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A comment the other evening by Kit Skyfire. local squirrel, opened an interesting avenue of thought.

Kit noted that he was able through "alter his own reality" through a field he produces. The idea that if an individual can alter their perceptions of reality, or the perceptions of other on an individual basis, perhaps it could be done on a larger scale.

The fact that most everyone understands each others' spoken language is one amazing thing. Even on a single planet there are all sort of species and languages, most of which are incomprehensable to the other, normally. On SpinDizzy, most folks can understand one another and communicate freely. Not only those from different planets but those who are from different universes as well.

The idea of altering perceptions also brought to mind magic. Although many magic users are on SpinDizzy, how "magic" works, is still a mystery. Thinking about these things brought to mind an interesting. but far from proven, theory.

Perhaps the "universal translator" and the ability to do magic here are a result of the acres and acres of rooms, miles of corridors and huge machinery complexes under the surface of SpinDizzy. As Arthur C. Clarke once stated, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The translator and the ability to "alter perceptions of reality," may not be so much "magic" but a technology that is part of SpinDizzy. Many magic users may have no idea that the source of their power is in fact, SpinDizzy itself. If true, this lack of understanding may be the cause of the "botched" magic spells that bring so much amusement to the residents of SpinDizzy.

Of course, this is just a theory, and there is no evicence to back it up, but it's something to consider.

Aurora, local penguin, revealed an heretofore unknown fact this week. It turns out that penguins have underwater cities!

The city, called, Penguinopolis, is of course in Antarctica submerged in very cold water. Possibly one reason Prince Namor nor Aquaman have had adventures there. Aurora explained that the penguins have an arrangement with the krakens, in return for builing Penguinopolis, the penguins gave them a monopoly on salvaging wrecked ships. The rumor that many of these wrecks were caused by the krakens themselves, was not addressed.

When asked how huge creatures such as Krakens could be persuaded to work for the penguins, Aurora explained, Aurora, "That they're totally awesome construction workers! Everyone should hire them for subaquatic utopia-construction!"

WhyteShadow, local Andurusian asked, "How would someone hire them, exactly?"

Aurora answered, "Well, usually you just swim down to where one's chilling out at, and perform a secret handshake agreed upon at a previous point in time. You initially contact one via telephone, of course."

This led to a discussion of the advantages of being a penguin. Aurora showed the group a gadget she called "The Penguinator," that supposedly could change anyone into a penguin.

WhyteShadow again stepped up and asked, "Can you explain the process of Penguinization? And the options?"

Aurora ooooed! "Well, Penguination occurs on the subatomic level, instead of genetic. That way, plushie-people can get Penguinated, too! But it just infuses one's body with penguin-elements, or 'penguels', of which penguins are comprised. These penguin elements are also linked into the quantum energy known as 'squee' to penguins. Not to be confused with the dance known as 'squee', the salad dressing known as 'squee', the color known as 'squee', or the deadly transgression known as 'squee'."

Aurora continued, "...But it doesn't necessarily have to be permanent! And there's loooooots of customization options! If you've got 20 base species choice for every variation of penguin... Plus a few other (choices) if you just want a generic 'penguin'-ish form, or if you want something freaky. Like a pink penguin with yellow polka-dots and laser eyebeams," these variations are apparently available as well.

As of press time. No one has given The Penguinator a try, mostly due to the fact that Aurora has misplaced the instruction book!

Jaxen, local fox, was digging around and compiled a list of all the globals he could find. Oh, there are a few others, but these are the ones used the most. The list follows:

( actuate; adore; anime; alloy; annoy; badger; baffle; balloon; bat; bearhug; beep; beret; beverage; bin-hex; birdie; bite; blast; boing; bonk; boom; box; brush; bunnie; bunny; carriage-return; cat; cheetah; chirrip; chocolate; chrome; chulo; claw; claymationcollect; compile; compress; conceal; confuse; congratulate; conk; coyote; cuddle; deal; decaffinate; depress; devilbunny; devour; dig; disassemble; dishevel; douse; draw; dragon; duct-tape; excite; fae; feed; ferret; fiddle; film; floppyear; floppytail; floof; fl00f; floofle; fluff; fluffluff; fluffle; fnorkle; foam; fondle; foofle; funk; fursuitify; fuzzle; fox; generic; global; glomp; gnar; gnaw; gnuzip; greet; grep; groom; hi4; hi5; html; hug; hugfluff; huggle; hyena; imac; irq; java; javac; kangaroo; kiss; lick; like; love; macro; meep; mermaid; mouse; munch; newline; nibble; nip; nntp; noogie; normal; nosebeep; nosebump; noselick; novelize; nut; nuzzle; nyquil; obviate; overdo; paint; pasta; pat; patpat; pet; photograph; pie; pin; pinball; pity; )

( pkunzip; pkzip; plush; plushie; poke; polish; poofle; p00fle; pounce; preen; procyonid; pynchon; qualify; quiz; raccoon; rat; remind; retcon; reveal; rub; ruf; scratch; scritch; seagull; sheep; shift; slobbershoo; shrink; skritch; skunk; slime; slurp; smack; Smartie; smooch; snarf; snarfle; snorkle; snug; snuggle; snuzzle; sniff; solarize; sploosh; splash; sputnik; squeak; squeeze; squeezie; squirrel; squish; squishie; strawberry; stretch; stroke; swallow; swoop; sys32800,123,45,6; sys64738; tag; tailsnug; tailwrap; taunt; thwap; tickle; timeout; timeout; toggle; toy; toon; trip; tuna; uncompress; unpack; usenet; uudecode; uuencode; V2; velcro; vonnegut; waltz; weave; weird; welcome; wizard; worship; wuff; xylophone; y2k; yo-yo; zanie; zipper; zinc; zippideedoodah; )

( (Farverbs:) )
( farraccoon; faradore; faralloy; faranime; farbaffle; farballoonify; farbluebook; farbronze; farbubblewrap; farbunny; farchocolatecoat; farconfuse; farcuddle; fardigitallycompress; fardigitize; faremerald; farexaggerate; farfluff; farfeed; farfursuitify; farfuzzle; fargnar; fargreet; farhorsey; farhug; farinflate; farintegrate; farinvert; farjoke; farkiss; farlick; farlove; farmeep; farmermaid; farnear; farnoogie; farnuzzle; farotterize; faroverdo; farpaint; farparsley; farpatpat; farplastic; farplushie; farplushify; farpoke; farpolish; farpounce; farpreen; farquantify; farrabbit; farshlourp; farscriffle; farscritch; farsee; farshrink; farslick; farslip; farslurp; farsmooch; farsnug; farsnuggle; farstatuify; fartickle; farundulate; farvelcro; farverb; farweird; farwelcome; farxylophone; faryearn; farzany; farzipper; )

And of course, the hugalls:
( hugall; scritchall; fuzzleall; bunnyall; raccoonall; racoonall; noogieall; scritchall; spamall; fluffall; )

So now you have a list of all the stuff you can do to other folks unless the have their global block on.

You may be scratching your head wondering why I put the picture of Butterfluff with this article. I did a search looking for some visual to accompany this feature. But I had no luck. I'd recalled the fluff often wrote for the paper about globals, among many other things, and I thought it would be nice to remember her.

Greetings, readers, and I hope you still have your interdimensional passports on hand! This week, we are continuing our look at alternate universes with a look at Marvel's own version of the multiverse. Put your seat trays in the up-and-locked position. This is going to be a wild ride. Now, last time, we talked about the DC Multiverse. While it had quite a number of alternate Earths, timelines, and variations on a theme, Marvel's own multiverse is at least as diverse, though crossovers are rarer than in DC's little playground.

Most of these worlds came about from a nifty little series called "What If...?". "What If...?" featured the cosmically powered alien observer, Uatu, slightly better known as The Watcher. Living in a big home-base on the Moon, he watches over the Earth in the main Marvel universe and, apparently, can peek into a number of alternate universes. These comics, as the name suggest, would ask a question that changes the outcome of an event in the known Marvel timeline to see how things would have played out instead. The first, for example asked "What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four?", based on an issue were Spidey, needing money to help out good old Aunt May pay the bills, tries to join the F.F. In our world, he learns that the F.F. are strictly "not-for-profit", but in the alternate, Sue realizes that Spidey isn't just trying to cash in on his powers, and Reed admits he has thought about ways to allow his teammates to have a little extra pocket-money. Later issues asked such questions as "What if Captain America hadn't vanished during World War II?", "What if Doctor Doom had become a hero?", and "What if Phoenix had not died?"

However, "What If...?" stories are not the only way that the Marvel Multiverse got new places added to the list. Sometimes, Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards would grab his wife Sue, her brother Johnny, and his best friend Ben Grimm, pile into one of latest, greatest inventions, and go for a spin into other dimensions. In one case, they found a world where America and Russia were still fighting a cold war that was about to go nuclear-hot, as Stalin appeared to still be alive! Also, on at least one occasion, Reed used a special device he invented to contact his counterparts in several other universes when he was faced with a problem that he couldn't solve alone in the time required. You may now insert a joke about "Reed talking to himself" here.

Another series that introduced more alternate universes was one starring a little character called "Captain Britain". As you can tell, he is the champion of the United Kingdom, and is actually quite a well-written character. What does he bring to the dimensional party? Well, it turns out that he is actually part of the "Captain Britain Corps", with counterparts on various worlds. A niftly little twist is that each member of the Corps enforces the moral code of that world. On a more natural-minded world, it might be illegal to destroy a flower. On another world with organized "mobs" ruling, murder is considered an appropriate means of punishment.

There are a few alternate realities that came about simply as mini-series and other experiments in story telling. A big one was what was known as the New Universe. The idea for this universe was to make it more realistic than the Marvel Universe. Something got damaged? It stayed damaged until it could realistically be fixed. One year in the real world would equal one year in the New Universe. Unfortunately, while the characters and ideas were good, that whole "happening in real time" thing sort of caused problems. More recently, there has been the Marvel Zombie series (named after the nickname for the more extreme fans of Marvel comics), where a plague causes the various costumed heroes to become undead flesh-eaters. Mind you, they still retain much of their intelligence, given to such lines as "At least, Zombie Spider-Man, you had your amazing friends for an amazing breakfast". However, in all of these series, none of them really took advantage of the whole Marvel-Multiverse.

That has changed with a series known as "The Exiles". In this comic, a group of aliens located outside of normal Marvel time-space pull together a team of heroes from various Earths. Their missiongo various versions of realities which are about to collapse due to various reasons and set things straight before things go so wrong that the whole Universe will go poof! This group has traveled to several new worlds, as well as revisiting worlds put forth by What If...? and other series. Oh, and in case you are wondering, Marvel's main earth? Earth-616. That's right, they are not Earth-1, but they try harder!

There is a quick tour of the Marvel Universe! Join us again in about 7 days, and remember to send in ideas and questions for future columns. Until then, see you in the funny pages!

Make a Portable Feast!

You'll Need:

• Zinc Foil
• Hamburger or Sausage
• Butter or Olive Oil
• Vegetables
• Seasoning

Thinly slice some vegetables. I generally use potatoes, onions and carrots, but almost anything is good. Wrap Your veggies up in a zinc foil packet, with the meat, butter or oil on top. Season to taste. Seal the foil packet very tightly. Lay it on the engine of Your car, ideally over the exhaust manifold. Use wire to hold it in place, if necessary.

Generally the meal will cook with about an hour and a half of driving. You'll probably have to experiment a bit to find the ideal time for Your particular car. If the veggies don't cook evenly, try using a couple layers of wrinkled zinc foil to help distribute the heat.

Great for road trips, tailgate parties, etc.

-- Hi there! Ba'ar here with your Spindizzy @Action News survey. This week, Patcho'black, local Jellicle Cat and all-around-good guy, wants to know...what would you call a group of Jellicle Cats?

• WhyteShadow says, "A troupe?"
• DTF smiles "A cluster?"
• Niran chuckles a bit,"the beginning of a population explosion?
• Aurora says, "A party?"
• Austin says, "A Heaviside, I'd guess, Ba'ar."
• Ba'ar says, "I'd personally call them 'a pride'."
• Argon says, "A Chorus Line?"
• Anjil says softly, "Cat Pack?"
• Gilead chirps, "a business."
• Andros yips, "A musical?"
• Borris Gruffs, "A Hallucination."

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