Toshiba Boy paid £400 for a parrot, then spent two and a half years trying to teach it to say 'Pretty Toshiba Boy'. It said nothing at all until one fine September afternoon when TB could tell it was at last going to speak, and he held his breath and the parrot said: 'Corner shelving unit.' He throttled the bird, roasted and ate it, saying later that it was 'a bit stringy, and certainly not worth what I paid for it.'