Last week, as summer gave way to(让位于) pumpkin season, I found myself contemplating(沉思，凝视) the final squash. Like the horror movie trope(套路，常见主题) of the final girl(恐怖片中的“最后女孩”套路) staggering(踉跄，蹒跚) out of the woods after the massacre(大屠杀), this squash is the sole(唯一的) survivor. All her sister squashes had either been cooked and eaten or left to rot. Now, my killing days were almost over. There would be no sequel(续集).
上周，当夏天让位于南瓜季节时，我发现自己正对着最后一个南瓜陷入沉思。就像恐怖片里大屠杀后踉跄走出森林的“最后女孩”一样，这个南瓜是唯一的幸存者。她的所有姐妹南瓜要么被煮熟吃掉，要么烂掉了。如今，我的杀戮岁月几乎结束了。不会再有续集。
Or, to put it less dramatically(说得不那么夸张): after six years, we have quit the local organic veg bag collective(合作社，集体), which delivered to a nearby pickup point a bag of organic, local seasonal veg once a week. And as a result the mental load(精神负担) and emotional labour(情感劳动) of having to contemplate and devise(设计，想出) a use for various esoteric(深奥的，小众的) kinds of veg is finally, mercifully( mercifully 地，幸运地), over.
或者，说得不那么戏剧化一点：六年之后，我们退出了本地有机蔬菜袋合作社，该合作社每周一次将一袋有机、本地的应季蔬菜送到附近的取货点。结果，那种不得不琢磨各种稀奇古怪的蔬菜并想出用法的精神负担和情感劳动，终于 mercifully 结束了。
I approached the final squash the way I had many, many of her contemporaries(同辈，同时代的东西). First, I tried to identify her so I could work out how to cook it and whether the skin was edible or not. “Medium-sized frilly(有褶边的) orange pumpkin type” I wrote into Google. No match was forthcoming(即将到来的，可得到的). Then I took a picture of it and did an image search. Still no match. For all its supposed miraculous capabilities, during my own experiments AI has never successfully identified a single pumpkin.(尽管人工智能号称有种种神奇能力，但在我自己的实验中，它从未成功识别出任何一个南瓜。)
我走向最后一个南瓜，就像之前对待她的许多许多同辈一样。首先，我试图辨认她，以便弄清楚怎么烹饪，以及皮能不能吃。我在谷歌里输入“中等大小、带褶边的橙色南瓜类”。没有匹配结果。然后我拍了张照片，做了图像搜索。仍然没有匹配。尽管人工智能号称有种种神奇能力，但在我自己的实验中，它从未成功识别出任何一个南瓜。