The Slice: Hopefully your wish isn’t a hat

According to The Slice Almanac, it is good luck if pine needles fall from a tree and stick in your hair.

It also means you get to make a wish.

And if you are bald and a pine needle hits you in the head, it means it might be time to start wearing a hat.

Slice answers: “I can think of no reason why longtime married couples should not go shopping together,” wrote Dave Wolfe, of Rathdrum. “I just returned from my weekly Friday morning grocery shopping date with my wonderful wife of 48 years. I always look forward to sharing my Friday morning with her.”

But another reader, a woman who asked that I not print her name, said team shopping can be stressful because her spouse —a good guy — acts as if they are being exposed to lethal radiation while in the grocery store and need to hurry and get out as quickly as possible.

Just wondering: When confronted with kids selling cookies or popcorn at a store entrance, are you more apt to buy something if the child is a personality-plus dynamo or if the kid is a sincerely shy mumbler staring at his or her feet?

Announcing The Slice’s 2013 Autumn Leaves Contest: Here are your options.

You can mail in a leaf.

You can email a photo of a local leaf taken this fall.

You can attach a leaf to a kite and fly it up past the gargoyles/printer’s devils to the roof of the Chronicle building.

You can even send in a drawing, painting or origami impression of a leaf, if the art was produced this fall.

All entries should include a brief description of where the leaf was discovered or what inspired the artwork. Feel free to give your leaf a name or title.

The submission deadline is Nov. 1.

Judges will employ incredibly subjective, possibly irrational criteria in selecting winners.

There will be multiple winners and modest prizes.

Be sure to include a daytime phone number and an email address, if you have one.

Good luck.

Today’s Slice question: What’s the first thing that goes through your mind when you hear a cluster of co-workers, classmates or whatever laughing uproariously across the room?