Autumn has begun. It runs Sept. 22 through Dec. 21 and includes my favorite holiday. 

I’m caught in a Halloween web of excitement: creeping on Food Network’s Halloween cooking competition, howling about the 31 days of Halloween movies, considering eerie-sistable Halloween costumes, and I will to take a stab at the Southern Standard Halloween dessert competition. All that is lifting my spirits.

There was a magnificent rainbow on Tuesday evening. Great minds think alike, as quite a few motorists stopped in the emergency lane along Sparta Highway to take pictures of it. One motorist was a state trooper. No judgment, because I was one of them. 

While great minds truly think alike, I was probably alone in my follow-up thoughts. According to folklore, a pot of gold can be found at the end of a rainbow.

“I hope the end of this is at my house. A pot of gold would be sweet. What if I get home and there’s creepy little leprechaun waiting? The magically delicious Lucky Charms guy is OK, but the leprechaun in the movie was malevolent and murderous. I’d dropkick that little sucker over the fence.”

Yes, my thoughts went straight to horror movies. I did laugh at a mental image of me booting the demonic Hollywood version of a leprechaun over the fence, as if I’d be capable of such a thing. If this was a horror movie, I’d be the typical female running and screaming.

I kept a close eye on the end of the rainbow as I drove. It actually seemed to move further away as I drove and nowhere near my house.

The rest of the folklore: You can never find the “end” of a rainbow. If you catch a leprechaun, you can force him to tell you where he hid his pot of gold, which is somewhere at the end of a rainbow. 

Quality picture accomplished. With the image of the horror movie leprechaun still in my head, I decided to pass on trying to find the end of the rainbow. His only weakness is a four leaf clover, wrought iron and destroying his gold. I didn’t have the first two, and if I ever had gold, I couldn’t destroy it.

Someone asked, “What if the leprechaun was being played by Mel Gipson?”

“If he’s miniature sized and creepy, I’d still dropkick him over the fence. No, thank you. There’s about eight of those “Leprechaun” movies and none of them depicted a happy-go-lucky guy.”

Importantly, the Irish folklore Leprechaun was a fairy in the form of a tiny old man often with a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary by nature, he is said to live in remote places and to make shoes and brogues. He avoided people. Hollywood turned him into a creepy killer.

With the beginning of autumn, it’s Halloween time for me and my random thoughts.

Standard reporter Lisa Hobbs can be reached at 473-2191.