If in doubt, blame the computer. It's an old enough excuse and one that has come in handy for one US firm, the Play Along toy company, that sells Cabbage Patch dolls. As even Sneak was aware, Cabbage Patch Kids arrive complete with a set of charming adoption papers to create the illusion that the child receiving a doll as a birthday gift has adopted a baby, rather than simply been handed a homunculus-shaped conglomeration of fabric and plastic. But one family in the US discovered that the fanciful paperwork didn't exactly help foster this cosy illusion, given that the adoption code on the certificate ended with "UCKME" - and that the letter immediately before this string was an F. But it was all the fault of the software tasked with randomising the code, apparently. In the old infinite-monkeys manner of such things it just so happened to come up with an obscene phrase. Nothing to do with childish pranks or - heaven forbid - inadequate forethought on the part of the manufacturer, then.

18 Jan 2005