The Great Pumpkin

In the comic strip "Peanuts" by American cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, Linus believes that each year on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere and flies through the air with a bag of toys for all the children. Everyone tells Linus the Great Pumpkin is a fake, but Linus believes in him.

Listen now to Vince Guaraldi playing "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" from the original soundtrack of the animated "Peanuts" television special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

Brainteaser: Dial-A-Poem

Here is a brainteaser, a puzzle, for you to try to solve.

I met a traveller from an antique land . . . That is the first line of a sonnet (composed in 1817) by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a sonnet the title of which can be dialed on a cell phone as 699-626-3427. What is that sonnet's title?

To read the answer to this puzzle, and to read Shelley's sonnet, click on the following phone number: 699-626-3427.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

English poet

(Portrait by Alfred Clint, 1819)

A Puzzle! "Let's Do It"

Here is a brainteaser, a puzzle, for you to solve, if you can.

"My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director." So said the American composer, a famous songwriter, whose name can be dialed on a telephone as 265-376-7837. What is that famous songwriter's name?

To read the answer to this puzzle, click here.

Listen now to Lady Gaga singing "Let's Do It," a song that the composer whom I quoted above wrote.

I Just Called to Say I Love You

"I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder was one of my mother Evelyn's favorite songs. Listen to it now.

A Face Devoid of Love

A face devoid of love or grace,

A hateful, hard, successful face,

A face with which a stone

Would feel as thoroughly at ease

As were they old acquaintances --

First time together thrown.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

(This poem is in the public domain.)

The face of my hateful younger brother Roger:

"A face devoid of love . . . "

Friend

Don't walk in front of me -- I may not follow.

Don't walk behind me -- I may not lead.

Walk beside me --

And just be my friend.

Albert Camus