Author Archives: John Cutrone

Oct 14 2026
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Halloween

Boo Bazaar Tonight!

Only because I promised in the last chapter of the Convivio Book of Days that I’d let you know when the Hallowe’en Boo Bazaar we were planning would be, this post is simply meant to fulfill that promise, and just barely, because our Boo Bazaar this year is two nights, and the first night has already happened (it was on Tuesday evening), but the second night is happening tonight: Wednesday, October 14, from 5 to 9 PM. It may be just enough time for you to make your plans to visit the shop, if you’re local.

The setting is warm and cozy, the music is spirited, and there are homemade treats to be had: my sister made us creepy Ladies’ Fingers and Baked Apple Cider Doughnut Holes. There is wonderful shopping with a distant autumnal and vintage Hallowe’en vibe: lots of wonderful books for kids and adults, traditional German and Swedish handicrafts, cards, prints, and the best Hallowe’en lights you’ll find anywhere. The company is what’s best. Our old friend Ulla Gray surprised us with a visit Tuesday night. We’ve not seen Ulla in ten years, probably. It was just wonderful catching up.

And so: late notice, I know. Oktoberfest Miami really knocked us out, and then the Boo Bazaar idea popped into my head and while it seemed like there were days and days to let you know about it, in reality, there weren’t. And so here we are, with me inviting you at the last minute. Please come if you can; we’d love to see you at the shop on Wednesday evening! Convivio Bookworks is located at 1110 North G Street, Suite D, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460. Seth put Hallowe’en lights up on the building so we are easy to spot.

That’s all. It’s back to Oktoberfest Miami this Friday night plus Saturday and Sunday… and then we are off to Maine for a post-Oktoberfest autumnal rest. Kind of like Rip Van Winkle, but for just one week. Orders placed after Sunday will ship the first week of November. While in Maine, I’ll be working on the Convivio Dispatch for Hallowe’en. An idea has come to mind; we shall see what we shall see once it wends its way down some New England roads in autumn.

 

 

Oct 01 2026
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Book of Days Calendar

Autumn Magic, or Your October Book of Days

It’s October and the weather here in Lake Worth has taken a shift. Subtle, for sure, but most definitely different than it’s been: Different in the quality of light, different in the quality of air, plus a few spectacular sunsets, like the one yesterday evening, that illuminated the tops of the trees and the upper floors of buildings downtown. Seth and I will be heading to Maine for a dose of proper autumn soon, but, for the time being, we are content with these subtle changes.

There are, so far, three pumpkins in the house: one Rouge Vif d’Etampes pumpkin, one Jarrahdale pumpkin, and one Long Island Cheese. Pumpkins, no matter the variety, always speak to me of such great possibility. I don’t even know of what, to be honest. Stories, to be sure. But perhaps more. I remember weeding the pumpkin patch one late summer day at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community during one of my book arts internships there––for there are times in a book arts internship when you need to step away from the research and away from the type and the press, and instead get your hands in the earth––and I remember an overwhelming feeling of some astonishment, there amongst the pumpkins as they grew. The scent of the vines, the feel of them. The flowers beckoning to bees. And the pumpkins, of course. I don’t know what that feeling was and I don’t know that I will ever be able to explain it, but I knew inside it had something to do with creativity and stories. One day, perhaps, it will all make sense. For now, though, I look at each pumpkin and wonder what potential it holds. There is some magic in this. I just don’t understand it. Which, perhaps, is how magic works.

And so your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for October focuses on pumpkins and gourds. I hope you love it as much as I do. It is, as usual, a printable PDF, so you may print it and post it where you please.

The month’s celebrations begin tomorrow, October 2nd, with the Feast of the Guardian Angels, one of the oldest celebrations in the Church calendar. It’s also my mom’s 100th birthday! We always celebrated her birthday on October 3rd, but documents we found in recent years suggest October 2nd may be more accurate. We’ll be celebrating her on the 2nd, and on the 3rd, and on the 4th, and each and every day. She’s the Millie of Millie’s Tea Towels fame. If you send her birthday greetings in the comments below (or by reply email), I’ll make sure she sees each one. Here’s a picture of Mom as a little girl:

COME SEE US!
At the shop, we are planning a Boo Bazaar or two, but we haven’t concrete dates yet. Count on them happening on weekday evenings, perhaps twice this month before Hallowe’en arrives. We’ll announce these open shop evenings on our website and on our social media pages (@conviviobookworks at Instagram and Facebook). Our main focus in October, though, is OKTOBERFEST MIAMI, where you will find our huge pop-up shop at the German American Social Club in Miami. It’s their 69th Oktoberfest: the oldest Oktoberfest in Florida. We’ll be there the second and third weekends of October (Friday through Sunday, October 9 through 11 and October 16 through 18), plus this Saturday, October 3, is a smaller Oktoberfest there at the German American Social Club for the German International Parents Association, and our Miami pop-up shop will be open for that, too. This Saturday’s event is noon to 7 PM and is free and open to all who’d like to come. (Oktoberfest Miami on the other weekends of October is a ticketed event.)

 

Image: Botanical illustrations of pumpkins and gourds by an anonymous artist in a Japanese book from 1804 that may be titled Seikei Zusetsu, Volume 27. The image is courtesy Leiden University Library, and used through Creative Commons.

Sep 22 2026
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Autumn, Equinox

Celestial Sphere; Autumn is Here

Twenty-three and a half degrees: that’s the tilt of our planet as it makes its way around the sun and this tilt, this 23.5 degrees, is the key to our seasons and our constant shifting, each day a bit different from the one before and the one after. And come 8:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time this evening, summer officially gives way to autumn: it is the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, with the opposite being true in the Southern Hemisphere, for there, this is the moment that spring begins. Things will be more or less balanced for a short time, but as we continue past this day, from this point forward we here in the Northern Hemisphere will have more darkness each day than light, while folks in the Southern Hemisphere will have more light each day than darkness.

And so the sun about now is rising pretty much due east and setting pretty much due west. We are in a brief time of balance: directional (east/west) and also in amount of day and night: both are pretty much the same for a spell, no matter where we are on this great planet. It always seems to me, too, that this balance is worth emulating in our own lives and perhaps worth seeking at least twice each year as the two equinox periods come and go. Not an easy task, to be certain, but worth a shot, no?

It may be the first day of autumn by the almanac, but in traditional reckoning of time, the equinox is the midpoint of autumn, which began with the first of the harvest festivals, Lammas, at the start of August. Again, balance, as we find ourselves at the center of the season, half of it in the past, half of it yet to come, both sides of it on either side of where we stand now.

What we know for certain is that here in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights will soon grow longer than the days, and the air will get cooler. It is always most welcome to us here in Lake Worth. I was struck, though, the other day, reading an article in the New York Times by an author who saw things differently. Her perspective so vastly different from my own: how she was holding on to every last grasp of summer as tightly as she could for as long as she could. We’ve had quite enough of it here, thank you very much, but it’s all relative.

 

Image: “Celestial Sphere with Ecliptic,” a diagram showing the Celestial Sphere with ecliptic and equinoxes, by N Sanu, 2020. Courtesy Creative Commons.

 

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