Enormous Pumpkin Demands Motor

The Cumberland County Fair celebrates it's 136 year beginning this weekend. Along with the midway, food, animals, 4H, and rodeo, the competitions attract many a fair-goer.

Each year my interest is piqued by the battle for the largest pumpkin. The orange gourds are so enormous, they could swallow a child whole - if they were so inclined and carniverous.

But what to do with a gigantic pumpkin after the Fair, you ask? I'm not sure, but a few years ago some people in the Maine Pumpkin Growers Organization came up with an ingenius idea for one such massive pumpkin. Use it as a motor boat.

Never thought I'd see a pumpkin zooming by on the river, but now I guess anything is possible.


If you want to see more photos of this unbelievable boat, head over to the
Pumpkin Boat Sea Trials page at the MePGO web site. And go see the Jabba the Hutt sized pumpkins at the Cumberland County Fair. Hurrah!

Amuck with March Mouse Madness!

We'd like to reassure the blog Mainiac Musings that certainly no offense is taken to the titling of the story about a Maine rodent-gone-wild with our name. If you haven't heard the story yet, here it is. This is great stuff!!!

Mouse Absconds With Maine Man's Dentures

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) -- Never underestimate a mouse's determination. There's a mouse in Bill Exner's house that he says he has captured three times. Each time, the mouse escaped, and the last time the rodent made off with his lower dentures.

Exner, 68, said he and his wife Shirley scoured his bedroom after the dentures disappeared from his night stand.

"We moved the bed, moved the dressers and the night stand and tore the closet apart," he said. "I said, 'I knew that little stinker stole my teeth' - I just knew it."

They found a small opening in a wall where they suspected the mouse was coming and going, and their daughter's fiance, Eric Holt, stepped in to help.

"He brought a crowbar and hammer and he sawed off a section of wood and pulled up the molding and everything," Exner said. "It was quite a job."

They retrieved the dentures, and Holt suggested his future father-in-law boil them in peroxide and whatever else he could find for to disinfect it.

The mouse apparently isn't done. It frequently comes out and stares at Exner, his wife said.

"He's taunting him - I swear he's taunting him," Shirley Exner said.
[Source]

Evacuation Route via Colon

Well, thanks to a most excellent gentleman, that being the Rev. Jack Zall, I have news of the odd for you. As he says, "Not quite a ghost or bigfoot, but plenty strange." Yes folks, a giant colon is paying Maine a visit, escorted by the finest in Down East humor. Through today it can be found at the Bangor Mall, then Saturday and Sunday it will be at South Portland's own Maine Mall. According to WCSH-6:

It's called the Colossal Colon and it's 40 feet long and four feet tall. You can crawl through it, or walk along the outside. The mega-model shows several examples of different diseases that affect the colon. Eastern Maine Medical Center and the Maine Center for Disease Control are putting on the display. Comedian Tim Sample is the honorary spokesperson. Sample and others are stressing the importance of getting regular screenings for people 50 and older.
[Source]

The Colossal Colon (affectionately known as CoCo), is not Sample's only current project. According to his website, "I’m also getting ready to perform (with the Augusta Symphony) a Maine humor version of Peter and the Wolf."

Click here to see photos and read Jack's brief post.