Please don't forget to read the bulletin board. Enter +read from anywhere.

A retro craze swept the Rose Garden this week as a series of past room descriptions made cameo appearances. Special event weekends and abstract ongoing tinyplots reappeared briefly, bringing nostalgic reminisces to old-time Spindizzy regulars and explanations of our past history to confused newcomers. Many joined in the room fun by bringing out old or obsolete descriptions from the early days of Spindizzy.

Among the Rose Garden descriptions returned for a brief look were the rock candy-coated room (the result of a week-long rainstorm, also brought back, from July 1999); the gigantic cake-based room (used in late 1999, and through which surface the androgynous demon Nyx sank, exploring the mysteries, and never to be seen again); the flubberized room (used in early 2002, the result of a flubber main under the park accidentally being broken and contaminating the vicinity); the primordial park (used for the Prehistoric Days event which among other things turned Peppermint into a pteranodon); and the briar patch (which no one remembered; it was used for the surprise birthday party given Skyler last year, when most attendees visited as rabbits).

Several Rose Gardens were not included in the weekend, such as the futuristic design of year 2000 and the Octopus's Garden from last year's beach weekend. Nevertheless the reminisces brought out some of the forgotten other sides of old-time characters, such as Argon from his eocentaur form, or Skyler from their time as a female rabbit-bird hybrid, or Austin Dern from before his elasticity took hold. Look fast; these are all rarely seen, hard-to-find aspects of longtime regulars and there's no way to guess when they might be taken out of the vault again.

It became a sucky night at the Rose Garden last Monday when the evil-but-inept SED leader Morticon brought in his new toy: a Mega Vacuum Cleaner. Claiming he just wanted to literately clean up this one-horse MUCK, Morticon 'innocently' proceeded to, at first, vacuum up some dust and dirt off the ground, then some rocks, then a park bench. As the park patrons began to realize how powerful the cleaner is, Morticon quickly dropped his ruse and quickly turned his toy to target the Jedi Knight Brenda, sucking up Arcturax the fruitbat in the process.

Fortunately, not only was Brenda in her 50 ft macro self at the time (making the task of vacuuming her up that much harder), but resident Jellicle cat Patch O'Black helped delay the Mega Vacuum by building a wall that looked like it can hold back water. But the vacuum sucked it up with ease, and, despite Patchy's hopes ("It's a Hoover dam!"), appeared unphased by the pun. Not only that, but in a demonstration of how powerful it is (and how toony this place is), the Mega Vacuum also sucked up the cute macrovixen Cye, who tried to block the vacuum's path with her foot. But by this time, Brenda managed to come up with her own plan: Tossing her lightsabre and guiding it with 'the Force', Brenda used it to distract Morticon, who tried to vacuum up the flying weapon as it spiraled toward the vacuum canister. fortunately, the inept wallaby ended up sucking himself up while trying to get the lightsabre, kicking the vacuum into high gear.

Now completely out of control, the Mega Vacuum spiraled around the garden, sucking up everything in its path not secured tight enough, including Mouser, Macoon, Butterfluff, and even the 65 ft Pandamonia, who actually seemed to let himself get vacuumed up. By this time, a two-front attack slowly developed to take down the Mega Vacuum. Those left in the garden, namely Kanganstein, Kevman, and Brenda, assaulted the vacuum itself, with Kanga using his undead strength to control the hose while Kevman and Brenda (using her Force-controlled lightsabre while she dug large trenches in the ground with her large claws to hang on) slashed at the motor to shut down the vacuum completely. Meanwhile, inside the canister, Cye, Pandamonia, and Mouser mounted their own attack by climbing back up the intake valve in an attempt to clog the vacuum. Finally, Brenda's lightsabre finally managed to kill the motor, completely shutting down the Mega Vacuum, and the prisoners in the canister were let out amid a cloud of dust, dirt, and hair.

In the confusion and cleanup that followed, a debate erupted on whether or not Pandamonia, who held Morticon captive in his massive paw, should eat the dirty Wallaby right then and there. In the end, though, since Cye wanted to eat him as well, Panda decided to toss Morticon towards Cye's open mouth. It turned out that Cye's mouth was open because she was about to sneeze from all the flying dust, however, so Morticon was last seen heading towards the end of Spindizzy, flying at 50 ft in the air at 100 mph.

As of this writing, it is unknown of the current condition and whereabouts of the Mega Vacuum.

About a week or so ago, Local 9 tailed elder kitsune, Alicia Vulpnine, infiltrated the latest SED HQ a second time and destroyed it from the inside out. An excript from her personal log describes the events.

For some reason I feel like a new kitsune because of what happened some hours ago. I was under my final breath, I knew I needed to take care of one last mission before I thought I would pass on.

After the jewel recovery mission (Reported in @Action News 6/6/2003) I went to the SED HQ while it was still in an inoperable condition. The complex security system was offline and the front door was held closed by chains. I cut through them without a problem. I snuck into the lab in search of two things, a videotape with an error that I made while trying to arrest the wallaby for the theft of the tree, and a prototype mecha that a pupil of mine stole. I couldn't find the videotape, but I did set the prototype's reactor to blow.

I found Morticon in the computer core room. He was trying to restore order to the base but the virus that I planted in the system was too much. Morticon found me there and I tried to counter his attack, I was too slow and too old. I couldn't move as the reactor of the mecha was ticking to critical. He escaped me however when the last few seconds started and the audio countdown could be heard. I thought I was left for dead.

My pendant saved me however. A strange power within it fused with my body. The base was decimated by the explosion set by my prototype. I was saved and reborn when my pendant absorbed the energy from the explosion. A rebirth from the ashes.

Morticon was suprised after I exited the rubble. He took off afterwards and I left too, my body still glowing a bright blue and my hands...so much power within them. I don't know if I'll ever be the same again.

-Alicia S.A. Vulpnine
Detective Sergent, Spindizzy Police

‘Oho! All of the best Nemo belong to Boki!’

That is what this reviewer first thought when viewing the latest film by Disney & PIXAR, ‘Finding Nemo’, and upon seeing all of the abundant piscine fauna swimming about and imagining what its effect on Boki, local seagull, would be.

But while Disney has often proclaimed itself as a ‘family values’ company, I am left confused. In all of its films, the heroes and the heroines are always missing one parent or the other, or in the case of Bambi, both. It seems to be that the hero always arrives on-screen from a broken family and ‘Finding Nemo’ is no different. What is different is that in this film from PIXAR, creator of both ‘A Bug’s Life’ and both ‘Toy Story’ films, a good inkling as to what happens to one of the parents is shown.

Another angle that this film works upon is the acknowledgement of those with handicaps. In ‘Nemo’, you see three, but in traditional Disney fashion, you also see these obstacles become surmounted by pluck and innate spirit.

With the essential elements of the film out of the way, what is there to offer? This reviewer came away from the film with a fresh and admiring perspective of how polite and civil Boki is. At least he politely demands all of the best, freshest fish. Another pleasant break from the usual stereotype is the portrayal of sharks in the film, the best part being that of an ‘intervention’ ala ‘AA’.

There are plenty of self-referential jokes and gags about (one could imagine how many ‘Little Mermaid’ references), and plenty of in-jokes for the adults as well as primary colors and simple humor for the kids.

Some would call a film like this ‘cliche’, but not this reviewer, for the path taken from the start of the show to the end is not what was expected, even if the ending was. If cliches are done right, they are not cliches, just as having a meal prepared just the way you like it for the hundredth time.

Every other week, I will be calling attention to the new members of our community. (Editor's Note; ...with the permission of each of the new folks featured, of course. Folks who don't want to be featured in this series, will of course, have that wish fufilled.) This is not to embarrass them, but rather I do it in the hopes that it will encourage everyone to give them a special welcome and friendship.

The following members are new to our community as of a week or two ago at most. Please give them a warm welcome and offer assistance if needed. Who knows, you might even make a new friend or two!

• Laine
• Peri - Dracocycle - "When I was looking for a place to live, I talked to a blimp but it wouldn't take me aboard, then I found this hole in the ground that had a Do Not Enter sign on it so I went down there to take a look but it was really boring so then I went to a mushroom farm and then back to the middle of town and then someone showed me an apartment building made of sand so I got a room there and now this is where I live."
• Mindset
• Adelaide - Female Anthro Lioness
• Macoon - Male Raccoon - "Looking forward to meeting you all!"
• Sasha-Dar - Female Rabbit
• Kreg - Male Crocogator
• Morloch - male Grey Wolf

This week, Argon asked folks, "I'm doing a survey for @Action News. The question this week, suggested by Carlos is, 'What would you have your character do if it were featured in a SpinDizzy screensaver?

• Arcturax -- Flit around the heads of other players on the screen.
• Tanuki barks, "My survey answer is, walk around a setting, occasionally changing into things in the background to hide."
• Criatura Castle would rumble in, and raid the desktop's trashcan, Argon.
• Carlos says, "I would plant Truffulas all over the menu bar, and their majestic tufts would soon block all those awful ads in the web browsers, Argon."
• Terry -- "I'd eat an infinite bag of marshmallows, somewhere in the background watching everyone else?"
• Mavra smiles. "I'd be featured on a screensaver doing laundry."
• Rainbow says, "Hmm..probably bounce around and occasionally get knocked on her rump coz she ran into the 'edge' of the monitor screen. Then look up cutely at the little stars around her head."
• PatchO'Black mews, "Singing, dancing and growing treats!"
• Mouser hisses, "Remember 'Lawnmower Boris', Argon?"
• Rown hmmms. I suppose a screensaver would have me either pulling a plow in my garden or sipping wine after a hard day's work. :-)
• BarterGarter hisses, "I would tie all the obnoxiously cute Help menu mascots down on a chair, and pour ice water on their laps."
• Ba'ar growls, "My screen saver would have me eating honey."
• Kai says, "My character? Re-enact a fictional version of the Spanish-American War in which the Klingons win."
• Suri -- Wander to and fro randomly, occasionally tapping on the glass and making odd noises.
• Jabari -- Just lion' around.
• Waydya -- Gathering acorns! Winter's only five months away you know!
• Fenris growls, "Id be dancing. ^u^"
• Penance purrs, "Curling up into a little ball or levitating menacingly towards Brenda."
• Arcturax's was flitting around the heads of the other players on screen :)
• Standen mreeps, "Taking a bite out of flying toast."
• Cye giggles. "Taking up the whole screen :)
• Friskyfox yips, "I wouldn't have anything to do with a screensaver. I'd actually disable the screensaver because I'm always so busy."
• KevMan says, "mine would be me steping though a portal somewhere on the screen. Then I'd cast a random elemental spell then step out though another portal."
• Brenda would slash around with her lightsabre, doing flips, all sorts of acrobatics. =^.^=
• Austin says, "Oh, jump up on top of other people and nearby objects. Occasionally stretch out to wrap around a person or a treebranch or the like."
• Basil would walk across the screen with his magnifying glass.
• Butterfluff -- In a Spindizzy screensaver, the Fluff of La Mancha would charge across the screen, chasing windmills. Possibly chasing the SED Blimp, if it gets too low.

"Teleconferencing has sure made it easy to get past the usual questions and get down to business, eh?"

Submitting a story or artwork for @Action News is easy! Just send it to newspaper@spindizzy.org or qmail or page Argon about it.
@Action News is published weekly on or after 12:01 AM Eastern Time on Monday. Most any type of story or article will be accepted. Generally, we'd prefer things that aren't out and out lies or flames about other folks, and have a basis in the reality of SpinDizzy. Things that occur in public areas are fair game. The things reported don't have to have actually happened, (any more than anything that happens here does) but make sure you don't overstep the social boundaries and rules of interaction that we have. These are pretty broad guidelines, but we expect good sense to apply.

Thanks! Argon, Editor @Action News