Halloween is tomorrow and I have a request of everyone: Please don't be a Halloween Grinch.

A Halloween grinch complains about kids who are "too old to trick-or-treat." A Halloween grinch gripes about kids not in costume. A Halloween grinch looks down their nose at adults who take a piece of candy. A Halloween Grinch tries to police who comes to their neighborhood. A Halloween Grinch complains about the noise and people traipsing across their yard. A Halloween Grinch, essentially, gatekeeps a holiday that should be fun.

Don't be a Halloween Grinch.

You don't know the story of everyone on Halloween. Maybe that child's adults couldn't afford a costume.  Maybe trick-or-treating adults are getting candy for a kid who is home sick. Maybe those kids are being driven to your neighborhood because there are sidewalks or better decorations. Those "too old" teenagers are literally doing the most wholesome thing they can on Halloween.

If you run out of candy or Halloween is too much for you, do two simple things:

1. Turn off your outside light

2. Ignore the doorbell/knocks

The trick-or-treaters will pass you by.

Enjoy the costumes, cheerful noises, and the barely contained chaos. ​It's just one night.

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I’m still working on The Cheese Chronicles and I'm ready to be done with it. ​It's not that the content is bad, it's just very repetitive. For the bulk of the text, Thorpe walks through a little history and some tasting notes for various cheesemakers and creameries. If these sections were fewer and she focused more on her personal history, I think it would come across a bit livelier. That said, there are several cheeses I will now be looking for.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• What the data of fewer bugs splatting on windshields can tell us. [WaPo - gift link]

• I'm shocked, shocked I say!, that more medical protocols and research are based solely on men. [NPR]

• Why millennials may be less likely to cheat on their spouse. [The Atlantic]

• Anxiety has a purpose. We should stop trying to fix it. [Hidden Brain]

• I did not know all these things about Houdini. [Atlas Obscura]

• The damage trump has done to our democracy. [The Daily]

• The science of fall foliage. [Short Wave]

• I'm saving this podcast for when we can start throwing parties at our place again. [Life Kit]

• I call this: Just Let Me Eat You. [@WonderOfScience]

• On the days we're not watching football or hockey, we're trying to get through the last two seasons of Dawson's Creek. I gotta tell you, this show did not age well. Certain things would never make a script today. Also, the acting, save for Busy Philipps, seems to get worse as we progress through the years. [HBO Max]

• When I went to cook Greek-style shrimp and potatoes, I had it in my head that it was a sheet pan meal. Nope! It went in my Dutch oven. That made it an even easier cook. You need all the liquids to cook the potatoes, but that means cooking out the moisture takes some time. Our shrimp overcooked because I didn't realize that. Still tasty - especially with the feta on top. [Real Simple]

• There were some tomatoes hanging out in our produce drawer so the Husband selected tomato ravioli for dinner. This was a good one, but it needs decent ravioli. I used lower-brand mini cheese ones and they were kind of bland. The high-end balsamic we had saved the dish, but better ravioli would have made this awesome. [Cooking Light]

Every fall, I think of this image I took when I visited my hometown in Upstate New York one October. It just makes me happy.

This may be too late for you up north but American Forest provides a foliage tracker to help you find peak color. Scroll down a bit and it will recommend some places to visit.

I leave on Tuesday for another conference. It’s my last work travel and presentation for the year. Gonna squeeze in some hotel room me time while I’m there.