I’m still in my squash era! We went to the Logan Square Farmer’s Market yesterday, and there were so many different kinds of gorgeous squash for sale. I ended up picking up a small Autumn Frost squash, and I’ve already chopped it up and roasted it to put on salads this week. Here are some fun things to know about squash!

It’s always fascinating to me that there can be such wild diversity within a single species. Look at all those different sizes and shapes in Cucurbita moschata! Think about the wildly different flavors from spaghetti squash to zucchini to sugar pumpkins, every one of which is C. pepo! And I’ve only drawn a small fraction of the existing varietals for each of these. Squash are so weird but also so cool.

Upcoming Events:

I’m going to be at the third annual Chicago Brunch Fest! (Did you know Chicago has a Brunch Fest??) It’s Saturday, October 10, from 10am-2pm, on Lincoln Avenue between Diversey and Wellington. It’s free to attend, and there will be lots of free bites from local restaurants to sample as well. I’ll be signing books at Goblin Market, and leading a workshop on how to draw brunch. It should be a fun time!

What I’m Into Lately:

In my ongoing effort to spend this year reading book recommendations from my favorite people, I picked up The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. This was recommended to me by my friend Kurt, one of the other workshop leaders I met at TUMO this summer. Funnily enough, my extremely Czech father has been trying to get me to read this one for years. I found an audiobook read by English actor David Horovitch and it’s super entertaining! The book is set at the outbreak of World War I, and it’s witty, silly, farcical, absurd, and bitingly satirical. It was written over a century ago, and unfortunately its anti-war and anti-establishment message is still terribly salient.

What Toki’s Into Lately:

This little goober woke me out of a dead sleep the other night with some of the loudest, most mournful, and frantic meows I’ve ever heard. I legit thought he was dying. I leapt out of bed in a panic to discover the problem: Niles had gone to the bathroom, and closed the door.