if $blah was in a function and $blah was the value returned then you could do somethig like:
<?
require "./something.php";
MyFunction();
echo $blah;
?>
or
<?
//include("./something.php");
include_once "./something.php";
MyFunction();
echo $blah;
?>
the only way your going to get $blah is by require or include and then I think you are still going to get every thing from the other page spit-out on the calling page unless every thing is in functions, there has to be a way to place the included page in an array and just pull out $blah - may be some one can help us both out on that

I'm new to php also I almost miss the pl YaBB but php is faster!!