Throughout today and tomorrow, culture writers, editors and assorted n'er-do-wells will be gathering in sunny Somerville, MA to brainstorm about ideas and directions for the magazine. And then, candlepin bowling.

But we're just a small crew, so we need all the help we can get. Post your ideas and suggestions to this thread, and I will pass them on to the editorial team. Let us know what you think!

My own contribution to the growing, ah, corpus of Halloween tales. Submit your own story and win a bag of cheesy treats! Possible biological inaccuracy to follow:

At one time, I thought of them like you probably do. Dumb creatures. Afraid of the sunrise. Flockers, robbed by selective breeding of their essential stubborn goatness. Turned into pale blobs of wool and meat.

This story comes from my friend, Kristi Petersen Schoonover:

Hives. Nausea. Anaphylaxis. She’d been at a cheese sampling with her lover Emil when it happened. Thank God her husband Jack hadn’t found out; Emil had dropped her at the hospital and hurried away.

So, my favorite holiday hits this weekend, and I was curious: is anyone going to risk a full-house egging and TP drape and just give away actual Babybels at the door? Delightful as these salty little snacks are, they are clearly only one short rung above toothbrushes in the Halloween hierarchy, when only sweet will do.

According to Josh Kramer, "If there are two things that I love, they are comics and cheese."

"This summer I discovered that a cheese I had been selling for years, Tarentaise, is made only twenty-five minutes from where I live now in Vermont. I went there recently, just as the leaves were turning, and was blown away by the beauty of the place...."

Alright, after a week's worth of consideration, and a number of worthy entries, I've made my biased and arbitrary decision: Alyssa Dyane's seafood risotto has won her a kilo of Vialone Nano risotto rice.

Besides including the tasty scallop, there were two decisive elements to Alyssa's win...

Caseus Veneti is the Veneto region's annual cheese show and competition:

Will someone give me a hand?

The Veneto region grows one of the world's best strains of rice. Vialone Nano is a short grain that's hard to find in US stores, but is supposed to beat Arborio in the risotto game.

I learned this on two successive trips to two rice producers, where I was given six 2 lb. bags of this rice to take home with me. My backneck hurts just looking at it. Anyone want a bag?

Post your favorite risotto recipe in the comments. I will send the best recipe a heavy, heavy bag of premium-quality Vialone Nano.