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Last Friday, 11/9/2007 at 8:00 PM muck time, the candidates for Mayor of SpinDizzy met at the SpinDizzy Center of Arts and Sciences and held a debate.

All four candidates, Beltrami, Eliahn, Jaxen and Portia adjusted their campaign schedules to be there, and a large number of interested voters attended. It was hoped that the candidates could express their views on questions revealed to them only at the debate, and voters hoped to learn more about each candidate's plans if elected, and their stands on issues. The event was hosted by Argon, local centaur and editor of the debate's sponsor, @Action News.

The audience was polite and paid close attention to the candidates' answers from subjects ranging from what they *wouldn't* do if elected, to building a city hall, what they would change if elected, and the question of distribution of, "The best fish."

Not suprisingly, the candidates were polite and respectful towards each other, with no mud slinging. Each seemed to listen carefully to the remarks of the others and all were knowledgable and expressed their thoughts on several topics of interest to SpinDizzians.

As this is SpinDizzy's first contest for a mayor, this was the first debate of its type. However, in spite of the few glitches that occured, the event seems to have been well recieved and informative.

A log of the debate of has been posted at, /2007debate/ . It has been edited to include only questions to and answers from the candidates. @Action News hopes the debate and the log will be of help to you in making your decision who to vote for.

@Action News thanks the candidates and voters who attended and showed such interest in this event. As of yet, a date for the election has not been set. Once it is, @Action News will cover it!

Argon, local centaur, noted the arrival of Royce, senior local raccoon. The centaur asked the raccoon. "So, is everything raccoony?"

Royce nodnoded but noted he was hungry. A common state of affairs for Royce and most all raccoons. Argon, being kind hearted, fed Royce. As he was enjoying the snack, the centaur said, "I had raccoon guests last night. Wish you could have been there."

Royce ooohed? curiously.

Argon continued, "I had some leftovers so I left a buffet for them out by the curb. They sure enjoyed it. I know it was raccoons because of how everything was spread around. Cleaning up after a feast is work, and of course, that's not raccoony."

Royce seemed to agree and added, "Buffets are raccoony."

The centaur grinned, saying, "It was my pleasure. I was raccoony too, as I left the mess for the trash men to clean up." to which Royce hee heed!

Argon noted, "Trash men aren't raccoony. They work hard. But I'm glad they do."

Royce agreed as having others do hard work is very raccoony!

In what has started to become a regular event, Patch O'Black, local Jellicle cat, has again made breakfast for folks in the Rose Garden on Saturday.

Patch asks who wants breakfast, and those who answer, "Me!" are put to work helping the cat prepare it.

Usually, Patch has all the tools, appliances and foods in his cat basket, but sometimes folks provide special items to be prepared. Patch heats up his cook stoves, prepares eggs, sausages, bacon and even country fried steak. He also has coffee, milk and juices. He coordinates the preparation of the meal in an excellent manner, and for those who claim that they can't cook, he proves that indeed they can.

Patch makes cooking look easy and makes it easy for his "helpers" to assist, with good natured advice and instruction. Cooking with Patch is fun, and the time flies by. Before you know it, a delicious meal is prepared and served.

So if you wake up early enough some Saturday, come on down to the Rose Garden. You might be put to work to build up an appetite, but Patch's cooking will satisfy it quite well!

Patch O'Black, local Jellicle cat was found to have some sort of ray-gun that would change the color of folks' fur, hair or other external covering.

As this reporter arrived in the Rose Garden, at the same time as Austin Dern, local semirabbit semiraccoon elastic coati they were greeted by Patchy who asked, "Hi, Argon! Hi, Austin! You are just in time to be zapped a new color!"

Austin asked what seemed the obvious question, "You've created a new colour? What does it look like? Heck, where does it even fit in? Rainbows are pretty full things as they are, you know."

PatchO'Black mewed, "It looks spiffy and fits in most places," to which Argon, local centaur, noted, "Maybe you have to be Jellicle to see it."

PatchO'Black then zapped Austin with the ray gun in his cat basket and turned him a nice golden color.

Austin chirp?s and noted, "Golden? That's not a new colour; there've been golden things for years now." Patchy replied "But it is a new color for a coati!"

Jaxen, local grey fox, had been turned purple, Borris, local polar bear was orange and now Patch O'Black had the ray-gun's sights set on the newly arrived centaur, "And now for you, Argon!" Seeing the inevitable coming, he said, "My favorite color is plaid." So Patch zapped him a nice plaid!

Argon noted that he looked like a blanket. A horse-like but not like a horse blanket. Patch asked, "What do you think?"

The centaur paused, "It's a unique look, I'll say that." Austin recalled a dearly departed dragon saying, "Still, gold would have looked so lovely next to Aushae."

Patch O'Black noted that the coloration was only temporary, but Austin, ever curious, asked Patch if he was saving up to make genuinely new colours, recalling the Jellicle cat's offer to "be zapped a *new* color." It would seem that the visual spectra of optical imaging may still have some new ways to look at things if Austin can convince Patch O'Black to create new, never before seen colors.

@Action News will report if and when these new colors are viewed.

Kefan, local centaur and Dr. Who fan, is well known for his artistic talents. Although as seen here, they sometimes manifest themselves in unusual ways.

First some background, A Dalek is a villain in the well known British television series Dr. Who. It is a grotesque mutated organism integrated with a tank-like mechanical casing made of "dalekanium". The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse (as all of their emotions were removed except hate). They are also, collectively, the greatest alien adversaries of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their most famous catchphrase is "EX-TER-MI-NATE!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice.*

Having Photoshop on his computer and some time to kill, led to Kefan producing this work of art.

It is feared that Kefan's next project may lead to My Little Daleks or Care-Daleks. Hopefully their tummy rays won't resemble a "loo" plunger.

Kefan has quite the interest and a wealth of knowledge about the program, so if you're a fan, "chat him up" sometime about it. I'm sure he'll be happy to talk about Dr. Who.

*(Excerpted from Wikipedia entry, "Dalek".)

Atten-shun! Time to fall out for another edition of Four-Kolor Kitty. This time, in honor of Veterans Day, we will be look at the super-heroes of World War II. So, put on your helmet; we are going in!

Oddly enough, during the actual war, you would think the super-heroes would be sent into the front lines. In fact, Superman should have been able to finish the war in a day or so. Actually, there is a very short early Superman story that shows the Man of Steel abducting Adolf Hitler as well as Josef Stalin and taking them to Geneva to stand trial. This story was done before America entered the war and, of course, was quickly dismissed in later stories, as obviously Hitler was still in power. Also, as war makes for strange bedfellows, Josef Stalin became our ally against the Axis, so it was probably best at the time for that story to be quietly forgotten.

Obviously, there had to be a reason that Superman didn’t become America’s greatest member of the armed forces. This was done in classic Golden Age style. When Clark Kent took his physical to see if he was eligible to join up, he accidentally used his X-ray vision and read the eye chart in the next room. He was classified as 4-F and thus would not be freeing Europe any time soon. However, that didn’t stop DC from showing him on the cover doing such things as destroying Nazi subs, tying tank barrels into knots and, a personal favorite of mine, grabbing onto Hitler and Japan’s Emperor Hirohiro by the collar of their shirts, giving them a stern look.

Batman was also active during WWII. However, he chose to stay mostly in Gotham, probably because of his need to maintain his secret identity of Bruce Wayne. Still, he fought saboteurs and enemy spies on the home front. Meanwhile, over on Paradise Island, an American pilot by the name of Steve Trevor, crash lands and is nursed to health by the Amazons. Princess Diana falls in love with the American intelligence officer, so when one of the amazons is to be selected via a tournament to go to “Man’s World” to fight the evil Axis forces, she participates against her mother’s wishes and is selected to become Wonder Woman. She disguises herself as a nurse, Lt. Diana Prince who just happens to not only look exactly like her, but shares her first name. This allowed her to overhear information that would allow her to spring into action.

DC Comics then decided to take a group of their characters and form them into one crime-busting team. This was made up of mysterious gold-helmeted Doctor Fate, Hour-Man who got an hour of super-strength and speed when he takes a Miraclo vitamin pill, the spirit of vengeance known as The Spectre, the sleep-gas using Sandman, as well as the original versions of the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. While Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were considered honorary members, they did not appear as part of the team, as they were busy with there own comic book titles. Again, this group worked mainly in the United States and did not battle on the frontlines. No good reason for this was given at the time, but later it was established that Adolf Hitler had gotten a hold of a magical weapon known as the Spear of Destiny which would cause the JSA’s most powerful members to become his pawns if they were to step into an area controlled by the Axis powers.

This, however, happened during the actually time of World War II. Since then, there have been other comics that are set in the era. Marvel, at that time known as Timely Comics, in 1946, came out with a team of heroes known as the All-Winners Squad. Later, this was retconned (retro-fitted continuity, where stories are written as taking place before stories that are already published) to be the post-war version of two teams: First, The Invaders was made up of Captain America; his kid sidekick Bucky; the first Human Torch, who actually wasn’t human but an android; the Torch’s kid side-kick Toro; and Namor the Sub-Mariner who was too darn snooty to have a kid side-kick. They were later joined by English superheroes Union Jack and Spitfire as well as Miss America and The Whizzer, the last one probably regretting his choice of code-name all during the war.

The Second World War II team was actually created due to the Invaders being captured by the evil uber-Nazi, The Red Skull. Bucky, that plucky young partner, managed to escape and brought together a group of second-string super-heroes of the time to rescue them. In addition to the afore mentioned Miss America and The Whizzer, they were joined by the icy Jack Frost, the near-invulnerable Blue Diamond, fighting man The Patriot, winged crime-fighter Red Raven, and, lastly, comic’s first stretching super-hero, The Thin Man, no relation to William Powell.

DC has, also, played the revised history game. In 1981, they decided to revisit World War II and created one of the biggest collection of Golden Age superheroes ever seen. This brought together members of the Justice Society of America and two smaller teams (the Freedom Fighters and the Seven Soldiers of Victory). At the request of President Franklin Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they became known as The All-Star Squadron. Headquartered in the Trylon and Perisphere of the 1939 New York World ‘s Fair, this group fought the good fight on the home front. As mentioned before, they couldn’t battle the Axis powers in Europe or Asia due to that darn Spear of Destiny. Notable members of the All-Star Squadron were Johnny Quick, who gained super-speed and flight when he recited a special mathematical “speed formula;” Liberty Belle, who really didn’t have any super-powers except getting an adrenaline boost if someone rang the real Liberty Bell (which a night watchman would just happen to do at just the right time); Tarantula; and Amazing Man. The last two, I find particularly interesting. Tarantula, as his name suggests, had a spider-theme using suction-cups on his boots to walk on walls and a “web-gun” that fired out a fast-hardening nylon. Yes, it does sound like a poor-man’s Spider-Man; however, the reason he was doing the super-hero thing was very original. See, he was really a novelist who was doing this to research a book on the cape and cowl set. That’s right, he was risking life and limb just so that he could get a book published! Now, that’s dedication to one’s writing! Amazing Man, on the other hand, had the remarkable power of being able to become whatever material he touched. Touch some bricks, and he’s a powerhouse; touch some copper wire, he can conduct electricity. What made him a standout member of the Squadron was that he was African-American. Considering the time-period the stories are set in, it made for some interesting interactions among both fellow heroes and common people.

Another interesting item about the All-Star Squadron is that, during its run, DC did their groundbreaking mini-series, Crisis on Infinite Earths. As the All-Star Squadron was on Earth-Two, which was merged with other remaining Earths into one single world, it forced the writers to deal with the fact that, in the revised history, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman no longer were around in World War II. When the series ended, a second series called Young All-Stars introduced a group of young superheroes intended to fill the gap in history left by the now-erased heavy-hitters.

I would just like to mention that I was recently informed the Marvel Comics has been publishing a new comic book series exclusively for the armed forces. One of the recent issues has the now deceased Captain America, requesting on a pre-recorded video tape, that the Avengers protect a soldier and her brother.

And there is a brief review of super-heroes at war! For now, the Four-Kolor Kitty is standing down. Till next time, see you in the funny pages!

Q: Why couldn't the blonde Shetland Ponytaur speak?
A: She was like a little horse, or some junk.
(Yeah, first time I heard it, I fell off my eohippus too...)

Q: Why did Christopher Columbus's steed not wind up in India?
A: He was a horse off course, off course, off course, and noone could talk to a horse off course.

Q: Why does Gilead sigh when there aren't any centaurs in the Rose Garden?
A: Because they Argon.

Q: Why are centaurs careful not to step on their birthday cakes?
A: You can't hoof your cake and eat it too!

Q: Why should you always listen to the advice of Skuntaurs?
A: They usually make scents.

Q: How do centaurs decide who to vote for for mayor?
A: They usually follow the Gallop Poll.

Q: Why did all the centaur stockbrokers suddenly blush as a recession started?
A: The market was dropping like crazy.

Q: Where do you go to get a quick meal for a hexapod?
A: The Cafetauria.

Q: What's a centaur's worst nightmare?
A: When they dream they're at their graduation giving the valediction, and suddenly realize they have pants on.

Q: What did Old McDonald do back in prehistory?
A: Old McDonald had a prehistoric farm, E O E O Hippus.

Q: Did you hear about the stallion with a bladder problem?
A: He could only go like a race human.

Q: What do elegant horses wear on their heads for race day?
A: Kentucky Derbies.

Q: Why did the centaur take some Prozac after being ridden?
A: He was feeling a bit sad dle.

Q: What did the stallion do after getting his girlfriend pregnant?
A: The honorable thing. He mare-ied her.

Q: How do you get information from a horse person?
A: Wa-taur-board them.

Q: Why did the little filly go to the petstore and ask the owner to get her an amphibian of his choice?
A: She really needed someone to pick her frog.

Q: How do you keep your horse's shoes from being stolen?
A: Make sure to set the fet locks.

Q: Why couldn't the ailing mare walk or canter?
A: She had the trots.

Q: What's a centaur's favorite medieval racy stories?
A: The Canter Bury Tales.

• Borris Gruffs, "How to serve Wallaby!"
• Diam04 thinks. "The well-being of everyone."
• Portia lilts, "I'd answer Community. Focus on bettering the community."
• Austin hmms. "What could be done about a greater doing regarding the goings-on held in regard by those doing what is regarded, and if so, since when?"
• Guest2 says, "How about: doe we need a mayor, really. Or not."
• Fermata says to Ba'ar, "The importance of a gift economy."
• DTF ponders "providing restroom facilities for the municipal parks? And not with that industrial-type writing/toilet paper, either.
• Kunoichi decides to withhold comment.
• Gatsby says, "More guns for the whales and down with trousers."
• Austin says, "Ba'ar, I think they should focus on the issue where Woozy Winks gets his superpower and is sent to finish off Plastic Man. Or perhaps they should work on the one where nothing can stop Computo except for Braniac-5 (shudder) coming up with a plan."
• Raphael murrs, "Rabbits. We should be concerned about rabbits, and their role in real world domination in cooperation with the communist squirrels and the tribe of gophers at the corner of Elm Street and Highland Drive."
• Suri says, "Fire!"
• WhyteShadow is unaware of whether we have any issues.
• Ba'ar growls, "The issue of running for president of the United States so that none of those current screwballs have a snowflake's chance in July of winning."
• Leowulf says, "I can't realy think of any issues the candidates should address, we've gotten on pretty well without a mayor until now. I'd have to defer an answer until aftr the debate myself I think."
• Kamida lilts, "Building a city hall! Or do we actually have one?"
• Argon says, "Oh, I can't answer until at least after the debate."

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