playing By Heart soundtrack.

The six children who will receive the transplants suffer from Batten disease, which causes blindness, loss of speech, and paralysis before death.

The stem cells are immature neural cells that doctors hope will turn into mature cells in the children’s brains.

It’s actually pink, and thanks to poaching, overfishing, polluted waters, and heavy boat traffic in its native habitats, it is endangered.

A friend took me to dinner tonight, and I spent a lot of time blinking and tearing out of one eye. A contact lens is not happy on an eye afflicted with a sty.

All the pictures I took were not very good due to the low lighting. Didn’t want to use flash. We went to Max’s, and I had the turkey dinner (no surprise). Dessert was one of the chocolate cake slices, not sure which because by then, I wasn’t able to focus so well. They serve half a portion, but I still couldn’t finish.

The bags seem smaller this year. I may not have enough. Some years I get just a few kids, others I get around 50. It might rain this year.

I will probably go get a few more bags tomorrow.

For those times when you want to be comfy, but aren’t sure just how casual the event will be. A t-shirt with pearls might do the trick.

Do we need more reminders that we’re hungry? If you don’t like sushi and dim sum, there’s always the plate of spaghetti cable that you plug your USB drive into.

The anatomically-realistic thumb drive is even more startling than the human hand replica I put on display every year about this time.

At Home Depot, there was a pallet of cone-shaped rosemary bushes and small spruce trees. I don’t think those were for Halloween.

It is almost November, right?

Sightings go back more than a century, and theories about their origins abound. This site has an in-depth look at the lights that could be swamp gas, glowing jackrabbits, aliens, headlights, or mirages.

Vibrating lights. That must have been an eerie experience. The FAA says Not us, and the air force bases say Not us either.

I should have been staring up at the sky instead of shopping at Home Depot.

Many who live in the shadow of the Alps dread the darkness of winter, but there is hope for some residents. In a project funded by the European Union, computer-controlled mirrors (heliostats) will reflect sunlight onto communities plunged into depressing shade from November to February.

Other villages have to depend on local support to install mirrors.

But will they count toward the 9-serving per day recommendation?

The company expects to roll out new, health-conscious products in 2006.

Over here, if you use a half-sock with your mules, no one wants to see them. In Japan, they are a fashion accessory in their own right.

In Bosnia, archaeologists say they have located two pyramids and labyrinths under two hills. The team, which included both American and Bosnian scientists, is assuming that the finds are indications of an ancient, highly intelligent civilization.

In the not-too-distant future, space travelers in need of surgery will have services provided by surgeons back on earth. Camera-carrying robots the size of a lipstick have been designed by researchers at the University of Nebraska. These can go into small incisions, and are controlled remotely.

Astronauts will receive training in the use of the robots this spring. The technology will enable battlefield surgery as well.

In the underwater area known as Popcorn Ridge, scientists have found rocks that explode when brought to the surface. They are lava rocks from the Krause volcano, which reveals itself as a mound at the base of the ridge.

In many American homes right now, there’s a big bowl of candy sitting by the front door waiting for next Monday night’s trick or treaters. It’s very hard to walk by without indulging in one or two.

Here are some tips about which ones to choose.

A giant that is said to reach over 650 lbs, it can take fisherman on a wild, high-speed run known as an ‘Amazon sleigh ride’.

In Washington state, the patient had just been sedated when she woke to find her face and neck afire. A hospital spokesman said a hair product was the culprit, and the accidental ignition of the alcohol-based substance caused a burn.