Secret Life

People love to play with their food. There is an actual Punkin Chunkin world championship and some get a kick out of tossing a dozen eggs around. There are many ways to destroy food for fun, but in honor of Easter, we had to get some Peeps involved. PHOTOS: The secret life of Peeps Ever wondered what happens when you put Peeps in the microwave? It's right up there with the punkin chunkin and an egg toss, just a lot less messy. After our weeklong investigation into the secret life of Peeps , we got to thinking about what other things we could do with our squishy marshmallow friends and thought, 'why not the microwave?

There are cartons of this stuff in attics all over America ? the poems, pensées and grocery lists of yearning, dissatisfied people who at some time wished for an emotional coherence that was beyond their reach. These scribbles are of no great posthumous consequence; at most they may cause the relative who happens to open the box to reflect, a little sadly, on the secret life of the author. Unless, of course, that author happens to have been famous and somewhat mysterious, which is the case with Marilyn Monroe.

Muppets: 10. Magic: 0. "The Secret Life of Toys," the latest television series from Jim Henson Productions, beginning at 8:30 this morning on the Disney Channel, isn't short on Muppet variety. It is short on the kind of wit and artistry that have infused other Muppet endeavors, most notably "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show." Imagining that toys can come to life when their owners' backs are turned is a favorite childhood fantasy.

Even with the whole of the 20th century and a decade of the 21st separating us from the Victorians, that era continues to fascinate, as the success of director Guy Ritchie's recent Sherlock Holmes movie shows. No wonder, for few other periods offer such a wealth of contrasts. On the surface, there was all that respectability and propriety embodied in the starchy image of the queen, a time when it was actually thought proper to cover the legs of pianos as well as women lest they appear too suggestive.

The makers of "The Secret Life of Bees" worried that white moviegoers might hesitate supporting a movie with a nearly all-black cast. After the film's third weekend in theaters, it's not only clear that white ticket buyers are not staying away, but also that "The Secret Life of Bees" is a minor hit with women of both races.

I get why Dakota Fanning keeps getting offered these motherless waif roles in Southern-fried melodramas. Those saucer eyes, that lunar pallor, the Georgia accent, the guts to rat her hair into a dull mat and skulk around in shabby rooms that scream my-daddy-drinks. What I don't get is why she keeps taking them.

SERIES Community: When the study group members realize Troy (Donald Glover) is turning 21, they take him out to the bars, but things get out of control when Annie (Alison Brie) takes on the identity on her fake ID in this new episode (8 p.m. NBC). The Office: Freaked out by an article about China's growing status as a superpower, Michael (Steve Carell) decides he must stop China before it takes over the United States in this new episode (9 p.m. NBC). Grey's Anatomy: Concerned about Cristina (Sandra Oh)

The death of Richard J. Cotter Jr., a pillar of the Boston community who was once assistant state attorney general for Massachusetts, shocked many who knew him. Not because the 81-year-old lawyer passed away, but because his will turned more than $650,000 over to white supremacists and anti-Semites. Although I find Cotter's personal politics supremely loathsome, the fact that few knew of his repugnant worldview is good news for all of us.