I saw a terrible site when I was walking in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, on New Year Day. A rotting pumpkin on a pot on a step, oozing as if it was part of a Salvador Dali painting. Behold the terrible sight:
In my Justin and Justina dialogue series, Justin has warned often about the rotting pumpkin problem in Brooklyn, New York. Let it be said, lest anyone had any doubt, I agree with Justin that the rotting pumpkin situation is highly sub-optimal.
Brooklyn’s Rotting Pumpkin Problem
Pumpkins may be lovely outdoor decorations for Halloween and Thanksgiving. But unlike other decorations, pumpkins do not last forever. While an inflatable decoration may look a bit out of place long after the holiday it was inflated for, pumpkins will eventually rot. This rotting process accelerates when pumpkins freeze, thaw, and freeze again.
Rotting pumpkins decompose in different ways. Some of them mold. Others slowly soften. Others still are savagely torn apart by rats, squirrels, and other critters of the City. But few pumpkins turn into a knockoff Salvador Dali painting, slowly oozing instead of rotting all at once. For those pumpkins that choose the Salvador Dali path, I do recommend following this rotting pumpkin’s example and doing it on a step. Oozing down a step is dramatic, evincing movement and capturing the attention of onlookers. Bar none, the Dali pumpkin is the finest of the too many rotting pumpkins I have seen in 2020 and 2021.
With all that being said, however, perhaps people should dispose of their pumpkin decorations before we see freezing temperatures at night, if not sooner. If disposing of pumpkin decorations is too much to ask, perhaps those people should opt for inflatable pumpkin decorations. Those decorations may deflate, they may even pop, but never will they rot.