"If the French could learn anything from Americans, that would be to have more fun with the food, while Americans could definitely be introduced to portion control." -- The Morning News sponsors a roundtable among a few French Women Bloggers, who may or may not Get Fat, including the excellent Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini. C'est bon!

Welcome to the Home of the Solar Death Ray! -- So cheerful, for such a diabolical device. Inspired by genius Rob Cockerham, this dude built a solar reflector to basically heat stuff up a lot with...like, for example, marshmallow Peeps. Rock on!

Ticket Stub: Last week's Ladies Movie Night choice was a delightful blend of story, music, dance, and enough goofy lightheartedness to melt the leftover winter chill in the air. Gurinder Chadha's Bride & Prejudice is a Bollywood musical wrapped around the classic Jane Austen story of "spunky heroine discovers insufferable snob to actually be love of her life;" see also Bridget Jones, of course. In this version, the four "Bennett" sisters are unmarried in an Indian country town and their gold-digging mother's desperate to match them up. Suitors (including the luscious Naveen Andrews) come and go, and the story spins from India to London to L.A. and back again. The lovely Aishwarya Rai manages to be bright yet earthy, even as the musical numbers swoop around her -- and what great numbers they are, with frenetic dancing, elephants, moonlight, gauzy costumes, surfers, a gospel choir, you name it. It's all in English, which actually seems weird because the whole approach is classic Bollywood, and I think I might enjoy the dubbed-in-Hindi version even more. You have to be in the mood, but if you are, it's a gem. (B)

"Ben Stiller, who's lately made boatloads of money in films that feature cursing babies and dogs dyed blue by toilet water" -- art vs. commerce, friends vs. enemies, Janeane Garofalo vs. Ben Stiller, this Low Culture rumination has it all! Remember when Janeane was the 90's comedy It Girl and Ben was a nobody? My how times have changed.

Run, it's a Mary-Kate-O-Saur! This monstrosity is a creation of the Toy Lab in Cincinnati, a place where kids reassemble recycled toy parts however they like, give the new creation a name and special powers, and take it home after posting a pic in the online Toy Zoo. Neato! It's funny how those long Barbie legs are tricky to incorporate...and I didn't see any Barbie torsos, too pointy I guess.