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In a daring attack on Friday morning, two ents, who'd been lurking at the end of a neighbor's garden for several years, launched a sneak raid on SpinDizzy! Using the cover of one of the worst storms that the area had seen all winter, the two ents, tentatively identified as from the so-called 'fir' clan, a militant splinter faction of the Freedom for Ents Coalition, attempted to breach two fences and then gain access to the secure facility where SpinDizzy is stored.

"The first I knew about it was when I heard this loud crash," Findra, one of the security bunnies employed to guard SpinDizzy. "I almost dropped my carrot! I rushed to see what it was, and found two ents in the back yard. In their haste, they seem to have tripped over a fence, and had become entangled with a non-sentient tree." The tree was said to have taken some moderate damage, but surgeons are reported to be optimistic about its condition.

It was unknown at press time whether the ents where intent on breaching the side of the building, or were trying to take out the power lines that keep SpinDizzy running. Neither eventuality occurred, much to the relief of all at the facility. "I think when their initial plan failed, they decided they had to come up with a new one," Findra was quoted as saying. "That could take several years, of course, so I think we'll be able to get the chain saws in before there's any further danger to SpinDizzy."

The Freedom for Ents Coalition could not be reached for comment.

Santapaws, that jolly holiday elf, has elected to spend his post Christmas vacation in Spindizzy. "Why not?" he said. "I needed someplace friendly and quiet to recharge my batteries and Spindizzy fit the bill nicely." The jolly elf went further. "Besides, Spindizzy's as far as you can get from my busy, noisy workshop up north."

Santapaws noted he's spending his days quietly, meeting with the citizens of Spindizzy and taking in the sights-his favorite being Patcho'black's Winter Wonderland. "What a wizard he is! All those plants of his growing various holiday candies like sugarplums. and such." he marveled. "I thought that I knew everything about holiday plant horticulture but Patchy really taught me a thing or two."

Santa did report that he is having a great time here in Spindizzy and likes it very much. "I may even build a vacation home here." he is quoted as saying. "Patchy has offered space in his Winter Wonderland for me to do that, so we'll see."

Argon, local centaur, mentioned taking the Christmas decorations off his house. Royce, local raccoon overheard the centaur talking about how pretty and shiny the lights were, and offered to help.

Royce came by Argon's home, and true to his word, he began helping to remove the lights. Argon worked on removing and storing the lights on the bushes and trees as Royce nimbly climbed on the roof of the house and began removing the lights from along the gutters and around the doors and windows.

As Argon finished up he was suprised to find that the wiring to the lights Royce had been working on was still in place. However all the shiny colored light bulbs were gone! When asked, Royce churred that he did the obvious thing a raccoon would do with the lights. He'd hidden them all! He then noted that for having to do work, which most raccoons find against their nature, he took the bulbs as payment for his help.

The zinc wires and sockets are still in place, and next Christmas, Argon is going to have to buy boxes and boxes of C9 bulbs to replace the ones that Royce has in hiding.

Last saturday, Argon, local centaur, replaced PatchO'Black, local Jellicle Cat, in making breakfast for the crowd.

Argon complimented Patchy on his good work, especially the attention to detail the Jellicle Cat posessed.

When asked, Argon replied that Patch O'Black was hungry, so he made breakfast for him. According to both, this is probably just something temporary.

There have not yet been any reports on stomach aches from that breakfast.

Morticon Today [15] -- Christmas Tree Retirement Ceremony

2007 Christmas Tree Retirement
Tue 01/08/08 07:30 PM +To: Tue 01/08/08 08:30 PM
Location: Rose Garden ('rose')
Age: All

As is our time honored tradition, the 2007 Christmas Tree Retirement Ceremony will happen this year as well. Join us as we (ICly) coax the tree to it's proper place in the retirement park north of the garden. As every year is different, who knows what will happen this year?

(As SpinDizzy residents are from many places, it seems logical to talk about holidays from other cultures. Rin, local wintermouse, is a Japanese mouse, and has agreed to tell us about some of the holidays celebrated there. As many of us are fans of Anime and video gaming (Which seems to have been developed in Japan,) it would seem some knowlege about the culture would be of interest. - Editor.)

Kon-nichi wa, minna-san! This is Rin Yukidama, here again for another holiday from Japan! Just last week, we had Shougatsu, the Japanese New Year, and this week, we've got the Coming-of-Age Day, 'Seijin no Hi'. The actual date for this holiday is pretty mutable, considering it happens on the second Monday of the new year, the same way Thanksgiving Day out in the US always happens on a Thursday. Actually, ever since the Happy Monday System was adopted in 2000, lots of previously fixed-date holidays have been moved over to non-specific Monday dates, in order to make holiday weekends a bit longer. We'll be seeing more of these holidays as the year goes on, and this one's just the first one.

Seijin no Hi is a holiday celebrating the people in the community who will be turning 20 the current Japanese school year, stretching from April to March of the following year. This is actually a pretty big deal for the relevent people; whereas most of you are probably used to 21 being the age of consent, it's 20 out in Japan. Instead of having a party for the reaching of that age on one's birthday, the whole community gets into it! There's always a ceremony, usually at city offices, normally in the morning, to congratulate the newly fledged adults for having come of age. Government officials will give their personal speeches to the new adults, and gifts are given to them as well.

If you have a kimono, this is a good day to wear 'em, girls! It's normal to break out the good stuff with the draping sleeves, though the traditional kimono's a bit difficult to put on without assistance. In Japan, girls go to salons to get some help with them, but I don't think you'll get that kind of service out here on Spindizzy. So, maybe you can catch me, instead! Anyway, men also wear their traditional outfits sometimes, usually a dark kimono with a hakama skirt, but these days, it's more normal to see 'em out in business suits. Who knows, though? Maybe we'll see a return to tradition here at Spindizzy!

The ceremony's followed up by a bunch of newly fledged adults doing what newly fledged adults do: Party. They normally congregate en masse, and migrate to a good party spot to usually get their first strong drinks at a day-long party... not that I'm recommending that!

Anyway, that's all for this week's holiday, and the next one isn't until next month. Then, we'll have 'Risshun', the start of the spring season! Unfortunately, there aren't any groundhogs in the Japanese tradition...

So, that's all for this week, and this month! There'll be plenty more this year, but for now...

Jikai made, sayounara!

Again, my request for help with @Action News worked. We have a fair paper this week with some interesting news articles, and I wrote one of them! But we can do better!

So keep your eyes open and send in articles and observations and little stories about the things going on here. Thanks to all who sent in articles and don't forget to send in more to newspaper@spindizzy.org!

Awww...! Two "big cats" who aren't so big, enjoying a snuggle! This photo is courtesy of DTF, who knows all about lions and tigers and other non-house cat felines.

So what caption do you think would go with this picture? Keep in mind, please, that there are no right or wrong answers. The captions don't have to be serious or funny or... well, they can be anything. Just keep them somewhat Family Friendly please.

So have some fun thinking up a caption, or just send the first thing that comes to mind. Usually I find my first thought is usually the best. Put it in an e-mail and send it to newspaper@spindizzy.org or argon1@mindspring.com or simply page #mail it to me.

Hey, Kids! It's time once again for another look at comic books. This time, I thought it would be fun to look at a few non-super-hero "street gang" groups! Most of these were created by one Jack "The King" Kirby. He was a bit hit or miss with these characters, but I have to admit, they were original!

Most famous of these would have to be Marvel Comic's Yancy Street Gang. This group is shown in the pages of the Fantastic Four, where they are known to torment Ben Grim, AKA The Thing. The reason they seem to enjoy making the rocky-hide hero's life miserable is because he used to actually be a member of the group. When he left the neighborhood, they saw this as selling-out. The members are usually not shown in-panel, aside from perhaps an arm or a leg. Only in resent years have a few of the members been named and had their faces shown. One of the longest running gags was that the Yancy Street Gang supposedly kept sending practical jokes to The Thing. It turned out, though, that these were actually sent by Johnny Storm, better known as the Human Torch, who has had a long-running history of annoying and being annoyed by his fellow member of the FF.

DC Comics also has a rather successful band of young scalawags. A group of newspaperboys working the streets of Metropolis in the 1940's, known as the Newsboy Legion. These little go-getters were the young sidekicks of a hero known as the Guardian. They were led by Tommy Tompkins, a rather nice young kid. The brains of Legion was known as Big Words, due to the fact that he talked like he had swallowed a dictionary. Gabby didn't have as robust a vocabulary, when when he was excited, he spoke a mile a minute. Lastly was Scrapper, who was always ready for a fight. When they grew up, they became part of a top-secret genetics project, known as Project Cadmus. The now adult Legion managed to clone younger versions of themselves, and the Newsboy Legion was reborn in modern times.

Of course, not all Kirby's young creations did so well. For example, there were the Dingbats of Danger Street! Made up of team leader Good Looks, muscle-bound Krunch, the ever-thin Non-Fat, and the rather insane Banana, they got one adventure were they stopped a couple of villains called Jumpin' Jack and the Gasser. Unfortunately, they did not appear to play well with others, and did not trust adults, which may be why they only lasted one story. However, in more recent times, they showed up in one story where they crossed paths with the modern version of the aforementioned Newsboy Legion. They had a dispute regarding who could use an abandoned theater as their group's headquarters. This was solved by yet another Kirby creation that didn't last long ether...

The last group was known as The Green Team. While the other groups were known for being poor, this gang was made up of the youngest millionaires. Their members were Commodore Murphy, who made his money in shipping, Texas boy oil baron J.P. Huston, Hollywood director and "Starmaker" Cecil Sunbeam, and lastly, one Abul Smith, who joins the group in their first, and only, published adventure, where he uses a bank error to invest in the stock market, making his fortune and returning the money with interest to the bank. The idea was that this group of wealthy youngin's was that they would seek adventures and would pay a fortune to those who can find such adventures worthy of them. They even had special green jumpsuit uniforms with high-security pockets of cash, ticker tape wristwatches, and key chains for unlocking vaults and other special buildings they would need to access. However, the idea of a bunch of rich kids spending their way through high adventure didn't catch on. However, as I mentioned before, they did make one more appearance, where they ended a battle between the Newsboy Legion and the Dingbats of Danger Street by buying the disputed theater and promising to renovate it into a youth center that both could use as a base of operation.

With that, we reach the end of another Four-Kolor Kitty. Remember to send questions and topics for future columns to Patch O'Black. Until next time, see you in the funny pages!

• DTF smiles "Iraq - the musical."
• Ba'ar says, "A sequel to The Golden Compass that establishes that Narnia's very own Aslan is head of the Magisterium."
• Snags squeaks, "A movie type that's a crime and shame? Ones based on video games?"
• Speckles says, "How Santa discovered her true gender?"
• Astra squeaks, "Hanna Montana meets an exact duplicate of herself, who says that she is from the future and that the fate of the world lies in their hands. Unfortunately, Future-Hanna-Montana is assassinated by pirate robot ninja assassins from Nickelodeon. Now it is up to Hanna Montana to travel back to the past and defeat Aku once and for all, before Nickelodeon cancels Invader Zim for good."
• Toledo says, "O. J. Simpson's life."
• Argon says, "Hmm... a movie about a bunch of emos sitting around angsting about how miserable their lives are?"

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