The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[jpcher]

Carved one about three weeks ago--it lasted about 10 days before really getting rotten (getting lit every night).  That just gave us an opportunity to carve another one.

Who cares if the first one rots?  It is fun to carve pumpkins.

This has been my experience as well, carved pumpkins last much longer than just a few days. I usually carve mine a week before halloween and put them outside with the rest of the decorations (guess what I'm doing tomorrow ) and they still look good for halloween. I light candles in them only on halloween day.

Maybe it's regional weather? Around here average temperature in October is 50^oF.

And maybe the most obvious question of all: Why do we carve pumpkins at Halloween?  (My dad did when I was a kid, but no one in my family likes pumpkin or cares to do it)

Because it's a fun, creative project that the whole family can enjoy doing together. It goes hand-in-hand with picking out the costumes and decorating the lawn. Tradition! . . . oh, yeah, and them yummy pumpkin seeds!

Soooooo many fond memories of pumpkin carving when the DDs were younger. Before they could handle the utensils they would draw what they wanted and LDH would do the carving . . . this is the first year in 20+ that I'm carving a pumpkin by myself.

[GreenEyedHawk]

It's cold enough here by the end of October that just leaving the pumpkins outside (instead of taking up a bunch of room in the fridge) does enough to stop them from rotting.

[Tea Drinker]

I went to a friend's pumpkin-carving party a few years ago. She cut off the top, then scooped out the flesh and seeds. Then people carved a face, and others just hung around and socialized while my friend made pumpkin pies and toasted pumpkin seeds as a snack.

The carved pumpkin wound up outside her house; this was in Westchester, N.Y. (just north of New York City), so it was cool out but not refrigerator-cold, and she said it lasted fine as a display until after Halloween.

If you just want pumpkin pie, you can do fine with canned pumpkin; if you're carving the pumpkin anyhow, it's worth making a pie or pumpkin soup or something.

[Curious Cat]

Here are some tips on keeping pumpkins fresher longer

http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/carvedpumpkins.php

[Snooks]

Is Vor a military term?  If so what does it mean?

[Psychopoesie]

Is Vor a military term?  If so what does it mean?

Yes. It's from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga books and refers to a military (and aristocratic) class on the fictional world, Barrayar. One of my favourite series ever.

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Vor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold

[Lady Snowdon]

What does bird-dogging someone mean?  A person used it in a comment on FB the other day, and I can't figure it out from context - they just said something like "stop bird-dogging me". 

[Elfmama]

What does bird-dogging someone mean?  A person used it in a comment on FB the other day, and I can't figure it out from context - they just said something like "stop bird-dogging me".

Following closely, like a dog follows its master or tracks a bird.

[Slartibartfast]

Stupid question: when there's a time change and we gain an hour (like tonight), do police logs and the like have to specify?  Like "Burglary at 1:15 AM (the first one, not the second one)"?  How do systems like at hospitals cope with it, for things like when people are supposed to have medication at strict intervals?  Do they just bump the interval back an hour, or do they assume an extra hour won't kill the patients, or do they gradually work their way into it, or what?

[mbbored]

Stupid question: when there's a time change and we gain an hour (like tonight), do police logs and the like have to specify?  Like "Burglary at 1:15 AM (the first one, not the second one)"?  How do systems like at hospitals cope with it, for things like when people are supposed to have medication at strict intervals?  Do they just bump the interval back an hour, or do they assume an extra hour won't kill the patients, or do they gradually work their way into it, or what?

I don't know, but now I really want to!

[Snooks]

Stupid question: when there's a time change and we gain an hour (like tonight), do police logs and the like have to specify?  Like "Burglary at 1:15 AM (the first one, not the second one)"?  How do systems like at hospitals cope with it, for things like when people are supposed to have medication at strict intervals?  Do they just bump the interval back an hour, or do they assume an extra hour won't kill the patients, or do they gradually work their way into it, or what?

I don't know, but now I really want to!

Not sure about medication but I'd guess with logs you put the notation for the time (in the UK we use BST or GMT+1 and GMT).

[Iris]

Stupid question: when there's a time change and we gain an hour (like tonight), do police logs and the like have to specify?  Like "Burglary at 1:15 AM (the first one, not the second one)"?  How do systems like at hospitals cope with it, for things like when people are supposed to have medication at strict intervals?  Do they just bump the interval back an hour, or do they assume an extra hour won't kill the patients, or do they gradually work their way into it, or what?

I don't know, but now I really want to!

Not sure about medication but I'd guess with logs you put the notation for the time (in the UK we use BST or GMT+1 and GMT).

DH said something similar for keeping train logs (as is his job, he's not a train spotter ). The continuous graph just goes "1 am - 1.30am - 1.59am - 1am" because it's obvious where it changes, but in written records and reports they write (say) 1:17 am EST (Eastern Standard Time) or 1:17 am DST (Daylight Savings Time)

[lady_disdain]

Stupid question: when there's a time change and we gain an hour (like tonight), do police logs and the like have to specify?  Like "Burglary at 1:15 AM (the first one, not the second one)"?

When I had to write duty reports and guard reports, we would make a note: 11:59 pm - Beginning of Summer time. From that point on, all times were written in the new time.

[Dindrane]

At least in the US, all time zones have a "standard time" and "daylight savings time" code. So in the Pacific timezone, we just switched from PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) to PST (Pacific Standard Time).

For things like medication, I don't know what hospitals tend to do, although I imagine it depends on the medication. Some medicines probably do need to be taken on a very specific interval schedule, but not necessarily at precisely the same time of day. For others (like medicine you take either with or without food), the interval between doses might be less important than the time of day those doses are taken.

[Bluenomi]

I was in hospital when daylight savings finished one year. They just wrote AEST or AEDT on the chart.  Mind you I was in maternity so it wasn't  a huge deal if things weren't exact.

When I worked in TV our logs either had 2 lots of 2-3am or skipped from 2 to 3 am.