Will Barbie ever get any eco-love? Because Mattel, Barbie's maker, has been trying really, really hard to woo environmentalists since last year -- when lead paint was discovered on Barbie play sets and other toys.

When is $100 million dollars chump change? When the plaintiffs in a lawsuit were hoping to be awarded $2 billion dollars in damages. Things have not been going well for our girl Barbie. Ever since the Bratz came to town sales have been plummeting. 

I'd like you to meet Mirta. I love that her new job came complete with some plastic surgery to give her a different face, but she's still kickin' it with really cute (fabric) shoes! 

According to my learnings, which include Wikipedia, other opinionated mothers I know, and four lovingly-wasted years as a budding art historian, dolls are possibly the oldest toy in the world. They have been found in the children’s graves dating back thousands of years, and were often made of wood or pottery. I am guessing that these are just the ones that actually survive the ravages of time. I can just see a caring Grecian mother surprising her daughter by whipping a wooden doll out of her toga. Mother: Here, Octavia, something for you to do between hauling giant buckets of water and weaving cloth. Octavia: Oh, thank you mother. AGGH! The splinters! IT BURNS! Mother: Heh heh. That’ll teach her to put a toga pin on my milking stool. So I’m guessing that there were cuddly cloth dollies for everyday use. Lucky for us, little girls today don’t have to worry about dollies being cute and cuddly, because when I see dolls now the words that come to mind are “pointy” and “transvestite.” I’m not dogging this trend, though. I’ve gotten some of my best fashion advice from transvestites.

The BBC is reporting that Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick, 64, died yesterday. A statement issued by the hospital said that Roddick died of "a major brain haemorrhage." Roddick is being mourned by environmental groups and animal rights activists world wide, as well as by women who were won over by her back-to-basics approach to beauty and her rejection of the fashion industry's emphasis on perfection.