Pumpkin Nice Times!
As we near Halloween one thing that always shows its face is a Jack-O-Lantern. A man in Overland Park, Kansas, has taken it to another level, cutting into over 370 pumpkins to create an entire world of gourds around his home. He collects donations from visitors which he gives to a local food charity.
The Guinness World Record for the heaviest pumpkin was broken twice in October. The first was on October 3 in England, when Ian Paton broke the record with a prodigious pumpkin weighing 1,295.8 kg or 2,856 lb., 12.8 oz. in American. But it was a short lived victory as on October 10 Ron Wallace smashed that record with a gargantuan gourd topping the scales at 1,431.5 kg/3,156 lb. The pumpkins will eventually be used to feed livestock.
Teenagers + pumpkins + big hill = Crazy fun. It all began in 1967 with a high school prank and the tradition continues.
Combine those two stories and you get this, both videos are of the same pumpkin, but in two parts.
Found Flute Nice Times!
When Jun Takahashi saw a picture of his stuff that he had lost five years earlier, it seemed rather unbelievable. The items were in a blue waterproof barrel he had been using on a canoe trip with a friend on the Kathleen River in the Yukon. Their boat overturned and not drowning was more important than their stuff.
The blue barrel was spotted five years later by a man following a moose (it is the Yukon). He shared the picture of the container’s contents in a paddling group (paddling on the water to propel a boat, you pervs!) Jun was thrilled to see the most important thing in the pile; it was his flute, and it was in fine condition as the waterproofing had worked.
Another story of a lucky find in a blue container on the water:
Ducky Nice Times!
These Nice Times start with something sad, as people abandon domesticated ducks thinking the ducks will be fine if left by water. (They are very wrong.) Earlier in the year over 24 needed to be rescued after they were dumped in different parks in northwest Ohio. That’s when a group of volunteers called the Quack Pack stepped in to save these former pets and give them forever homes.
I have encountered many abandoned domesticated ducks at the fishing pond in Forest Hill Park in East Cleveland, Ohio. But one duck stood out — it was injured, with fishing line wrapped around its leg. With help I was able to remove the fishing line; although the duck still limps, it seems like it will heal. This duck is unique, its partner is healthy and it walks like a penguin, they are adorable. They are Fawn and White Indian Runner ducks, and they are small and flightless. Realizing these two small ducks could not survive winter I reached out to Nature’s Nursery (mentioned in the video) and they have relayed my info to a volunteer with the Quack Pack. There is hope for these domesticated ducks with help from caring people.
Funny Commercial Nice Times!
Everyone knows this as a great meme but it started as a commercial for Esurance car insurance.
Wonker Nice Times!
From Calliecallie: “On October 10, our beautiful boy married his beautiful bride in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The ceremony, officiated by one of his friends, was extremely moving, and the weather could not have been better, despite our fears about the tropical storm earlier in the week. Mr. cc and I pulled off our various little speaking parts without incident. I got to spend some great time with friends and family, including my brother’s boys and my sister-in-law, whom I haven’t seen in four years. It was wonderful that people were willing to travel so far for the event. As I’m sure you are all already aware, New Orleans really knows how to have a party! A nephew’s daughter on mr. cc’s side, just a teenager, was delighted by being at her very first wedding. Her mom suggested that perhaps the bar has now been set a bit high. It was a great time all around, and I couldn’t be happier for our son and his new bride.”
Random Recommends!
John Carpenter’s 1994 movie In the Mouth of Madness, one of his more underrated and reevaluated works. An insurance investigator is hired to find a famous horror author who’s mysteriously vanished as the lines between reality and fiction blur and distort and the world becomes unglued. A feature length tribute to H.P. Lovecraft anchored by a fine cast led by the late great Sam Neill. Available for free with ads on Tubi and Roku; available to rent for $3.99 in the other places.
The song referenced in today’s title is Time Of The Season by The Zombies. Apparently it is Cuffing Season.
We end with two versions of Don’t Give Up, the first version sung by Willie Nelson and Sinéad O’Connor. The second is the original. It is a song full of hope, originally written by Peter Gabriel and performed as a duet with Kate Bush. Gabriel wrote the song with inspiration from the photography of Dorothea Lange and her images of the people living through the Depression and the Dust Bowl.
Don’t give up
You still have us
Don’t give up
We don’t need much of anything
Don’t give up
‘Cause somewhere there’s a place
Where we belong
Please send Nice Times suggestions, personal nice times, and original art to ziggywiggynicetimes@gmail.com. It can be all levels of Nice Times! As you can see Nice Times is a community project, keep sending your suggestions, also be sure to include your screen name so I can give you credit! Thank you.
The button below will take any amount of your choosing at PayPal or we have a Patreon too.
I hope Ziggy won't mind me briefly hijacking the comments, but I wanted to remind you filthy fuckaducks that Wonkette Book Club is back, baby!
We’ll read Bill McKibben’s "Here Comes the Sun," on how solar energy (and wind ‘n’ storage) can stop climate change & remake the world’s economies with justice for all ... IF we do it right.
More here!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/sun-sun-sun-here-it-comes-some-solar
Duck rescue attempt update from yesterday.
The duck rescue was a bust. The Quack Pack showed up and we were trying to rescue the two Indian Runner ducks, the one with an injured leg and its mate. But a family had been feeding them lettuce and the ducks weren’t hungry. We couldn’t coax them close enough to be netted.
I was out there for two hours trying to make this happen. But it frustratingly couldn't be done, and the Quack Pack is a 2 hour drive away, a second rescue attempt will only happen if the injured duck doesn't improve.
The woman from the Quack Pack said she believes that since I had removed the fishing line that the duck would heal.
After speaking with the president of the park association I was informed they had recently installed aerators in the pond that will keep the pond from freezing.
The ducks would be in danger if the pond was allowed to freeze over, since that should not happen the domesticated ducks should survive through the winter.