You can use the default format returned by scalar localtime or you can do your own. Localtime is slick in that it converts the input (non-leap seconds of the epoch... usually from Jan 1 1970) into an array of useful data. You can then access that array and use the info any way you want. I definately recomend viewing the man page but I'll give you an example:

@info = localtime( $time ); # You provide $time, or get it from time()
$stamp = (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, De
+c)[$info[4]];
$stamp .= ' ';
$stamp .= $info[3];
$stamp .= ' ';
$stamp .= 1900 + $info[5];
print $stamp;
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This gives the format you suggested of Month DD YYYY