"What's unfortunate," she said, "is that there is a huge science that underlies most of the major mental illnesses in terms of diagnosis and treatment, but it gets canceled out by all this kind of squishy stuff."

Not that squishy stuff grown-ups use to punish babies with.

It's almost like EA execs are vampires that feed on originality... leaving their developers nothing but skin, bones, and all that other squishy stuff.

It is a view echoed by Ms. Borsook, who writes that techies are uncomfortable "with squishy stuff and the intangible and that which can't be reduced to formulae" or programs.

That's the squishy stuff corporations use to ooze around US law which, you may be surprised to learn, prohibits any donations to presidential campaigns in the general election.

"If the package is too crude, too taped together or with squishy stuff inside, then we think twice about opening it," Mr. Maass said.

"Because it had the squishy stuff."

Ruby agreed (i.e., blatantly copied) her brother "I like the one with the squishy stuff," she said.

Behavior. . . well, behavior was squishy stuff used to entertain fourth-graders on Cable in the Classroom.

But no toothpaste or other squishy stuff.