Well, ladies and gents, stuffed animals have definitely been the fashion statement of the year. But they just don't mean you like Sponge Bob or Elmos or Sesame Street. They also could mean that you're pretty darn rich if you have a lot of them on.

Think about it -- when you were a newbie and you wanted to look just like this one person on Whyville, did they have stuffed animals on?
In many cases, in my experience, people would say yes.

That happened to me when I first joined, it was very interesting to see that the stuffed animal craze came back so soon.

But why, why does having stuffed animals on make you look richer?

Well, they give off this sense of that you're an oldbie to a lot of people. It means that you probably have a high salary or you're just rich. Because these stuffed animals cost a lot. Just take a look with the Elmos -- people have at least one, maybe even 30 -- multiply 30 by 50 clams each and you get 1,500. Fifteen-hundred clams for 30 Elmos....

I interviewed a couple of people to see what they had to say about the stuffed animal craze.

SunnyHun1: I think they show that people aren't being original, I mean, everyone has them, and Whyville was made to express individuality.

bubbybro: It's annoying, I mean, save some for the poor!

ZoE77: I feel that they are a great decoration for your Whyvillian... you can wear them anytime, anywhere.

The three people I interviewed were great -- it made me think a lot more about buying something I think is cute in the mall and, well, basically like bubbybro said, you havta save some for the poor!

This is swmergrl, signing off.