I've had an epiphany...
It started with D'Arcy's impeccable logic about Why Venom can't be in Spiderman 4, where D'Arcy uses the Design-Patterns-Girl (DPG for short) from the Head First Design Patterns book as an example. Design-Patterns-Girl + symbiote != Venom.
Next, I stumble upon Justice's incredibly intuitive review of the head-First Design Patterns book. I have seen this book at Borders lots of times and Amazon keeps telling me that I *want* this book. But the graphics on the front have always screamed "I am a 'Teach Yourself Photoshop' picture pop-up book", so I've never even given it a second glance (although Justice's explanation of the DPG is right-on).
So this is real design patterns? Wow. Now I will have to pick it up. Of course, my wife won't understand that it is a legitimate programming book with the DPG on the cover!