It's said that today's pumpkin carving comes from the Irish tradition of carving turnips in the fall. When the Irish settlers came to North America, the lack of turnips caused them to to use local pumpkins instead.

So it should come as no surprise that I, being half Irish, should love to carve pumpkins each Halloween.

I have done numerous real pumpkins for a long time, getting more and more detailed glowing creations; but the past two years I have delved into using the fake, or foam craft pumpkins. Heck, if you're going to put that much energy into carving a piece of art, why not keep it for more than a day?

Last year I did a Darth Vader pumpkin, that was actually published by Lucasfilm in the Star Wars Insider magazine.

This year, I was determined to do a Jack O' Lantern of a different sort; Jack Sparrow, that is.