Post-Dispatch reporter Georgina Gustin reports that there may be a shortage of pumpkin pie filling this holiday season.

It seems that this fall’s heavy rains have turned pumpkin patches into quagmires, compounding an already strained supply.

“Last year’s supply was short, so there really wasn’t anything in the pipeline,” explained Leo Darrow, a grocery manager at Dierbergs. “Then they had a late spring, a cool, wet summer, a rainy fall, and things just snowballed.”

While stores aren’t reporting bare shelves, they aren’t offering any incentives.

Dierbergs and other supermarkets haven’t advertised canned pumpkin in the usual preholiday fashion, Darrow said. “Everyone has some pumpkin now….

Our Let’s Eat section in today’s newspaper is all about Thanskgiving food – desserts, turkeys, side dishes and more. The recipes sound delicious, the photos make my mouth water. The season of overeating is almost upon us.

Yet the federal government tells us that 49 million Americans – about one out of every six of us — does not have enough to eat. That’s a hard number to read for so many of us who stare into full pantries and refrigerators and can’t decide what to make for supper. Or for those of us with kids who open and close cabinets,…

My colleague Tim Townsend covers religion for the Post-Dispatch. His regular Saturday column was quite a talker. It got a lot of comments over the weekend…enough that I thought it would still be ripe for the Talk of the Day.

The issue surrounds the Rockwood School District and some parents who are concerned about teachers using the designations of “B.C.E.” and “C.E.” for years, instead of the traditional “B.C.” and “A.D.”

Typically, we designate years either before or after the birth of Christ. Julius Caesar’s assassination was in 44 B.C., for example. Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed in 1587 A.D.

But academics and scientists, more…

It’s a nice, soft Friday edition of TOTD. And yes, I know, this isn’t exactly crazy food: deer meat. But the topic of deer meat inspired the question. So, here’s the story, by my colleague Georgina Gustin:

Thousands of pounds of deer meat will reach food pantries in coming months with new economic incentives from the state. Gov. Jay Nixon announced Thursday that the state will increase its reimbursements to meat processors who accept donated meat from hunters and process it for distribution to the state’s food pantries.

I have never had venison. Always wanted to try it, but have so far never…

Wal-Mart shoppers in 2005

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard a radio report that made me shudder. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that most Wal-Mart stores will stay open Thanksgiving night to ease the crowding that led to a worker’s trampling death a year ago.

Millions of Americans make shopping their day after Thanksgiving ritual. They line up in the wee hours of the morning — or, often, in the late hours of Thursday night — outside malls and big box stores to grab discounted Playstations or TVs or whatever this year’s must-have toy might be.

A few years…