We are officially in the fall season and once we pass the autumnal equinox I quit complaining about all the posts about pumpkin spice, hoodies, bonfires and other fall things. Take at look at this post from back in August. I was struck by the assertion that we were given “basically no time to prepare.” Unless you work at Starbucks, and this person obviously does not, how much preparation do you need? If I wanted a pumpkin spice latte I think I could pull up to the drive through and order with zero prep time.

Proof that tipping has gone too far, or rather who expects a tip. If I give my order to a cashier who then takes my payment in exchange for food, which I then carry to the table and later clean up after myself, I’m not tipping the cashier. Starbucks, Moe’s, Steak & Shake, that kind of thing. Just like I never tipped at McDoanld’s but full service restaurants with wait staff, that’s a different story. I don’t buy gas at Valero if I can help it and I’m certainly not tipping the gas pump.

That an Osage orange, also known as a hedge apple. They are known as a lot of things actually, including horse apple, hedge orange and monkey brains. Only the seeds are edible for humans but squirrels, horses, deer and cattle all eat them. I learned all of this just recently. I had never seen one in our yard before; we do not have a tree that produces these. But one afternoon I walked out into the yard to call the dog in and there were half a dozen of these things scattered about the front yard. The dog regarded them as tennis balls; she picked one up and ran off expecting me to chase her. Our neighbor thought they might be black walnuts but they were too big for that, about the size of a softball. I cut one into to show her there’s no walnut. There is a tree a mile or two down the road from us that drop these. Our daughter Johannah brought these home over the weekend and tossed them into the yard to confuse me. It worked.

O God of Earth and Outer Space – There is a hymn in the 1975 Baptist Hymnal about astronauts and spaceships. Seriously. We landed on the moon in 1969 and this was written in 1970.

Ed O’Neal poses with his meme. Yes, it is the same newspaper but do you know why?

Can you spot four differences in these pictures? I’m not even sure how many there are supposed to be, this is not another puzzle from Discount Tire. Click the image to view full size.

There’s a lot of college football today, these are just the SEC games ABC is carrying. October 19th is when #1 Texas plays #2 UGA. Georgia won a tough game on the road vs. Kentucky. They will have to do it again at Alabama to keep that #2 ranking.