Happy October, Caftan readers! It’s the witchy month! Growing up near Salem, MA, I loved all things witchy and vampire-y and occult as a kid—I kid you not, I would scan the TV listings for showings of the (mediocre) 1936 movie Dracula’s Daughter with Gloria Holden because I became obsessed once I saw this image in one of the books about old Hollywood my mother would buy me…. I mean, how fierce is that, right?

This essay is written by a known author, under the pseudonym C.L. Kemp.I’m four or five the first time I recall being taken along on one of my father’s junk food binges. My mother asks him to take care of some shopping and other errands, and to bring me along while she stays home to tend to my baby sister. The particular errands escape me, but to this day I remain haunted by the calorie-laden detours in between.

I recently started re-reading a cookbook I own called The Korean Kimchi Cookbook: 78 Fiery Recipes for Korea’s Legendary Pickled and Fermented Vegetables. It’s a decidedly “uncool”-looking cookbook by today’s standards: a paperback (gasp) cookbook with horizontal (bigger gasp) orientation. But it’s well-written, educational, beautifully photographed, and offers all kinds of kimchis according to the seasons. Nowadays we’re used to accessing only a few major types of kimchi (Napa cabbage and radish among the most popular) 365 days a year—even my corner bodega stocks a couple of different brands.

The bluebell is the sweetest flower that waves in summer air; its blossoms have the mightiest power to soothe my spirit's care... (Emily Bronte) Writing this I have realised that the fragile beauty of bluebells shines a bright light on my perverse nature. Always drawn to the underdog, I insist on preferring carrion crows to 'show-offy' ravens and have often ignored bluebells altogether. Voted our favourite national flower in 2002, and placed at the top of numerous subsequent polls, they are just too popular and too pretty and I wilfully refused to be swept away by the beauty of their shimmering cobalt sea.

As a kid born and raised in Washington State, I grew up watching John Stockton—the local kid from Spokane who had come out of Gonzaga—dazzle with his performances in the NBA finals as arguably the best point guard ever to play basketball. Also, as a Packer’s football fan, I was happy when former Green Bay MVP offensive tackle Ken Ruettgers recently reached out for an interview on the podcast he co-hosts with Stockton.