TEENIE BEANIE BABIES FROM MCDONALD'S ALREADY CAUSING A STIR.Byline: Associated Press Beanie Babies are the hottest toy around, and McDonald's Corp. is jumping on the bandwagon in hopes of latching on to big profits. Beginning Friday, the fast-food chain began giving away miniature Beanie Babies with Happy Meals. ``This is going to be a hot item,'' Chicago McDonald's restaurant manager Jennifer Salinaz told the Wall Street Journal. She said she has received 30 calls a day from parents wanting to know when the promotion will start - even though it wasn't advertised in advance. Parents have grown accustomed to finding the popular toys sold out. Beanie Babies, small animal-shaped bean bags with such names as Patti Platypus platypus (plăt`əpəs), semiaquatic egg-laying mammal, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, of Tasmania and E Australia. Also called duckbill, or duckbilled platypus, it belongs to the order Monotremata (see monotreme), the most primitive group of living mammals. The only other member of this group is the echidna, or spiny anteater., Squealer the Pig and Kip the Cat, made their debut in 1994, but sales have soared this year. The toy's maker, Ty Digispeak for "thank you." Inc., is based in the Oak Brook, Ill., the same Chicago suburb where McDonald's has its headquarters. Ty has limited distribution of the full-size toys so severely that stores have run out nationwide. Restaurants will offer two Teenie Teenie A measure of value representing a sixteenth (1/16 or .0625) of one point. Since decimalization, many traders have referred to a teenie as a cent.Notes: If a stock is trading up a teenie, it means it's up a sixteenth of one point. See also: Points Beanie Babies a week through May 15 for a total of 10. McDonald's said it has ordered ``a gazillion'' but still expects to run out of the toys each week.
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