Toy hamsters, booze and bear meat

Now it can be told. When given a choice, fruit flies will choose booze over abstinence. They choose rotting fruit over the healthy stuff. We study fruit flies too much.

Have you tried the McNuggetini? On YouTube, you can watch two rising e-stars tell you how to make the disgusting drink with vanilla vodka and BBQ sauce. Try the Ham Daiquiri, too.

You can stir-fry it, boil, broil, make, microwave or cook it over an open campfire, but eat some bear meat and you are likely to get trichinosis. Freezing doesn’t work. Nor does well-done. This will be your only warning. (And give me some credit for resisting any Sarah Palin temptation.)

How cold does it get in Minnesota? Well, cold enough that locals wrap their evergreens in burlap. Itchy, but it protects plant from drying winter wind and sun.

The manufacturer says the hot Zhu Zhu battery-powered Christmas hamster is for kids three and up. But the New Yorker writer Patricia Marx thinks the toy is for cats three and under.