Giga-Tamo-Nano

by Jonathan B., Salt Lake City, UT EVERYWHERE, USA - It is nice to see major toy companies prospering from imitations of Japanese hand-held toys. However, electronic beeps can be pretty annoying at times, especially while doing the SATs! You just want to scream "Turn it off!!" Unfortunately, there usually isn't a way to shut the sound off (without beating the toy on the floor, of course). It is especially irritating when the Compu-Kitty has a bad case of diarrhea and beeps like crazy; the embarrassed owner has to suffocate the noise with a jacket and then push some sequence of buttons. Sometimes I can't tell if a pager is beeping or a Nano-Baby. I have concluded that if you hear an electronic pulse in class, you can bet it is a Cyber Dyno wanting to play a game, a very hungry Tamogotchi, or a sleepy Nano-Baby. Pagers are ordinarily set on the vibrating mode during school hours.

It's no wonder the Humane Society needs to find homes for tons of homeless cats and dogs; instead of authentic pets, kids want virtual ones!

Maybe, just maybe, having these electronic pets will be endorsed by the school district as an example of "Responsibility," one of the five values of the Community of Caring. Hey, it could happen! I mean, who thought they'd find a piranha in Utah Lake?