Hannibal Book

Literary agent Mort Janklow was in his office here last week when the call came from a familiar voice: "It's finished, Mort," the caller said, "and it's going to be in your office tomorrow."

Literary agent Mort Janklow was in his office here last week when the call came from a familiar voice: "It's finished, Mort," the caller said, "and it's going to be in your office tomorrow."

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.

Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter. Everywhere I go now, I hear about Harry Potter. Six weeks ago, I had never even heard the name Harry Potter. I didn't know Harry Potter from Peter Piper. "Who's Harry Potter?" I asked a woman in a bookstore who had just asked about a book by Harry Potter. "Who's Harry Potter!!!" she replied, as if I had just asked who was Donald Duck. "I don't know his books," I said somewhat sheepishly, although I have never actually listened to a sheep.

New fire chief to battle hazing Los Angeles' incoming fire chief, Douglas Barry, the first African American to head the department, says his bureau's problems of hazing and discrimination are limited in nature. But the 53-year-old assistant chief pledges nonetheless to eradicate them from the troubled department. Barry, who is a 31-year veteran of the fire department, takes over as interim chief Jan. 1 during a maximum year-long formal search for a permanent chief.