An important skill for lawyers is the ability to ignore your own children. As a seasoned professional who works from home a lot, I have developed industrial-grade static filters that block out whatever noise happens to be emanating from the rubble-strewn Progeny Sector of the house.

Recently, however, my 5-year-old daughter has taken to acting out scenarios that involve repeated use of the phrase "Let's make a contract!" Needless to say, this pierces the shields in exactly the way that appeals to sanity at Donald Trump rallies don't.

The source of this distracting dialogue turns out to be the latest Bandai/TV Tokyo Entertainment Toy Complex, which goes by the name of Himitsu no Kokotama. Kokotama are egg-shaped baby godlings born from everyday items that are treated with respect. This is a very Japanese — even Shinto-like — notion: that everyday inanimate objects can have spirits of their own. (More to the point, they have marketing power!)