Monsters

Do you know Pikachu? The yellow, mouse-like monster (right) is the favorite critter of Nintendo's super-hot Game Boy game, "Pokemon."How hot is the game? Since Nintendo launched the game in the United States in September, about 2.4 million games have been sold. "Pokemon," which means "Pocket Monsters," is a video game from Japan.When the Yak visited Japan about a year and a half ago, everywhere he went, he saw kids playing with Pocket Monsters.Right now, there are two versions of the game to plug in to your Game Boy -- red and blue.

Reality Check Big, Ugly and costly If you can't get enough of the perplexingly popular plush Uglydolls, you can buy a whole lot of Ugly with this giant, 6-foot version. The cuddly monsters - featured in the space movie Zathura - were born several years ago of a long-distance relationship between two artists, who sketched and then sewed the characters as tokens of affection across the miles. From modernnursery.com. RETAIL PRICE: $600 Steal of the Week Right on track For the child who just loves to move a train around its tracks, this railroad from IKEA offers tons of fun at a low price.

So it has come to this: Parents of five San Diego children are suing the makers of Pokemon on the grounds that collecting the trading cards is an illegal for of gambling. Are 'pocket monsters" on cards any different from ball players? Can a holographic Charzard card realy be worth more than Roger Clemans' rookie card? Parents, do you think this is harmful to youth (even leading to counterfeiting) or just another kids craze? Is there any educational value behind the Pokemon phenomenon, or is it another mass-merchandising distraction?

Title: "Monsters in Our Midst"Editor: Robert BlochPublisher: TorLength, price: 303 pages, $20.95Although Robert Bloch has written, in his career of nearly 60 years, dozens of novels and even more short stories, he is best known for bringing to literary life one of the world's most famous psychotics, Norman Bates. Yet Norman is just one of several psychos Mr. Bloch has, through his fiction, loosed upon this innocent world of ours.Now, with "Monsters in Our Midst," Mr. Bloch puts to excellent use his experience with these psychotic individuals to deliver an anthology filled with people who may well look just like you and me, but who walk to the beat of a decidedly darker drummer.

Pokemons may look like cute, cuddly little monsters, but they can whup even Godzilla when it comes to sales. Since storming the U.S. toy industry last fall, all things Pokemon (pronounced poke-ee-mahn), the latest toy craze from Japan, have been emptying the wallets of pre-adolescent boys and girls (and their parents) nationwide.Here's how big it is:* Nintendo has sold 1.7 million of the Pokemon hand-held Gameboy video games (more than $45 million worth), making it the company's biggest seller ever.

The room is slightly larger than a two-car garage, which is why it's surprising to find it half-filled by a three-eyed, six-tentacled, green sea monster. The billowy thing-from-the-deep, crafted from an old nylon parachute, floats more than 10 feet off the ground - aided by a powerful fan. It's bug-eyed with nine pointy teeth but still somehow less menacing than playful. Part of an exhibit called The Inflatables, it will be on view in Pearlstone Park next weekend as part of Artscape, the city's 25th annual celebration of the arts.

BOSTON -- It was a tame Halloween after all. The most popular costume on the market wasn't a super villain but an accidental superhero, Spider-Man. The small revelers on this death-defying holiday were dressed as angels. I suppose the kids have had enough fear to go around this year. For weeks, there had been a boogeyman on the highways and on the news. Monsters had seemed far too real. A sniper loomed over the landscape, growing in stature with every shooting. The analysts described him as a skilled marksman, a demonic genius, an intelligent and extraordinary serial killer.

Keith Tishken's photograph "Monsters: Up From Below" features a partial face -- eyes and nose -- that stares out at the viewer menacingly. Its eyes don't want to let you go.It's part of a poster, revealed as other posters plastered over it have worn or been torn away. Pieces of the superimposed posters obscure the bottom of the face, making it look as if it's rising out of the depths with some evil purpose in mind. It might be a still from a horror movie.This is one of Tishken's series called "Urban Landscapes," currently on view at Baltimore Camera Works.

"You should read 'Monsters Don't Scuba Dive' by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones because it is a mystery. The kids try to see if the swimming coach is a monster." -- Stephen Williams Longfellow Elementary "I read 'Nate the Great Goes Down in the Dumps' by Marjorie Weinman Sharmot. In this book, Nate was looking for Rosamond's lost money box. I believe that third- and fourth - graders would enjoy this mystery because it is funny to read about Nate's new cases." -- Darlene Brulinski Harford Hills Elementary "My favorite book is 'The Creepy Computer Mystery' by Elizabeth Levy.

LOS ANGELES -- In the hills above Los Angeles stands th Acker mansion, wherein reside Forrest J. Ackerman, dozens of Draculas and Frankenstein monsters, and a ghoulish army of mummies and monsters.Mr. Ackerman -- his friends call him "Forry" -- isn't a bit scary. A jovial man of 75 with a trim mustache and horn-rimmed glasses, he has methodically amassed the world's largest private collection of treasures from horror and science fiction films.At his gate, a large black spider has spun a web. "Don't step on it," Mr. Ackerman warns.