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Did you have a happy Halloween? Not me. I made the mistake of attending the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and found myself in the midst of the boob warfare that was being waged on the streets of New York City. Let's just say that's not a lot of fun for a girl whose only ammunition is at home in her sock drawer.

But happily 1,061 residents of Denver, Colorado made far better use of the holiday. Setting a new Guinness Book World Record, these folks donned gorilla costumes and ran 3.5 miles to raise money for the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund, which continues the work of noted gorilla lady, Dian Fossey.

The charity run charges first time participants $100 to enter the race - part of the cost of which goes to the purchase of a gorilla suit (presumably not made of real gorillas), and each entrant is asked to raise at least $300. Don't know exactly how much was made this year, but suffice to say, that kind of money can buy a lot of bananas.

We're not haters.  Just because we're beer lovers doesn't mean that we dislike wine.  (Lovers, not fighters...) We're big fans of fermented grape-juice.  We admire wine's nuance and mystique.  We have bottles of Bordeaux aging alongside our beer collections.  The bottom line, however, is that beer just happens to be more versatile in flavor profiles.  It simply offers a wider breadth of flavors than wine. (We're prepared for some angry letters.)  There are some beers as sour as a kumquat or fresh yogurt, there are beers with pine tree resin flavors that coat the tongue.  There are beers that taste like a shot of espresso and others brewed with coriander and juniper.  Beer's many flavors and styles are liberating and pair well with a plethora of foods.  This is why we knew that part of our book had to be devoted to beer's relationship with food - why we discuss the beauty of the beer dinner - and why we called upon chefs to share recipes that use beer as an ingredient.  Beer belongs with food.  If you're just delving into the craft beer world and are beginning to move your beer pairings beyond bar menu items like Buffalo wings and chili cheese fries, be prepared to taste food again for the first time. 

Here are five foods that we feel pair best with beer.  Skeptics, it's time to zip it, and let your taste buds decide.  Beer lovers be prepared for validation.

1) Grilled Artichokes - Notoriously difficult to pair with wine, artichokes make most wines taste sweet due to a complex compound (cynarin) that affects our taste buds.  Indeed, the flavors of an artichoke are difficult to describe, but a Saison can be a perfect pairing with its citrus and spicy notes that enhance the artichoke's flavors.  Just imagine a squeeze of lemon and a dash of pepper.

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True story:  Hamlet was my first boyfriend. 

It was the summer of 1995. The O.J. Simpson trial was in full swing, as was a war in the Balkans. Much smaller dramas were taking place in my hometown of Marblehead, Massachusetts. I was thirteen and rehearsing for my fifth production with a children's theatrical troupe called the Rebel Shakespeare Company.

This was what we did, my friends and I. While our peers played sports or hung out at the mall developing social skills, we rehearsed and performed Shakespeare plays in an old Revolutionary War fort-turned-park. Our audiences consisted mostly of extremely patient parents steeled for a long afternoon of watching children in velvet capes shout unintelligibly over the roar of overhead airplanes. But we loved it. Those summers were imbued with the kind of magic that can only be created by combining the thrill of performing some of the greatest scenes in the English language with approximately one zillion hormones.

Naturally, it was a recipe for romance.

In our production, Hamlet was played by a young actor who was a big star in the Marblehead children's acting scene. Everybody thought he was going to grow up to be famous, including him. He had floppy red hair, a scattering of freckles, way too much energy, and a not-at-all secret crush on me.