When you know you’re about to face a series of stress-filled days at work as the two-year presidential campaign comes to an end, what do you do to blow off steam before plunging once again into the abyss?

If you’re me, you go to a farm field in Delaware and watch people shoot pumpkins out of air cannons and trebuchets. Well, really, it’s just an excuse to pound some beers, eat some soul food, listen to some local bands and basically act stupid with 50,000 or so other folks at the annual World Championship Punkin’ Chunkin’.

Yes, pumpkins do fly, and they fly with style. You’re inevitably hit by a certain feeling when you look overhead — way overhead, as in hundreds of feet overhead — and realize that a pumpkin is drifting lazily across the horizon, far into the distance. In all likelihood, you either think that’s fabulous or you think you have made the stupidest decision of your life in coming to this event. Obviously, I’m of the former school of thought.

This was my second trip to the Chunkin’, which also offers an excuse to spend a lovely fall weekend in nearby Rehoboth Beach. The weather could not have been any more perfect for this time of year, and I unplugged about as well as I’m going to unplug this close to an election.

Here’s some video of the event, put up on YouTube in 2006. The Science Channel had a crew on hand for this year’s chunkin’, and a special (in HD!) is planned for Thanksgiving night: