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Aushae, local dragon and mate of Austin, local coati, shed her mortal coil and went to dragon heaven this week.

Her and Austin's very extended family were shocked and saddened by the news.

Cards and any monetary assistance to her family for the memorial service can be sent to Aushea, 622 North Colfax Street, Brazil, Indiana, 47834.

Austin, her mate and love wrote the following:

Aushae, beloved dragonness, died this morning.

She had gotten sick over the weekend, and was doing badly enough that Sunday night she was taken to the hospital. She lost consciousness and was put on a respirator, but did not wake up and this morning she passed away.

All of us who know and love her appreciate her energy, her creativity, her vitality. It is difficult to imagine life without her. We are all lucky that she entered so many of our lives, bonded with so many people, and gave us the connection through her to love one another.

For a time it will be painful that it is hard for many of us to see many others without remembering her connection to us both. The pain will someday fade, though, and we can become ways to remember her joyfully again.

One of the many people she loved and who loves her said she felt sorry for herself ... she could not imagine being as special to anyone else ever again. She made many of us feel that way, and thank her for it.

Austin

To set a time to properly remember Aushae I would like to propose starting this Saturday, 9 June, from about 6 PM Pacific/Muck Time.

I understand that is late for our European contingent, but it is hard to find a time good for everyone. Please let me know promptly if it is completely impractical.

Thank you.

Her, Forever" (05/31/07) - In life, a mother, lover, friend Who nurtures, comforts, shares Her closeness never sought to end Along our path, around each bend - Forever with us fares - Delights, in us, as we, in her And courage lends, and strength Our happy hearts to us aver Such will go on as always were - Forever be at length

- Her, gently, we, for granted, take Expecting not to say Each morning warm to which we wake A world more loving, for her sake: - Forever ends today - Her sudden absence from our lives Makes still the common din Though loss the comfort from us drives Her wish for us would be to thrive - Forever dwells within

This week, having been given a nudge by the editor, Argon (Hi, boss!), we will be looking at some comic book dragons. In particualr, dragons in the Marvel Comics universe, as DC seems to be a little thin on dragons. Wonder what they have against them?

Actually, most of the "dragons" in the Marvel universe aren't dragons in the classic mythical sense. Take, for example, the Dragoness.

She was actually a mutant, a villianess. One time member of the Mutant Liberation Front, she had the ability to generate flares and pyrotechnics. In addition to her internal power, she used a jetpack and a pair of bionic wings to fly. She recently was discovered to be one of the lucky mutants who, in an event that caused about 90% of the mutant population to suddenly lose there mutant status, she retains her power.

Next up is Dragon Man, who is really nether. He is an android, of the criminal varity, However, at least this fellow has a bit of magic to him, as the evil alchimist Diablo was involved in bring him to artifical life. He has the classic dragon powers of fire, flight, inhuman strength, and extreme durability, it is amusing that on his first outing, he was defeated by the youngest super-hero team, Power Pack. He later battled Iron Man, and has held his own when fighting Hercules and the Hulk. When last seen, he had been taken to Monster Island, where he can live among other creatures similar in form to him.

There is also the Dragon of the Moon, who is more a malevolent cosmic force than a physical being. Able to control cosmic and mystical powers, he claims to have killed the inhabitants of Titan, joined forces with Mordred against King Aurther, offered power to Thanos (who accepted), planted a corrupting seed of his being inside the spirit of the heroine Moondragon, and did battle with sorcerer supreme, Dr. Strange. In the end, he was drained of his power and then had his physical form distroyed, removing him from the mortal plane.

Last, but not least, is Fin Fang Foom. An alien in the form of a dragon, he is not a villian but he gets controled by those who use them for evil. This includes being lead through a village which he distroys, being possesed by demon, mind-controlled by mad scienist, and being manipulated by magic However, in the end, he reforms, becoming a Buddist (who would have thought of that? A dragon Buddist!) and even teams up with three other "monsters" to form a team dubbed...The Fin Fang Four! I guess that proves he is an alien, and one that lacks the ability to recognize a silly name.

So, there is a quick look at some Marvel-ous dragon characters. Personally, I think they are being under-used. If you have any thoughts on this, or any other comic book topics, let me know! Until next time, see you in the funny pages!

This is a little something I threw together for the Morphicon mailing list. I hope it fits just as well in the paper.

Morphicon may be long gone but here's a little look back at the convention for those who went.

8. Another hot dog? Sure! I've only had 8 of them already.
7. No one must be told what the 'Caketrix' is. You'll have to go to the Feedlot and see for yourself.
6. Gee, walking these long halls in fursuit's a great way to sweat off a pound or two.
5. I came all the way to Vixiecon and all I got is THIS STUPID MUG!
4. Morphicon was held at the Radisson. No! It was held at the Holiday Inn.....No It was held at the Radisson.
3. Would you look at the size of that chess set? FurryMUCK's own Woulfe must be in town!
2. I just came from the Atomic Feast of Doom. Now all I need is an Atomic-sized bottle of Rolaids.

And the number one thing overheard at Morphicon 2007,,,,,'

1. Did you hear about the low flying jet plane last night? What? What do you mean that was simply the con chair's snoring?!!?!

Q: What do you call a white rabbit with red eyes?
A: An albunnyo.

Q: And what do you call a black rabbit?
A: Eb-bunny.

Q: Where's a rabbit's favorite place to go to get some pancakes on top of his head?
A: I Hop.

Q: What do you call a really huge ass (Equus assinus)?
A: A badonkadonkey.

Q: Why did the farmer always buy three donkeys from a single breeder at a time?
A: He wanted his ass sets guaranteed.

Q: Why did he hire a CPA to tend his donkeys?
A: Professional ass set management.

Q: What did he say to his wife when he thought his prized donkey had rolled in something awful?
A: Honey, sniff my ass.

Q: What did she reply to him to let him know she didn't agree?
A: It just smells like ass.

Q: What do you get when you mate a gorilla with a mare?
A: Mule Kong.

Q: What do you call the counties that make up Mule York City?
A: The Five Burros.

Q: Who gets up in the wee hours of the morning to make oat pastries?
A: Donkeyin' Donuts.

Q: What movie was about a young, smart ass and his friends ditching school for one last time before they went to college?
A: Ferris Burro's Day Off.

Q: What Disney cartoon featured a young Jenny trying to pass as a Jack to fullfil her father's military commitment to the Emperor?
A: Mule-an.

Greetings all! Here's your Spindizzy @Action News survey for this week. Take a fairy tale you enjoyed during your cubhood (or kithood or whatever). How would it be updated for modern times?

• Wren hmm. "The closest thing to a fairy tale I had read, or had read to me, was A Midsummer Night's Dream. No update needed."
• Barbarabelle says, "I'd like to rewrite Little Red Riding Hood so that I'm Red. I'd like to see how BAD that 'Mr. Big Wuffie' is."
• Sydney can't think of anything, Ba'ar.
• Tzolkin mews, "I would leave the stories as they are.. else they would not be the same story"
• Ba'ar says, "I'd rewrite 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears to have the bear family have Goldi for dinner..with a little honey mustard sauce for dipping."
• Ray could do the Inconvenient Chicken Little, but then, his politics would be showing."
• Borris Gruffs, "Ah, Borris would make Apperance in Puss'N'Boots!"
• Suri says, "The Doom of the Little Mermaid..."
• Moolooite chimes, "It would be a Dreamworks digitally animated film with an all-star celebrity cast, lame jokes designed to attract adults to the film that are suppossed to go over the heads of children, and lots of shiny explosions. The particularly fairy tale chosen would not matter, because you would get the same film either way. It wouldn't be a sequel though. I have standards."
• DTF ponders "Hm... Bambi's mother would die in a forest fire and Bambi himself die of starvation cuz PeTA people let the forest overpopulate and exist only naturally."
• Kefan would have Theseus and the Minotaur move to Fire Island and open an antique shop together rather than fight to the death.
• Argon says, "Jack and the bean stalk. Jack trades his mother's cow for some beans at the back door of the Genetic Engineering Labs. He goes home and plants it and it grows 1000 feet high. He uses his rocket pack and goes to the top. He explores around and finds a big bag of gold. He drops it by the bean stalk. He watched it fall through the clouds towards his house until CRASH!! it flattened Jack's house. "Oh well," thought Jack, "With all that gold we can buy a new house." He looked around some more and found a chicken that laid golden eggs. So he dropped it through the clouds towards his house but the chicken flew off. He then found a golden harp which sang all by itself. He skipped that as he had an MP3 player and the harp didn't know any songs he liked. So Jack climbed down the beanstalk to his crushed house. He found the big bag of gold, but after counting it, he found he only had enough to pay his mother's funeral expenses. She was in the house when Jack dropped the bag of gold. So he ate some of the beans and, being genetically modified, turned him into a centaur.

Aushae may physically be gone, but she watches over us, just above the clouds, as a star in the sky, or that grouping of stars that look like a dragon, or she may have left them to remind us of her gentle, all encompassing love.

She is part of her family, SpinDizzy, and the sky itself. Her touch and influence and love have always been one of the basic building blocks, part of the essence of what SpinDizzy is and will always be. As her memory will always be a happy part of us.

Thank you, Aushea, for what you've done and what you've meant to SpinDizzy.

Rest well dear dragon friend, and keep watch over us.

Got something that you'd like to contribute to @Action News, but aren't sure if you should, or how to do it? Just get in touch with Argon, Skyler, or Findra, and they'll be happy to help! Here are some basic guidelines, though.

Contributing a story or artwork for @Action News is easy! Just send it to newspaper@spindizzy.org, or qmail/pagemail Argon, Findra, or Skyler, with your article!

• @Action News is published weekly sometime on Sunday.
• Articles received after midnight Pacific time on Saturday may be held and published in the next edition of @Action News.
• Most any type of story or article of interest to SpinDizzy's newspaper readers 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