Believe it or not, one of the coolest things about the Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze is the shopping. Most especially because you can browse through hundreds (literally) of special Blaze-only merch made exclusively for - and sold only at - the event. Amazon.com's got nada on this.

Just how diverse is the selection? Well, let's put it this way, you could actually make a cool Blaze Halloween Survivor type game out of trying to complete your day using only Blaze items.

Today for example, I woke up from my peaceful autumn slumber snuggled soundly under my Blaze cotton throw (with all new Blaze design) and meandered into the kitchen where I had me some Blaze pumpkin scones topped off with Blaze pumpkin butter (yum) and coffee in my Blaze mug, being careful not to spill any on my Blaze placemats. I was a bit on the composted side so I slipped into the shower and lathered up with my Blaze pumpkin soap. Feeling refreshed, I took some time to compose some blog ideas in my Blaze blank journal (six styles to choose from). I then wrote wish you were heres to some long neglected distant relatives on my Blaze postcards (11 styles in all). Lunch was Blaze pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread followed by finger licking good pumpkin fudge.

OK, you get the idea. You'll find everything you need inside the visitor's tent at Blaze, as well as in the main shop which you enter towards the end of the Blaze experience.

There's a lot of stuff. I can't resist also mentioning:

• a Blaze chocolate bar
• coloring Blaze sheet with set of crayons
• Sticky desk notecube (the cube, not the desk) depicting four blaze designs
• a Blaze ruler
• All-new Blaze caps, t-shirts, and sweatshirts
• six new Blaze magnets
• Halloween books for children and adults
• flashing, blinking bracelets, earrings, and necklaces, and the cute little pumpkn jewelry box shown above

Collect them all!

Yes, it's true. As the graphic states, two of Blaze's 18 nights are sold out as of today...and it's not even October 1! Prime dates of Saturday, October 18 and Saturday, October 25 are gone, gone, gone.

The Blaze powers that be are not kidding when they stress that you really do need to secure your spots in advance.

If you haven't bought yet, you've got 16 days left to choose from, but time slots are quickly selling out. For example, opening night, next Saturday (yay!), only has a few tickets left at 9 and 9:30. October 11 only has a few tickets left at 9:30. The Friday inventory is rapidly depleting. Still on the fence? Click here now to get off of it.

"Do I really have to worry in September about getting tickets for a Halloween event?"

Well, technically, no, you don't have to worry about anything I suppose. But, if you're a Blaze fanatic, or you've spent some time with a Blaze fanatic and are wondering what all the fuss is about and plan to see for yourself this October. Well, then yes, you do need to worry about this sort of thing in September. Because there are a lot of other people like you.

Here's the latest on the ticket availability front...Tickets for Saturdays, Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25, are nearly all gone. You can still book 9:30 slots, and, for Oct. 4 and 11, there are still tickets for the 9 p.m. slots.

From there, those prime Friday night time slots, like 7, 7:30, 8, have dwindling availability for Oct. 11 and, well, that's it.

No day is totally sold out, and some dates have tickets in all slots, so don't despair. But, on a per diem basis, tickets are moving out of inventory at a healthy clip. And once they're gone, they are, well, gone. No government bailout here, folks.

I don't hide the fact that I love pumpkins. Or that I love carved pumpins. And that, specifically, I'm in love with the carved pumpkins at The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. I mean, my blog posts dating back to July 07 offer more than enough evidence for this.

Now, I've oft been accused of having a one-track orange-hued mind and perhaps that's the case, but, consider this: Right now I'm staring at the above image of those four iPod touch (touches?) and I am giddy, giggling like a puppy romping through a pumpkin patch. Those... things... are... COOL. Sleek, button-free, multi-gig holding music and video machines. Yum yum! Apple calls them the "funnest" iPod ever and while the grown-up wordsmith in me recoils in shock, the kid in me loves the idea of having something funner.

Want one? Yea, me too. Thing is, faithful blog readers and Blaze visitors, you have a chance to take YOUR love for the Blaze and all things pumpkin carved and turn it into an iPod touch. It's an unbeatable combination.

You've got FOUR chances to win an iPod touch when you attend Blaze, film some cool video, and post it on YouTube. The Blaze gurus are giving away an iPod EACH WEEK in October. Basically, come to Blaze, film it, edit the footage, and get it on YouTube. Though there's a prize each week, each video can only be entered once. So, if you don't win the first week, rework your work (or come to Blaze again and shoot more) and try the next week. This page has all the gory details.

As you may recall, there was a similar contest last year with one winner. You can check it out here.

And here's our video from '06, which, thanks to the ever-evolving nature of the brilliant Blaze creators, is a little dated now.

That question gets asked a lot w/r/t Blaze, and the answer, quite simply, is the legion of volunteers who help scoop the pumpkins, prepping them for the creative guns, and then lighting the candles each night (err, afternoon, actually. It takes upwards of four hours to get everything lit!).

Some of the folks who pitch in are dedicated individuals who got in touch and offered to lend a hand or two, but many others come as part of a group pitch-in. Among the organizations helping out this year are:

Westchester ARC

Another Step

Living Resources of Northern Westchester

Cardinal McClusky School

Even Start

Pace University 

Ossining High School

Croton High School

Rye Country Day School

John Jay Middle School

Westchester Putnam Boy Scouts

Heart of the Hudson Girl Scouts

United Way volunteer center

Stamford Girl Scouts

Kudos to who are unafraid of getting their hands pumpkiny, like the young lad above shown with carving meister Vern Ford.