HAIRBRUSH NOT INCLUDED

One of the great things about being an editor of a technology
magazine? Making fun of your kids' toys in print.

Along with the earsplitting Kiddie Konga drum and a jive-talking Spongebob Squarepants, perhaps the toy I've most regretted giving my four-year-old daughter was a doll. And not just any doll, but a reporter doll.

Her name is Jessica Journalist, and she's one in a series of dolls that's supposed to dispel the whole Barbie stereotype by providing girls with meaningful role models for their future careers (which, as my 401(k) tanks, means I probably should have sprung for Law School Lucy).

It's a nice thought, and Jessie is certainly decked out with all the modern newsgathering tools: a laptop, cameras--both still and video!--notepads and a tape recorder, among other things. But then there's the oversized hairbrush, plus the stylish leopard-print jacket, things I don't recall my female colleagues bringing to the municipal wastewater authority and library board meetings I used to cover back in the salad days.

But as always, I digress. I didn't mention the entertaining book that came with the doll, which featured Jessica Journalist mentoring an aspiring grade-school journalist by driving her around in a convertible and asking senior citizens some really, really softball questions. And at the end of an interview with her grandfather, the girl gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Now as a serious journalist, that's where I have to say something. That's simply preposterous. I always kissed my sources on the lips.