PAN Communications prSPEAK

Happy Halloween! A day of fright and fun, pranks and treats, fantasy and reality, today is a HUGE day for a couple of reasons. First of all it is a day to indulge in your playful side and embrace the childish enthusiasm you had when a sheet over your head and a pillowcase in hand was the height of sophistication.

The second reason Halloween is important is that it, in my mind at least, kicks off the holiday season! Meaning -decorations, parties and goodies galore for the next two months. Yes!

In honor of so haunted a day I found this fun ghost story in today’s Boston Globe about a local ghost that has found herself a home in a B&B on the Cape. Located a short walk from Barnstable Village, the Beechwood Inn plays host to many travelers and apparently one resident… spirit. This caught my attention not only because it was a great story, but because I was recently considering this Inn as a place to stay during a weekend wedding. Spooky! (Next time I’m in that area I’m definitely going to check it out)

Keep a sharp eye out , on Halloween anything can happen…

On a recent last minute jaunt to Providence for Waterfire, I found myself at a quaint restaurant that specialized in local, organic, sustainable produce, fish and meats, as well as locally-made beer and wines. While the food was marvelous, I found myself engrossed in every aspect of the meal thinking, ‘where is this quinoa from?’ I also thought, why am I not employing these tactics at home?

I have read a number of blogs and books over the past year that boast the ‘50-100 mile diet’ as the way to live. I try to buy local organic and all-natural when I can, but sometimes it is almost near impossible. I like to think of each meal I make as special project. (Yes, you can picture me in the kitchen, dancing around to Bjork and sautéing cremini mushrooms) Sometimes I need ingredients that aren’t found within 50 miles. Like the time I decided that I needed authentic French beurre for a recipe and had to trek all the way to South Boston (I live in Worcester mind you) to a delectable little shop on Shawmut Ave.

Local organic grocers are popping up like dandelions but the corporate grocery stories aren’t really seeing a dent in business. I guess the moral of this little post is that I would like to try and adhere to shopping locally and supporting local farmers.

I am holding Thanksgiving dessert at my home this year, perhaps it will be a 100 mile meal? I will let you know how it goes…

Never heard of it? Here’s a little background… Bacn messages are emails you want to read, but not immediately. They are not spam, as the recipient has signed up to receive them. An example of Bacn emails include Google News Alerts, MySpace emails telling you someone has posted a comment about you and the newest products at L’Occitane. Many call Bacn “middle class” email. They’re emails that are a bit of a nuisance, however you don’t necessarily delete them. You know they’re there, and you’d like to get to them, but just not today…or tomorrow. Sound familiar?

I was at a ClickZ email marketing conference this week, and one of the speakers mentioned Bacn and spoke a bit about it. This was the first time I had heard of the term, and I related to it immediately. We all deal with Bacn messages. I have so much Bacn, I don’t know what to do with it, nor do I know when I’ll get to it. I rarely delete these emails, but I do mark them as unread, so that I may go back to them SOMEDAY (although I do religiously skim my Google Alerts as they come in). I currently have about 197 unread Bacn messages in my Yahoo! inbox as I write this.

My to do for the weekend: get through at least 50 of my unread messages and reward myself with a big glass of OJ and a side of bacn and eggs.

Have a wonderful Columbus Day Weekend…