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

This weekend, SpinDizzy enjoyed its own Spring Break. The Rose Garden became a sunny beach, and residents and guests left their worries behind as the basked in the sun.

The seaside venue of the event attracted a large number of SpinDizzy's cetan population, who, with being equally mobile and land and sea, seemed to have a great time, as did the majority of folks who ended up at the beach. The fresh breezes, the salt tang of the air, the bright sunshine, and warm temperatures, put everyone in a partying mood.

As bathing suits and beach wear were admired and donned, some went swimming in the warm ocean water. The water seems to have been safe. At press time the Lifeguard had not been required to rescue anyone.

A bit of a thrill ensued when Alex, local kitsune, found himself sinking in the sand. As he was grabbed by his three tails and pulled out, be brought with him out of the sand a Pirate flag, a treasure chest, and a pirate's skeleton! The shiny treasure in the chest was enjoyed by Rose, local raccoon. Morticon appeared and saying he's always wanted to bury someone in the sand, began doing so to Rose. Others began burying Morticon. As Rose climbed out of the sand, a macro beach ball, being played with by Cye, local 50 foot Vixen, and Brenda, local 50 foot cougar, took a wrong turn and struck the wallaby. Morticon sailed over the horizon at impact.

Nikon O'Black became a gold and silver raccoon robot Friday after Leslie used a little bit of fairy magic. She has a mostly gold body from the outside with silver plates that still give her a raccoony eyemask and pawgloves, and ruby-eyes so that she shines like a precious jewel all around. She still has a ringed tail, but it is made of real rings, alternate gold and silver, and there are little hooks so she can become a necklace.

Leslie started out by holding the little raccoon like a plushie, and then used her fairy bunny's magic wand to stretch out Nikon's tail and wrap it around like a garland. Since Nikon liked being worn like that, Leslie went ahead and used the magic wand to turn her into a real living piece of jewelry.

Nikon liked the new body and how shiny it was and said "Ooo.... I have this urge to collect myself." Roofus_roo said, "Any raccoon would have her in an instant," and Leslie said it was good she already was a raccoon then.

Argon commented that he is always amazed and somewhat frightened of magic, "But I haven't seen Leslie's spells go wrong. She seems to be very talented in the use of magic. And Nikon sure looks cute!"

One of the most exiting things about SpinDizzy is the chance to roleplay with other characters. Unfortunately, roleplay is something that too often goes "underground," and becomes hard to discover, simply because it doesn't often take place in the Rose Garden and fewer still advertise! With our recent, and welcome, influx of population, that's especially true: finding that "right" group can be more difficult than it should be, and it shouldn't be that way.

The RP Expo, like events before it, was designed to overcome several of these hurdles. New and old characters met and introduced themselves at the first one and posted their Roleplay interests on the bboard at the Inn of Fens. The second Expo focused on plots and RP-focused chat.

Several RP's formed from the Expo, or perhaps just got a jolt start. Systems players (those who prefer to play online with game rules such as DnD) got their spotlight and a chance to chat, as did those who preferred freeform. Several people preferred both styles (including the author!), too.

If you're looking for someone to RP with and missed the Expos, don't feel hesitant to send out an @shout, chat in the Rose Garden, and importantly, check the bboard at the Inn of Fens to find others with common interests. You can search the bboard by keyword (say you like fantasy settings) by typing 'read fantasy.' Also, anyone interested in logs from the Expos should contact Kinsor.

Mechanical birds Kern and Ing did battle Wednesday morning with leading fluff Butterfluff in the Rose Garden. Kern, a clockwork tern, and Ing, its imaginary friend, began by asking Butterfluff about its home. Assured that there was a home, Kern then took a bit of fluff in its beak, to the shock of Butterfluff.

The bruised Butterfluff warned the pair that it was a bird predator and implied it might eat one, or at least, disassemble and salvage its materials for energy, and showed a fearsome and wide spread of teeth. This did not serve to frighten the birds, who did not know what a predator was. Told it was something which eats birds, they asked what eating was.

At that point matters degenerated into a staring contest between Kern and Butterfluff, neither of whom have much need to blink.

As folks were chatting, Argon asked Hayley, local human, how she got her name. He asked, "And how did you get your name, Hayley?"
Hayley ums "My parents named me.. I'm not quite sure.."
Argon says, "After I became a centaur I took on the name of a centaur I had seen in a comic book."
Warusa chitters, "My parents named me.. I am literally..'mischief'."
Mouser hisses, "I adopted the name of my profession. It's simpler that way."
Hayley's name is Old English for "hill of hay".

The conversation then turned to how cartoon characters got their names. No consensus was come to on Bugs, Elmer, or Sylvester, but Tweety's, Popeye's and Daffy's name origins seemed self evident.

Argon, local centaur, arrived in the Rose Garden to find Royce, local Raccoon and Warusa, local tanuki, a kind of raccoon, there. Hoping to curry favor with them, he polished himself to become very shiny and reflective.

They seemed to enjoy it so much, he remained shiny most of the week. Although being used as a mirror to check eye makeup and nose hairs by some got to be a bit annoying after a while, the funhouse mirror effect on reflections as Argon's surface changed as he mooved are breathed gave everyone a chuckle.

No word on when or if Argon will return to normal.

Argon's tired old catch phrase about being "Horse-like but not like a horse," was used to make some puns last week.

During a sicussion concerning "furries" and humans, Gilead commented that he had adapted to being near humans and that he only bites the deserving ones. Argon commented that his relationship with humans was obvious. That led to the following exchange;

Ba'ar grins at Argon..human-like but not a human.
Ba'ar growls, "Horselike but not a horse."
Penance lives in a townhome. It's..."No...do I have to say it?"
Penance gives in. "House-like but not a house."
Ba'ar is bear like but not a......waitaminute! HE IS A BEAR!
Penance heard a bunch of beeps and clicks on the radio. It was Morse-like but not a Morse.
Terry is mallow-like but not mellow.
Terry puffs, "There was a series of educational brown-bags during the weekly meeting at work. It was course-like but not a course."
Terry puffs, "And when Neo was dodging bullets, and bending spoons, it was Force-like but not the Force."
Penance saw a BMW Z4 today. "It was Porsche-like but not a Porsche."
Penance makes beet soup with rutabagas instead. "Borscht-like but...okay, gone too far now."
Ba'ar saw some Windows code today...it was SOURCE-LIKE but not a SOURCE.
Logreth telepaths, <I saw some campaign plug the other day. It was Gore-like, but not Gore.>
Terry puffs, "You never see a dead person on TV. It's all electronic signals translated into images. Corpse-like but not a corpse."
Penance purrs, "One of my students was dressed like a lady of the night. Draw your own conclusions."

With that, the puns ceased, and folks went back to discussing cold water fusion and / or whether lemon or cherry Lifesavers are the best.

Welcome to latest edition of Bearing up, the advice column where Ba" ar (That" s me!) has answers to your most challenging questions.

Dear Bearing Up,
I have ants in my pants! How do I get rid of them?
- Dancer

Dear Dancer:
Change your pants That will get rid of the ants.

Dear Bearing Up,
Why do you spell your name Ba'ar, rather than Bear? Are you from Georgia?
- Duke

Dear Duke:
I'm called Ba'ar because when I was a cub, it's how I pronounced 'bear'.

Dear Bearing Up,
Everytime Daylight Savings Time changes, I have to call someone to reset my sundial. Is there a book I can read to learn to do it myself?
- Sonny

Dear Sonny:
Yes. It's called "Sundials for Dummies" and is put out by IDG books.

Dear Ba'ar,
Who makes better horseshoes, DuPont, or Reynolds?
- Argon

Dear Argon:
Neither: Bethlehem Steel does.

Dear Bearing Up:
My cub likes Yogi Bear Cartoons. Is this the best thing for him to view?
Mamabear

Dear Mamabear:
No it is NOT! Yogi is nothing less than perpetuating the stereotype that bears are lazy oafs who have nothing better to do than to steal the picnic baskets from unsuspecting tourists.

Dear Bearing Up:
Who gave you the right to publish this column? Why can't *I* have an advice column?
Morticon

The right of free speech gives me the right to publish this column. If you want to publish your own advice column, knock yourself out.

Remember possums (to steal a term from Dame Edna ;-D), if you have any questions,please page mail me (Ba'ar) online or send mail to big_bear@operamail.com. Thanks.

This week, Argon asked, "I'm doing a survey for @Action News. The question this week is, 'You've seen The Hamster Dance. If someone made a page of dancing (Your species), what music would be playing?"

• Warusa chitters, "My answer would be 'yatta'."
• Darius says, "I would think perhaps, Sandstorm by Darude?"
Hayley ponders "Music, eh? I'm partial to the Gia the Human Webpage having "Still In The Dark" from GuiltyGears X2.."
• Elericia says, "I am sometimes a lizard and sometimes a cat and don't strongly acossicate with any species so I dunno. Good music that I like."
• Gina_Doberman says, "Probably a Disco tune!"
• Lupinetiger thinks, "Man, that is a tough decision to make...
• Vixie says, "I'll have to think on that one. Not many songs written about me."
• Millicent says, "Ebony and Ivory. Either that, or Duke Ellington's 'Black and Tan Fantasy', but calling it 'Black and White Fantasy'."
• Leslie pips, "The Bugs Bunny song!"
• Tarka says, "Argon: A hyper version of the doom song! Doom doom doom doom da doom da doomy doom doom!
• Kefan says, "I need to go with Jethro Tull's "Heavy Horses", of course. The theme to "Mr. Ed" is *right* *out*. :)"
• BarterGarter hisses, "For snakes, it's either an Arabian belly dance, or a Hindu snakecharmer's tune, Argon."
• Carlos has an easier answer. Bert and Ernie's 'Come Fly With Me In An Upside-Down World'.
• Sunshine thinks. For porcupines, a forgivable cliche would be 'Can't Touch This.
• Kinsor -- The song would be 'peanut butter and jelly time!'
• Brenda -- Considering I'm a cougar, my page of dancing would be set to "Puma Dance" from Dominion Tank Police.
• Rose says, "For me, I'd say The Raccoon Song."
• Slug clicks, "Cowboy Bebop's theme song, of course. It makes perfect sense."
• Terry puffs, "Um... 'We built this city on Rock and Roll?'"
• Aleu mrrs, "I guess mine would be Obsession."

Ursa Major Awards

Want to nominate a favorite Anthropomorphic movie, character, book or cartoon? Characters in these, along with other catagories can be nominated for the Ursa Major Awards.

Similar to the SpinDizzy Oscars, only with a wider base, the Ursa Major Awards give proper reconition to achivements and achievers in the Anthropomorphic arts. Check out the site, and make your nomination!

Nominations are only open for a few more days, and voting will start soon, so click the link!

Time to have the Horseshoes Rotated!

Submitting a story or artwork for @Action News is easy! Just send it to newspaper@spindizzy.org or qmail or page @Action or sdnews about it.
@Action News is published weekly on or after 12:01 AM Eastern Time on Sunday. 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 dont 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