Monsters

Hannibal Rising Thomas Harris Delacorte Press / 496 pages / $31.95 In The Philosophy of Horror, Noel Carroll argues that monsters violate our core conceptual frameworks. By merging otherwise exclusive states of being - zombies, for example, are both alive and dead - they undermine our faith in a safe and orderly universe. Their threat is as much existential as physical. Which brings us to Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a.k.a. Hannibal the Cannibal, the serial killer who parlayed his cameo in Thomas Harris' fine 1981 thriller, Red Dragon, into a franchise that reaches its fourth installment in Harris' new novel, Hannibal Rising.

Against the Day Thomas Pynchon Penguin Press / 1,086 pages / $35 Nearly 50 years into the Thomas Pynchon era, it's our failing if we don't understand the author's manner and method, which are inseparable from the artifacts he has produced. Despite the legendary slowness of his process, and his even more legendary "reclusiveness," Pynchon has delivered seven books, including four massive novels. Yet is there another contemporary "master" whose career is more routinely subjected to reassessment with each new work?

One of the scariest moments in the horror movie genre is when the baby-sitter gets the telephone call telling her, "He's in the house with you!" The "he," of course, is the bad guy/murderer/monster. The week leading up to today's celebration of Halloween has given us lots of spine chillers to entertain us. One of the classic scary bad-guy stories is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. A best-seller in 1816 and rarely out of print since, Frankenstein is probably the most beautifully written of all scary books.

This summer, a federal court overturned Maryland's so-called Fair Share Health Care law. This law would have forced large employers, primarily Wal-Mart, to spend at least 8 percent of their payrolls on health care or contribute an equal amount to Maryland Medicaid. This wrongheaded bill arose from the notion that Wal-Mart relies on Medicaid to provide health care to many of its employees, thus forcing other taxpayers to subsidize its labor costs. Medicaid spending is indeed out of control, but it's not because companies such as Wal-Mart are abusing it. Rather, it's because the program gives politicians an incentive to overspend.

I BOUGHT A CAR RECENTLY -- A 2004 Mini Cooper -- and I'm besotted with it. It is yellow with a white roof, and each night, when I get home from work, I obsessively wash away all the debris that has accumulated during the day. Then I park it in the garage and pat it on its hood before saying goodnight. Not only is this behavior ridiculous, it is completely out of character. I've always thought of cars essentially as transportation, demonstrated by my previous ride, a beat-up, rusting 1990 Toyota Camry with 167,000 miles.

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.

The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler Little, Brown / 336 pages / $24.95 The sleep of reason brings forth monsters," proclaimed one of Goya's best-known etchings, created when Europe, having dozed off at the end of its Age of Reason, was awakening to some real monsters: the Reign of Terror and the Napoleonic wars. And there were fictional ones too: the horrors of the Gothic novel, and the most famous Gothic of them all, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

In the spirit of - or a blatant rip-off of, depending on your view - Entertainment Weekly's "What to Watch" feature, today I take a stroll through the coming week's sports television offerings. French Open, today, 10 a.m., NBC: Men's semifinals. Being this is Breakfast at Roland Garros, the losers would be French toast. We Live Outdoors, today, noon, OLN: If you do, how can you pick up OLN? B.A.S.S. Insider, tomorrow, 8 a.m., ESPN: Insider? You just knew, with those mouths wide-open, the fish were talking.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A side note to Daniel Cabrera's wild outing and Jonny Gomes' game-winning grand slam on Wednesday night was Kevin Millar's first two home runs as an Oriole. Millar said yesterday that the game's end result overrode his personal accomplishment, although his second home run, a bases-empty shot off Shawn Camp in the ninth inning, was particularly gratifying because he hit it to dead center field. With Boston last year, Millar admitted he became too pull conscious, playing home games with Fenway Park's Green Monster looming in left field.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and other Sea Monsters By Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart Candlewick Press/$27.99 Award-winning pop-up artists Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart are releasing the companion book to their fantastic, Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs, with an equally delightful read about sharks and underwater creatures from the ancient seas. It's tough not to rave about these children's books. They are imaginative, interesting, well-written and just plain fun. In addition, the art comes alive, with three-dimensional dinosaurs and sharks leaping off the page to grab your attention.