Not even Linus was sincere enough?

At lunch I went into Book Court to check on some titles. I turned towards the hardback non-fiction section and discovered that it was all children’s books now. Whoa! I turned around. The space reeled away before me. They have expanded tremendously into the back. When I asked the woman at the desk when it happened, she said several weeks ago. I’d popped in a week ago, and hadn’t noticed a thing.
*
With every holiday’s span of days seemingly getting longer and longer, the poor pumpkin is no match for the times. In the last several days, I’ve seen many carved pumpkins that were simply cut too soon. They’ve peaked, and fallen in on themselves before their great glory this evening. But give me even a collapsed pumpkin any day over all the incredible ugly plastic -- let’s call it what it really is -- petroleum garbage some people festoon their dwellings with.

Bring us this day our Great Pumpkin! (Actually, I kind of get the feeling the G.P.’s playing cards with Godot, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Jesus, Rabbi Schneerson, King Arthur, Dionysus, and all the rest of those characters some of us spend too entirely much time waiting for.)