^{*OK, it's not really Bavaria}

Really, what's more pitiful than a bear robbed of its fur (and dignity) by unexplained forces, put on display for the rubbernecking public's amusement? But there'll be no mercy in Leipzig, where crowds of voyeuristic Germans are flocking to the zoo to observe the plight of spectacled bear Dolores and her fellow female ursine inmates, all of whom are suffering from the same rash of inexplicable baldness.

Yesterday, we noted the lawsuit brought against Activision by the band No Doubt, who appear in the just-released how-is-this-not-Guitar-Hero game Band Hero. Previously, we've discussed the legal action taken by Courtney Love based upon her late husband's much-maligned appearance in Guitar Hero 5

Epic has released the Unreal Development kit, a version of their Unreal Engine, for everyone to use with the hopes of some genuinely creative, cutting-edge games emerging from a more democratized process. The Unreal Engine, as you may be aware, formed the basis for numerous awesome games, including BioShock and Gears of War

After writing about "Disney's A Christmas Carol" earlier this week, I fell into a cold sweat, a panic attack as if I was about to remember something I was trying to forget.

Details of that movie - the dim sense of hideous entities invading the bedroom, the flashing lights, the feeling of being lifted bodily from under the covers to some horrifying destination - touched on something repressed and dreadful.

It's been a long time coming for you. We didn’t want to believe that you were really going out of business -- but it turns out that you have declared bankruptcy and you’re suffering a messy legal aftermath.

We hope you keep your doors open as long as feasibly possible -- after all, we voted you Best Asian Grocery this year -- but we have come to accept that you are on your deathbed, and nothing short of a miracle cure will bring you back to your glory days.

Conservatives are having a field day with Barack Obama's remarks yesterday on the Fort Hood shootings--or, more specifically, with the strange, incongruous prelude to those remarks.

Readers of this blog will know that I'm a pretty liberal dude. But I must say, the president screwed up here. Check out the official White House video (!):

Soon after we decided to have Chris Faraone write about Boston's rat problem for this week's cover story, we realized that we would need a picture of some Boston rats. Sure, we could just have someone draw a rat, or dip into the vast depths of clip-art hell, but ultimately, we wanted to someone to snap a photo of a Boston rat in the wild.

If you want to destroy your sweater .

Stacy Jones spent the first 15 years of his rock life, much of it in Boston, grinding out power-pop in the years before emo made it a staple of Top 40 radio. He got his start as the drummer in Letters to Cleo, left that band to join grunge-era stars Veruca Salt, then pulled a Dave Grohl and traded his kit for a guitar as the frontman of his own band, AMERICAN HI-FI, scoring a debut hit with their pop-metal homage “Flavor of the Weak.

John Irving writes overwrought, Dickensian novels, and he’s damned proud of it. The New England-born author spent much of his reading at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Tuesday night defending himself against imaginary criticisms of his work — criticisms that were remarkably similar to the New York Times’ review of Irving’s new book, Last Night in Twisted River

In his unparalleled exposé on the plight of urban vermin and those of us who live among them, Rats author Robert Sullivan describes one scene in which a woman is viciously attacked by rodents during the 1979 New York City garbage strike. The Phoenix also collected some revolting rat tales.

KENMORE SQUARE, FALL 2007 A local marijuana advocate reports that his girlfriend’s car has had its battery cables chewed by furry critters.

^{'arry and the 'otters (from the original British)}

Grant Hart + The Lights Out | Wednesday, December 16 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $9 | On sale Thursday at 10 am | http://www.ticketmaster.com

Molina & Johnson + Drew O'Doherty | Saturday, January 31 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $10 | On sale Thursday at 10 am | http://www.

Photo: David Brusie

On her new Kill Rock Stars release, Know Better Learn Faster, Thao Nguyen starts the song "Easy" with this line, spoken matter-of-factly: "Sad people dance too." That sentiment is also fitting for Nguyen's work in general. Her songs both deal with heartbreak and longing, but often to the strains of her catchy choruses and choppy, funky, and melodic guitar playing.

“From studying astrophysics, listening to my wise father, or from problem solving in my own artwork, for every question answered several more questions arise. This is an exciting motivator, not a deterrent, when pursuing my artistic objectives. I continually seek a deeper understanding of the creative process and the implication it has to my work.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I take a look at Governor Deval Patrick, who has found himself, for once, left out of the spotlight and off the front pages. In theory, the distraction of the local elections and US Senate race is providing a perfect respite for Patrick and his team to regroup, re-staff,strategize, prepare, and be ready to emerge with some political victories heading into his re-election year.

Did you ever notice how all the classic Holiday movies are about capitalism? Not surprising given the fact that the season is the epitome of consumer culture, an annual shopping spree which, this year more than ever, sustains our economy.

And so we have It's a Wonderful Life (1946), the Frank Capra perennial which centers around a systemic financial failure, the distraught and suicidal owner of an insolvent building and loan company, and a conniving capitalist eager to reap profit from the misery of others.

It's been a year since that night in Chicago, which for photographer SCOUT TUFANKJIAN was the end of a two-year journey that had started with a New Hampshire book tour by the then-junior Senator from Illinois, who had not yet declared his intention to run for the nation's highest office.

Oh, Nintendo. You have simply got to stop doing shit like this. It is possible to take interactive gaming too far.

You want gamer parents to put that wonderful vibrating wii-mote inside a baby doll (let's not even start on that one) and give it to their little daughters to play with? Creepy child pregnancy implications aside, what the crap is up with that baby's deadened Uncanny Valley eyes? Plus the extensive make-up on the little girl's cheeks make her look more like a fevered cult victim than a rosy-faced, innocent gamer-to-be.