The new baby weighs in at 100...

The new baby weighs in at 100 pounds, measures 7 feet long, has electric blue hair, and is nicknamed Stuffee.

Stuffee is the brain child of Kidspace Museum in Pasadena, which created the bigger-than-life doll to teach kids about good health. Stuffee has a zipper in its chest, which when opened reveals internal organs--stomach, lungs, heart--sculpted from soft fabrics.

The doll even has its own house and mailbox where children can write and ask health-related questions. The staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital will help him with the answers.

“He was quite an expensive doll--$6,000” conceded museum spokeswoman Elaine Fleming, noting that Stuffee was paid for by a grant from the Pasadena Foundation. “But, he’s custom-made, has a heartbeat and pulse, and most important, the kids love him.”

L.A.’s superstar Michael Jackson is giving the California Raisin Advisory Board a hand--the silver lame-gloved one--plus lending his face to those famous dancing raisins.

The California Raisin Advisory Board is spending $11 million on this year’s campaign, which will include commercials featuring a dancing raisin, called “Michael Raisin” complete with silver glove, and a character that looks like Jackson. The commercials are debuting now in movie theaters and will move to television this fall.

Jackson, a big fan of the sculptures created by Will Vinton of Portland, used a Claymation “Speed Demon” figure in his Moonwalker music video.

“None of us wanted a commercial where Michael just dances for a product,” says Robert Phinney of the raisin board. “In this spot, Michael actually becomes the product--Michael Raisin.”

There’s good news for rodent lovers. There are enough in Los Angeles for everyone. County health officials say that what’s good for Los Angeles tourists--sunny skies and warm temperatures--is also good for the city’s rat population. Seems the little creatures really enjoy the warm climate and abundance of fruit and berries.

The result is that this summer, like others, there is a rodent population explosion. The county hasn’t gone out personally and counted them, but it estimates there are probably about 8 million rats out there, one for every person in the county, according to Ray Honda of the county Department of Health Services.

If you don’t want yours, you can call County Vector Control for help. But they get about 10,000 calls a year, so you’ll have to get in line to ask for an inspector to come out and take care of the situation.

It might be simpler to adopt them. One can choose from the Norway rat, the urban dweller, which grows to be 10 inches long with an 8-inch tail and weighs a pound; or there’s the more compact variety called the roof rat, which weighs only half a pound and likes climbing avocado trees in the suburbs. They aren’t picky eaters. Both eat about an ounce of food per day, and will drink out of sprinklers or even lick the sweat off pipes.