Smashing pumpkins ... delayed

For those wondering why I have not revealed the traumatic results of what happens when a giant 1,000 pound pumpkin drops from 10 stories high onto a Mazda Hatchback, I admit it: I was writing a serious editorial on the threat of nuclear war on American agriculture.

It seemed the appropriate thing to do for our newspaper issue that comes out … uhm … Friday the 13th.

This gives people an idea of the types of things we journalists deal with here, leading up to Halloween. One moment we may write humor about pumpkins, the next we take on serious topics like nuclear bombs.

Just call us jack-of-all-lanterns.

Okay, so sometimes it’s our humor that bombs.

It was difficult to make the transition back to pumpkins for another reason.
We are being weighed down by preparations for this week’s interviews that some of us are doing with candidates running for governor in Oregon.

Tomorrow we travel to Portland to interview Democrat Governor Ted Kulongoski and Republican candidate Ron Saxton. Our sister newspapers in the East Oregonian Publishing Company join us for the interviews.

Stay tuned to Capital Press to see our endorsements in the near future prior to the election.

Politics aside, I realize we are leaving our fans (?) hanging out there wondering about the pumpkin event at Fir Point Farms, and I promise we will have quite the package for you before the end of the week … and it includes a video of the giant falling pumpkin, shot by our ace photojournalist Mark Rozin.

We also have still photos of the event and other activities that day. Some are appearing in our newspaper the Capital Press this week, and others will appear on our website.

There will also be audio interviews for your listening pleasure, with the woman whose father owned the car, one of the owners of the farm, and one of the pumpkin growers to share how he grew such a large vegetable and why he enjoys the sport.

Yes, you read that right. Sports are more than just baseball, football, basketball and sumo wrestling in this world.

For those asking what serious news value does this smashed pumpkin have, we admit we are doing this for (giant) seedy sensationalism. We knew the tag line “smashing pumpkins” will reach a whole new generation of potential internet surfing music fans who excitedly think we have some news about their favorite rock band.

(We now deeply apologize, and yes, this was rather cheap of us. I blame Gary West for starting to insert names of music stars into a blog about agriculture.)

We now must return to preparing serious questions for political candidates.
Still wondering what happened with the giant dropped vegetable?

Need a hint? Hint: Giant pumpkin hit car and turned giant squash(ed).




Agriculture
Pumpkins