Pumpkins

What do you do to celebrate a birthday? If you're like this Midwestern man, you float down the Missouri River in a hollowed-out pumpkin to set a world record.

Before you carve your jack-o-lantern this Halloween, you might want to try one of these hacks to make the task a lot easier, (and less messy too).

Sure, our state certainly takes its share of slings and arrows for ongoing problems like political corruption, pension problems, high taxes, and a population that continues to shrink, but you have to give us our props when it comes to pumpkins.

What did my eyes just see? If I didn't know better, I'd think these were zebras running wild in Illinois. Shockingly, that's absolutely correct.