Jason Clarke

We’re pleased to bring you a special Halloween edition of Maine Impact today, in which we talk about spooky Maine with Strange Maine blogger Michelle Souliere and Maine’s clean elections law with John Bartholomew.

If you’re doing some pumpkin carving this weekend, here are my tips for a fun and successful experience:

1.) Choose a big pumpkin. Bigger ones are nicer looking, give you more room to carve your pattern, and generally are more sturdy. You’ll also want to look for a nice carving area- so only choose as big as the one with a good carving surface. You’ll thank yourself later.
2.) Prepare the space. Your kitchen table is the ideal spot. Clear it completely off, then lay down newspaper (or spread out a roll of wrapping paper). Set out a big bowl for the pumpkin insides, and get a baking sheet ready with wax paper on it if you plan to bake the seeds.

3.) Cut a big enough hole in the top. You only have one shot (if you want to put the cap back on), so make sure it’s big enough to fit your hand in- and to put a candle in if you so desire! The best approach here is to trace out a big enough hole with a pencil- then cut on that mark. You’ll want to use a serrated knife; that’s your best bet for getting a clean, easy cut.
4.) Scoop right. After you’ve cut the hole, scoop out what you can carefully with your bare hands. Separate the seeds onto the baking sheet if desired. Then, grab a ladle or big plastic spoon and use it to carefully scrape around the inner wall of the pumpkin. When you’ve got a pile of insides in the bottom, grab them out with your hands and drop them into the bowl you’ve got waiting. Repeat this process until the sides are clean and flat.
5.) Clean and prep. Before you get ready to transform your pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, clean up your space and your pumpkin. First, remove the bowl of insides and set the baking sheet of seeds off to the side. Then, grab a damp washcloth (not paper towel!) and gently wash the outside of the pumpkin. Remove any dirt stuck between the ribbing and any goop that may have stuck to it. Then, carefully wipe the pumpkin with a dry towel. Wash your hands, and you’re ready to carve!
6.) Plan your design. It’s important to plan what design what you’re going to carve before carving it. First, draw your pattern/design on a piece of paper, or print out one of the thousands of free ones available on the internet (Try this Google search: pumpkin patterns). Unless your an expert, the simpler the design is, the more happy you’re likely to be with the results.

7.) Set and trace Grab a pencil and choose the flattest, most attractive side of your pumpkin. Then, lay your paper flat on the surface of the pumpkin and slowly trace over the paper design using a sharp pencil. Don’t move the paper until you’ve traced the whole design! Then, check the results to make sure you’ve pressed hard enough to leave at least a faint outline on the pumpkin. That’s all you’ll need- just enough to see it as you’re scoring, but not enough to leave a lasting impression.
8.) Score it! Before you dig in, you’ll need to take an important and often overlooked step: scoring your design. This is also the most difficult and dangerous step- and this is probably where you should relieve your children of duty and finish up for yourself. What you’ll want to do is grab either a craft knife (commonly called an Exacto knife), or a nail with a smallish head, and trace over your pattern by making small indents, or score marks, along the pattern. You’ll want to push the knife or nail pretty far into the pumpkin, breaking through the wall or coming close to it with each score mark. When you’ve carefully scored the entire pattern, you’ll find the cutting quick, easy, and much more accurate.
9.) Time to carve! First, find a serrated knife. This cannot be stressed enough: Find a serrated knife! Most kitchen knife sets will have at least one. If not, borrow one. Again, let your kids look on, but make sure an adult handles this step. You’ll want to start at the top of your design, and carefully guide your knife along the score marks of your design. When you reach a corner, remove the knife and put it back in again, approaching the corner from the opposite direction. For curves, cut slowly but don’t stop at any point in the curve- stopping may turn the curve into a hard angle, and nobody wants that. Finally, when you’ve broken through a part of the design- say an eye or a nose- don’t push the piece out, but rather cut it cleanly off. Then, carefully trim the edges of each section so that they’re flat with no hanging pieces anywhere.
10.) Want to light things up? This is not the place to extol upon the dangers of candles. So let’s assume you know how dangerous they can be. To add a candle to your jack-o-lantern, make sure the inside bottom of your pumpkin is flat. If it’s not, carefully trim the raised portion until you’ve got it flat. Then, choose a candle that’s as wide as you can fit through your hole, yet short enough not to show too much through the holes of your design. Using an Aim-a-flame, or similar brand of extended lighter, carefully light the candle, turn off the lights, stand back, and enjoy your creation! For best results, don’t put the top on the pumpkin when the candle is going.

Here we are again- it’s time for this week’s NFL Pool wrap-up and preview.

Last week: 5-8

Summary: Wow…for the second week in a row, I had my worst finish. Except this time I also had my first sub-.500 finish…things are just getting worse, with no signs of slowing!

Season to date: 51-33 – Good for 60% (down 5% YTD thanks to last week’s crap week)

This week is a tough week- lots of good games- and for some reason I think I’ll do better than having to pick a week of nothing but toss-up games. So…here we go. My picks below in BOLD. Leave yours in the comments!

San Fransisco at Chicago
Atlanta at Cincinnati
Arizona at Green Bay
Houston at Tennessee
Seattle at Kansas City
Baltimore at New Orleans
Tampa Bay at New York Giants
Jacksonville at Philadelphia
St. Louis at San Diego
New York Jets at Cleveland
Indianapolis at Denver
Pittsburgh at Oakland
Dallas at Carolina
New England at Minnesota

Today on Maine Impact, we feature a major guest: Maine gubenatorial candidate Pat LaMarche. Lance spoke with her about a variety of issues during a more than half-hour conversation. Head over to Maine Impact and take a listen!

Yes, I’m shilling for my new project, Maine Impact, on this here site quite a bit. Yes, I’m going to continue to do it until the show is the #1 greatest podcast in the history of time!

Oh…speaking of Maine Impact, I just wanted to ask you to take a moment and visit the site in your browser- not your RSS reader. We’ve refreshed the site’s design to celebrate the Halloween season! But if you don’t like the fun new digs, you can always return to the Classic design instantly. Just click the buttons at the top right of every page (you’ll see the Maine Impact icon next to a pumpkin icon).

That’s all folks…and don’t forget- new epsidode of Maine Impact tomorrow!

In today’s episode of Maine Impact, Lance and I are talking about the Maine Gubenatorial debate that aired last Tuesday on WMTW (Channel 8 in Portland). Go over and take a listen!

It’s another Friday, and that means it’s time for this week’s NFL Pool wrap-up and preview.

Last week: 8-5

Summary: Not only did I not win again last week, I actually had my worst week yet- finishing at just 8-5 in the bye-shortened week.

Season to date: 46-25 – Good for 65%

This week I plan to bounce back though! Herewith, the upcoming week, with my picks in bold. Leave yours in the comments!

Detroit at NY Jets
Green Bay at Miami
Philadelphia at Tampa Bay
San Diego at Kansas City
Carolina at Cincinnati
New England at Buffalo
Pittsburgh at Atlanta
Jacksonville at Houston – upset pick
Denver at Cleveland
Washington at Indianapolis
Minnesota at Seattle
Arizona at Oakland
Dallas at New York – Points: 38

Today on my podcast, Maine Impact, Lance and I interview another Lance: Lance Cowan, a candidate for Maine State House from my District, #19, which covers Orono.

Head over to Maine Impact and check it out! You can listen through your browser or subscribe to the show in iTunes or via RSS.

Today on the way home from a family event, we were driving around while our son took a nap. On Route 2 in Old Town, Heidi noticed two big, beautiful deer in the front yard of somebody’s house eating from a tree. We turned around, and to our surprise, instead of running away, the deer we noticed were joined by two more. Here’s a photo of the first two dining. View a couple more right here.

(Click the picture for a bigger view)

After much hard work, I’m pleased to announce my latest project! It’s called Maine Impact, and it’s a podcast covering news, politics, and technology with a focus on Maine and an eye towards the world at large.

My good friend Lance Dutson of the notorious and heralded Maine Web Report has graciously agreed to lend his keen wit and eye for issues by co-hosting and co-producing Maine Impact with me. Our goal is to produce two original episodes per week- released at 6am on Tuesdays and Thursdays- and to work hard to integrate comments and editorials from listeners into our shows.

Our first episode debuted yesterday. You can subscribe to it, download it, or listen to directly within the browser here. Next week, we’ve got interviews with two Maine House candidates coming up, and we’re exicted about that aspect of the show. During and even after election season, we’ll bring you more interviews with Mainers from politicans to bloggers to regular folk.

You may find the production quality in these first few shows to be lacking that of an NPR or another typical radio program. And although we never hope to be just another typical radio program, we do plan to improve the overall production quality of Maine Impact as we become more epxerienced at the form. All that in the way of saying, please bear with us, and please stick around. We plan to get better.

Maine Impact