Furbies

Alyssa brought someone over for a sleepover tonight. Or rather some thing. It was a Furby. An irritating, semi-interactive fluffy robot which initially speaks 'Furbish', but is programmed to start using English words and phrases over time. It has voice recognition, dances to music, gets angry, goes to sleep, you can 'feed' it, and there's some on-line stuff which it can interact with. It's kind of creepy - like a Gremlin. Apparently it's been around for ten or more years, but the new ones were this Christmas's must-have present. It's on loan for one night only from a friend, but of course she'll want one for herself. Aarrgh!