mySimon Entertainment Shopping Picks

If you grew up with Pat the Bunny (or read it to your kids), you'll appreciate this new parody book called Pat the Husband. The book is just as interactive as the classic: You can remove the Velcro pants from the husband and put them on the wife, pull a tab to make the husband nod his head in agreement, and more. Wrap this one up with the Porn for Women 2009 calendar.

Can you believe it's been almost 25 years since The Cosby Show first aired on TV? In its 8 seasons, the show that TV Guide says "almost single-handedly revived the sitcom" won 6 Emmys, a Peabody, and 2 Humanitas Prizes. Find out why with this 25th anniversary commemorative edition Cosby Show box set, which comes with 26 DVDs plus a commemorative hardcover book. Bonus features include an interview with the director, a blooper real, and a new interview with Bill Cosby.

The Dreamworks hit Kung Fu Panda is now available on DVD, and is sure to turn up in many a Christmas stocking this year. The movie stars Jack Black as Po, an enthusiastic but clumsy panda whose dream is to become a Kung Fu master. Other famous voices you'll hear include Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, and Ian McShane of Deadwood fame. The DVD contains 3 vignettes, a "Kung Fu Fighting" music video, information on saving wild pandas, and even a feature on how to use chopsticks.

Would you believe the Get Smart box set comes out the same week the new James Bond movie hits theaters? The Emmy Award-winning spy spoof has been digitally restored and packaged in a 25-DVD collection that contains all 138 original episodes from the show's 1965-1970 TV run, plus more than 8 hours of bonus material. More great box sets.

We learned about this 2009 Sarah Palin calendar in this Wall Street Journal article. The calendar features 50 never-before-seen photographs of Palin (as governor and VP candidate) and her family. The photographer, Judy Patrick, a Palin friend and former Vice Mayor of Wasilla, admits to making the calendar because she needs money for a down payment on a condo in Anchorage. So buy the calendar if you want the photos, but keep in mind that none of the profits go to the Palin campaign. Note: There's also an Obama calendar.

Spotted: OMFGG, the first companion soundtrack to the hit CW series Gossip Girl. The 13-song compilation, which became available digitally last month, is now out on CD and features tracks from the Kills, the Virgins, the Teenagers, the Ting Tings, Phantom Planet, and other lonely indie-rock boys. You know you love this show, but we won't tell anyone. XOXO.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year - which conveniently reduces to "HSM3" for texting! - comes out Friday, but you can get the HSM3 soundtrack right now, so you can rehearse the songs and then annoy everyone else in the theater. The soundtrack has all new music by the original songwriters and performances by the original cast, and it comes with a ring tone, fold-out poster, and "unlock more rock" content. We're not entirely sure what that means, but we assume it's an access code to more music on the HSM3 website.

This weekend we saw one of the best live performances we've seen in years, that of "gypsy punk" band Gogol Bordello, featuring guitars, violin, accordion, Latin percussion, and spastic frontman Eugene Hutz, who co-starred in Everything is Illuminated, and who is partially to blame for the return of the hipster mustache. But we forgive him for that because his band, which is made up of musicians from all over the world, is so amazing live. We just ordered their most recent album, Super Taranta. Highly recommended for people who enjoy rock, ska, folk, reggae, or any kind of Eastern European music.

We know a few women who saw the Sex and the City movie more than once, just so they could get another look at all the fabulous shoes, clothes, and handbags (the 3 stars of the movie). Now that the movie is out on DVD, they can watch it as often as they want - and press the pause button whenever they need to get a better look at an outfit. The DVD features commentary from the director, additional scenes, and a feature on the film's fashions. (Say that last part 3 times fast.) Compare prices on the Sex and the City TV series box set. More Sex and the City shopping.

Time magazine calls these Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones "Chronically good." Rolling Stone calls them "truly badass." And CNET says that, in addition to delivering on bass, the headphones are "nicely warm and balanced in the mids and truly impressive in their delivery of high-end detail." We say: They better be impressive for $350! The glossy headphones feature XL speaker drivers, powered amplification, active noise canceling, iPhone compatibility, and Dr. Dre's stamp of approval. And they ship with several useful accessories, including AAA batteries, a hardshell carrying case, two 3.5mm audio cables, and an airplane adapter.

Introducing the new, slightly-more-affordable iPod Touch, a device Apple calls "the funnest iPod ever." It's a hair thicker than its predecessor, but now it has built-in volume controls, a built-in speaker, Nike+ hardware and software, more games (including Spore: Origins), and longer battery life (up to 36 hours for music, 6 hours for video). The new iPod Touch is priced at $229 for the 8GB version, $299 for the 16GB version, and $399 for the 32GB version.

When we heard about the 5 year diary, we had to order several copies to give as gifts. The diary is a clothbound, hardcover book that lets you keep track of your life with just a few lines every day for 5 years. Each page of the diary is devoted to one day of the year and subdivided into 5 sections (one for each of 5 years). So as you're writing what happened on December 1, 2009 you'll be reminded of what happened on December 1, 2008. The dates are blank, so you can start on any day of the year, even a leap year. The perfect gift for new parents, people who might not otherwise keep diaries, and people who appreciate good design.

Steve Jobs introduced a number of new products this week, including the 4th generation iPod Nano. Available in 9 different colors, the Nano is back to its former vertical (as opposed to short and squat) self, with a curved aluminum and glass design. Features include iTunes 8, an autoplaylist feature called Genius that finds and plays similar songs, voice recording, and accelerometer (the thing that switches the screen orientation when you turn it sideways). Also, you can shake it to make it go into Shuffle mode. Choose 8GB or 16GB.

Volume two begins four months after the Emmy Award-nominated first season's explosive finale, just as the heroes are struggling, once again, to adapt to normal existence. The 4-disc set contains all the TV episodes, plus some bonus features with untold stories and an alternate ending to the season finale. Compare prices on the first season of Heroes.

Several months ago we were regularly volunteering to babysit for our friends with fancy on-demand cable, just so we could watch episodes from the final season of The Wire. We never did get to see all of them, but as of today, Season 5 of The Wire is out on DVD, so you'll know where to find us when we're not at work - glued to the sofa, in front of the TV. The official teaser reads: "Times are tough for the detail. Mayor Carcetti has slashed the departments budget to the bone. Police are operating without overtime, some without cars and radios. Angered, McNulty is off the rails again and headed down a dangerous path of deception and lies that will ally him with an unscrupulous reporter. The drug trade still rules the corners, all you have to do is read between the lines."

Spotted: Breaking Dawn, the much-hyped final book in Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight saga, in the hands of thousands of women and girls dying to know if Bella will marry Edward and finally and permanently join the Cullen family. If you like stories about vampires, werewolves, and high school love, check out this series. Or be lazy like us and wait for the movie versions. Twilight hits theaters December 12th.

Celebrate George Carlin's life with All My Stuff, the 14-disc career retrospective that came out last year. The DVD set includes 12 of his HBO concert specials, spans nearly 30 years, and includes some of his memorable routines: "Baseball and Football," "A Place for My Stuff," "Losing Things," "Al Sleet the Hippie-Dippie Weather Man," "Hitler," "We Like War," "It's Not A Sport," "Why We Don't Need Ten Commandments," and - of course - the legendary "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." More George Carlin DVDs.

We're a little surprised to learn about a new book called Embracing Your Big Fat Ass: An Owner's Manual. Isn't that Kim Kardashian's entire raison d'etre? Has the world forgotten Sir Mix-a-Lot? But we guess there's still a market for a "gleefully frank" self-help book that "encourages readers to accept and love every inch of themselves - including the lumpier parts." We can't wait for the movie version.

David Sedaris, the author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, has a new book out called When You Are Engulfed in Flames. The book is a collection of personal essays, many of which have already been published in The New Yorker, about everything from youth to travel to quitting smoking. The New York Observer says "The essays are careful accretions of detail and incident that build to some kind of payoff, perhaps a laugh, perhaps a jolt of identification. The Sedaris genius is to be incredibly particular, not to mention peculiar, and yet take fantastic and rapid leaps to the universal."