Each year, I eagerly anticipate one of the most amusing events of the season. I'm not talking about our nation's efforts to turn Halloween into a full-tilt bacchanalia, which is now apparently second only to Christmas in popularity. No, I'm talking about the arrival at my local Jewel Food Store of a passel of little pumpkins pre-painted with cheery faces.

When I first noticed these fun-loving members of the gourd family about 10 years ago, the faces seemed to have been painted by hand. These decorated pumpkins looked so innocently happy and goofy that I figured they had to come from some sheltered workshop somewhere. I even bought one once for my cubicle at work.

Lately, however, I've noticed that although the pumpkins have the same goofy faces, the paint appears to have sprayed by a machine, rather than done by hand. Or maybe the pumpkins were painted by machine all along.

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