I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I actually started writing one about a fake paparazzi service that comes to teenage parties and publishes "magazines" about the "stars" but then I just felt old and crabby and decided to quit. Such is life, right?

If you wanted to read some things I wrote elsewhere you can see what I consider my "drop-everything" movies at the AV Club, my analysis of last night's "Project Runway" and my wrap-up thoughts on "Dracula" here. I will also have some interviews for you when they come back to me.

But I'm really here to talk about the bald bear. This is Dolores, a bear from a zoo in Leipzig, Germany. What she usually looks like, anyway:

But lately Dolores and her other female companion have come down with an affliction that would horrify most women--her hair has fallen out and now she looks like this:

The bald bear elicited so many emotions from me that I'm simply captivated by it. I feel the need to sort out my feelings. For instance:

1) Humor. I can't help it but something about peeved/embarrassed-looking animals is funny to me. Maybe because they usually look so stoic so seeing an animal with a look of human-type annoyance (especially with the squinched-up eyes), an emotion I can well identify with, is delightfully unusual.

2) Fear. If you were walking in the woods and that bald bear ambled by you you would possibly think it was a werewolf, wouldn't you? You would.

3) Disgust. It's not so much the baldness but the sagginess. And the feet. Bald bear feet=not cute.

4) Sympathy. I feel bad for Dolores. I would feel horrible if I lost my hair, and I need it even less than she does.

Anyway. I just wanted to share the bald bear with you and see, if like me, she made you feel real human emotions for the first time in a long time I guess the old saying is true: a bald bear is sad and funny and scary and weird.