The OSU Buckeyes meet the Boilermakers of Purdue at Ohio Stadium this afternoon at 330pm. Leading the team again this week will be freshman phenom quarterback, Terelle Pryor. The 18-year-old, 6' 6" 235lb. Pryor will be making his third start after winning former quarterback Todd Boeckman's job early in the season. Said OSU running back, Chris "Beanie" Wells to ESPN about Pryor, "I told him, 'It's a man's world right now, and he's taking a step into manhood right now. He said he was ready."

Ohio State is ranked #12 with a record of 5-1, having lost to former #1 USC early in the season. Purdue, a fellow Big Ten Conference team, is 2-3 and unranked. The Boilermakers have not won at Ohio Stadium since 1988.

For more about OSU Football, see:

• OSU Football Schedule
• Coach Jim Tressel
• OSU Apparel

by Sandy Mitchell

^{(image © Jamie Sabu)}

The 102nd Circleville Pumpkin Festival starts Wednesday, October 15 and continues through Saturday, October 18. The streets of Circleville, located about an hour's drive south of Columbus, are transformed into a sea of pumpkins, gourds, and squashes for the festival. In addition there are parades, arts & crafts, kids activities, and all of the pumpkin goodies you can consume.

According to the organizers, the event attracts more than 100,000 visitors each day and more than 23,000 pumpkin pies are sold each year.

Admission is free and the festival is open from 11am on Wednesday and from 10am the following days. For more information, including a full daily schedule, visit the Circleville Pumpkin Festival Web site.

For more about Pumpkin shows in Ohio, see:

• Bradford (Ohio) Pumpkin Show
• Pumpkins in NE Ohio

by Sandy Mitchell

^{(photo courtesy of Ohio Channel.com)}

Columbus doesn't have the Amityville Horror house pictured here (gee, sounds like our CVB's ad campaign), but we do have some local haunts. At least, according to local modern day ghostbuster Jim Willis. I once had the opportunity to arrange for Willis, director and founder of “Ghosts of Ohio” to speak at a local library. Willis, a popular man both at Halloween and year round, spoke of things seen and unseen as well as different energy types. He clarified that hauntings generally come in one of two forms - residual and intelligent. Residual is a built up form of energy that plays the same scenario out - over and over again. It would be like watching Lizzie Borden sharpen her axe, every night at 9:00 p.m.

The other form of haunting happens when an entity feels tied to a particular space and time. Or tied to a particular place. Maybe it’s unfinished business. Maybe they don’t realize that they’re dead. Whatever the case, these beings just sort of hang out. That’s what experts in paranormal activity hope to see anyway.

Some may scoff at Willis’ life work. But there’s a national interest in ghosts right now. Everyone from the Sci-Fi Channel to the Travel Channel to the Discovery Channel have produced shows on the subject. Views turn in every week to see if paranormal activity registers on the ghost seekers fancy gadgets. Maybe that smudge in the photo really is great-aunt Hagatha.

Related story: Weird Central Ohio

^{Photo ©Getty Images}

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Are there any leaves left in Ohio? Or did Hurricane Ike blow them all into upstate New York?

Yes, there are still plenty of leaves changing color around the Buckeye state. If you would like to take a fall leaf tour to view some of nature's color before you have to rake it, here are several Web sites you will want visit before you go: Fall Leaf Tours

^{Photo courtesy of Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources}

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