Word: kidded
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...hawkers try to coax the reporters into naming their toy the "hottest." Virtually every newspaper and TV station runs some version of this hot-new-toy story, which entices visually and appeals to journalism's need to find what's next. This has happened before (more about Cabbage Patch Kids in a minute), but the creation of the Furby--more important, the invention of a Furby craze--has set a new standard for an absurd game. Unlike even Tickle Me Elmo, the Furby became a must-have item this Christmas before almost any kid had made...
More recently, Tickle Me Elmo tested fairly well in the slew of kid-judged contests held every year (Family Fun magazine, Duracell batteries, and CBS all sponsor such tests, involving thousands of children across the nation). But Tyco, the Mattel-owned manufacturer, didn't expect it to become a giant seller. Then Rosie O'Donnell tickled Elmo on her show, and demand exploded. Once again, scarcity inspired collectors, reporters discovered a "hot" story, and your kid bawled his eyes out two years ago because Santa couldn't find Elmo before Christmas morn...
These past toy trends began with at least some kid's interest--be it Amy Carter's or Parker O'Donnell's. In fact, Tyco had sold some 400,000 Tickle Me Elmos before Rosie flacked them. (It has sold 10 million since.) But it remains to be seen whether kids will like all the Furbies their parents are trying so hard to find. Furby appeared too late to join in toy contests, and most kids won't have them in hand until late December...
Animal-rights activists talk as if hunting were a form of dope: an addiction that profits only the pushers. There's big money at stake, observes Wayne Pacelle, the senior vice president of the Humane Society. "If you hook a kid at 12, and he hunts till 60, how many guns and rounds of ammo have you sold?" And there's no doubt the gun manufacturers are concerned. They send books and videos into school classrooms to introduce kids to hunting and gun safety. And they encourage state wildlife officials to promote youth hunts, like the ones that kicked...
Martin Short first tumbles onstage dressed in a white Little Lord Fauntleroy suit and looking like the sort of kid Spanky used to make fun of in the old Our Gang comedies. He's playing Noble Eggleston, a pampered rich boy so accomplished he goes to both Harvard and Yale. Short moves on to impersonate an assortment of characters, from a wheezing old millionaire to a dictatorial German film director. He sings; he dances; he makes costume changes so fast even David Copperfield would be envious. Is this the hardest-working man in show business? Little Me was created...