New York middle-school science teacher Mr. Kenny Luna has hatched what he’s dubbed The Bright Idea! – a plan to publicly pressure Oprah Winfrey to reach into her deep pockets and give 50 million American school kids a compact-flourescent lightbulb (CFL). Since CFLs on average use 75 percent less energy than normal light bulbs, they can have a substantial impact on America's energy use.

Memoirs and diet books may stretch the truth, but the numbers don't lie: a new study commissioned by the French Union for the Clothing Industries reveals that French women are, in fact, getting fatter.

Mireille Guiliano went on Oprah last May to plug her bestselling “non” diet book, French Women Don't Get Fat. When the paperback edition comes out, I'm hoping Oprah will invite her back to square off with Dr. Jean-Marie Le Guen, author of Obesity: The New French Sickness. I have a feeling M'sieur Le Guen might shred Madame Guiliano's premise into, well, a million little pieces.

The James Frey flap brings a large question to the genre of soul-healing literature: How much obligation do writers of confessional memoirs have to readers who are inspired by their stories?