h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>We even have a train that was really rather when he was under two. It lives under the stairs now, playing &#39;Dinah Won&#39;&#39;t You Blow Your Horn&#39; to a captive audience of vacuum cleaner and sundry &#39;bits&#39; - they haven&#39;t complained so far.<<
The train was really rather... (word missing?)
Won"t should be Won&#39;t
I&#39;ll continue reading.

Right I&#39;ve finished and can&#39;t see any more typo type things, but I think you have the average adult double think about toys.

1, Battery life is too short. That means you want it to make noise and blinding flashing for longer.
2, The thing is too annoying, so remove batteries or throw it in the toilet till it stops making a noise or blinding flashing.
Which do you really want?

I knew someone who kept every battery they ever had in a box and when the Christmas toys fell silent he would give the kids the "battery box" to find replacement batteries. They would spend maybe an hour sorting through and testing batteries in the toy until they found the set of batteries that had enough power in them to make the thing work for a bit longer. He did occasionally put a kosher set in the "battery box" to give the kids a fighting chance.

Thanks! I've used the quote about your friend (what a brilliant idea!) and have acknowledged parental battery ambiguity and cured that typo.



sprout

You're welcome for the quote. Good luck with the entry.
BTW in the book Influence by professor Robert Cialdini he says that toy manufacturers, just before christmas hold back supply to the shops. By then you have promised little Fabian or Henrietta the Whizzy Killerbot or the Automatic Fairy Maker and can't find one anywhere. You can't leave the kid without anything on Christmas morning so you buy something of equal value and grovel saying that they can have the fabled toy the moment it comes in the shop. Lo and behold no sooner has the wrapping paper hit the recycling bin than the supply has been resumed and the shops are full of them. So you spend another, equal amount of dosh on the initially promised toy. Evil or what?