The ghosts and witches have flown. Your belly aches of candy. And everywhere - on your trick-or-treater-less front steps, leaf-strewn porch or even nestled among empty beer cans on your kitchen table - are pumpkins. What will you do with these bulbous, orange beasts? Turns out, much good, my friend.Make pumpkin picklesFirst check that your pumpkins aren't sullied by candle wax or other foreign debris. Then chuck your grandma's pie recipes, and try something exciting and fresh: pumpkin pickles.

I watched him walk to the cage. Skinny Black kid from New York. It was Jan. 31, 2009, when he was a mixed martial arts fighter with some local junior college juice trying to make a name for himself. And he was going to try to do it fighting Stephan Bonnar, more affectionately known as "the American Psycho" for vibing like Christian Bale's impossibly clean-cut lunatic from the film of the same name.I was shooting the shit at a sports bar while watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship 94.

Standing in the doorway of a club in Nottingham, England, I watch the bouncer. He shifts from foot to foot. I can't tell if he's just a barbell boy or trains in martial arts as well. But I study bouncers. Having been one is like having owned a certain type of car: You're forever on notice when you see it. I sidle up to him, eliciting some small amount of suspicion and professional cool until he hears me speak and pegs me for an American.

"Him. Really?"My friends were not impressed with my contribution to our brunch topic: If you could meet any celebrity, who would you pick? Laura, who had just finished detailing how she dreams of Patrick Stewart officiating her wedding, could not believe I'd set the bar so low."You could probably just like ... do it. It's Jeff Goldblum. How hard could he be to meet?"I was shocked and a little offended. It was like implying you could "just meet" Beyoncé. Or the concept of Time.

EUGENE, SIR: I told my lover of the past few months that I like rough sex. He proceeded to grab my boobs way too hard. I told him to stop, to be more gentle. During sex he changes positions every four seconds. I tell him to slow down, and then he goes so slow that I can’t stand it. He told me that he read somewhere if he traced the letters of the alphabet when giving me oral it would turn me on like crazy. It does not and has not.

On entering Seattle's Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, there are so many WTF moments it's hard not to get jittery. WTF: "That's not real. Is that real?" WTF: "Can you even have that? I thought that was illegal." WTF: "Did you kill all these butterflies yourself?" WTF: "Aren't you going to give that poor woman a decent burial?"It's the kind of crazy you could find only when looking to buy a present for that special someone in your life - and a generic gift certificate just won't cut it.

Shaun Livingston, fourth overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft and the king of Peoria, Illinois, was supposed to be a chosen one, and for a few years, he was. After turning down a full ride to Duke, Livingston jumped from Peoria Central to the Los Angeles Clippers. His height (6-foot-7), wingspan (6-foot-11) and elite creativity made him one of the most unique young point guards ever.

Because, with all due respect to Queen B, even if you like it, whether you should put a ring on it is still a debatable proposition. Join us for Third Rail With OZY, a new TV show presented by OZY and WGBH, where we debate provocative hot topics with experts and celebrities every Friday night. The subject of this week’s show: “Is Marriage Obsolete?” Tune in Friday at 8:30 p.m.

In 1992, when I was 16, I got my first job at a record store. I loved so many things about it, but mostly I loved the people I worked with. For some reason, they treated me like I was one of them - like an adult.My manager was a pretty, blond 20-something who talked to me as if the 10 years she had on me were negligible. Going to work was like being paid minimum wage to listen to new music and hang out with the cool girl at the back of the bus who shared her secrets about life and boys and sex.

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