Prompted by the recent bad, bad toy madness, I sent several copies of the below email to various points of contact at Melissa & Doug Toys, the maker of said badness. I'll keep you posted and let you know if I hear anything back from them.

Dear Melissa and/or Doug,

Let me start by introducing myself - My name is Tim and I'm married to an obsessive compulsive woman.

My wife and I recently purchased your "Stack & Sort Board" as a gift for our daughter, Josie. Josie loves it, she will literally spend an hour playing with the blocks and stacking them in varying orders - generally having a ball.

While my daughter is having a grand time, the toy is slowly driving my wife insane.

The problem isn't with the construction or quality of the toy, it is with the shapes associated with the numbers 4 and 5 on the board.

On the "Stack & Sort Board" I have in front of me, the following shapes and numbers are associated as follows:

1 - A green rectangle
2 - A purple circle
3 - A yellow triangle
4 - A blue pentagon
5 - A red square

It's the pentagon and square that are the problem. The pentagon, a five sided shape is associated with the number 4. Next, the square, a four sided shape, is associated with the number 5. It wouldn't be such a big deal if the triangle wasn't associated with the number three.

There has been no end of questioning the motives behind this since we bought the toy... If the triangle represents three, why doesn't the square represent four and the pentagon five? Did they get confused? Why one and not the others?

I realize you may not have the answers to these questions but I wanted to make you aware that they are being asked.

Thank you for your time.

- Tim