Happy Thanksgiving: I know most of you will have turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and all the other goodies plus pumpkin pie for dessert. Moi? Nope, not this year. This blessed beautiful year I'm going to make pasties, our generational family steak pie (with thin sliced potatoes, bite-size steak, celery, onion, in layers) And a brand-new bottle of catsup. Then Black Friday's breakfast will be glorious – cold pasty (with tons of cold catsup). I'm already salivating. If you're a traditionalist, please do not mock me out or give me grief for this culinary aberration.

All my Halloween decorations are up and spooky (well, really more cute than spooky). Do you personally go all out, maybe carve a trio of pumpkins, buy your favorite candy believing (truly) you'll save it for the night of the 31st? Sorry, ain't no way that's going to happen and if you get right down to it, who cares? Halloween is all about fun, yours and the little ghosts and witches who knock on your door. (It doesn't hurt to scare the crap out of them too).

September 22nd is the 265th day of the Georgian calendar. It is also the autumnal equinox. You have my permission to be the first one to forget these facts after you've told one other person, proving what a trivia pain in the butt you are. (And just what does that make me?)

A smidgeon of an advert since my brain is fixated on it at this particular point in time – Reckoning, the 26th FBI thriller, is on the three big bestseller lists, thanks to all of you who bought a copy of the ebook or hardcover right out of the gate. Now it’s time to go chew on your neighbors and friends and co-workers -- if there’s overlap, you’ll be off the hook sooner

Middle of the summer. Already. Since we flew from one hub to another, we didn't have the merciless delays or the soul-crushing cancellations. We prayed we were improving our odds by booking a very early flight, better chance of taking off within two hours of purported departure time, which in turn meant we arrived to our hotel in Cape May, NJ, had time to order a pizza, figure out the TV, all before watching the WARRIORS BEAT THE CELTICS IN GAME 6 AND BECOME NBA CHAMPIONS OF THE UNIVERSE For THE -- count them -- FOURTH TIME.