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What seemed to be a quiet uneventful week in the Rose Garden this week wasn't as quiet and uneventful as it might have seemed. A number of subtle and perhaps unnoticed events and happenings were occuring.

Patch O'Black, local Jellicle cat did his usual fine job of singing and dancing to keep folks happy. He also cooked from time to time and made some fine snacks. However, it was the fact that Patchy was calling himself "Patchi" as he had, for a time, become female that was of notice! Apparently Austin, local coati caused "Patchi" to become female.

Borris, local polar bear, is always joking around about his great appetite and hunting abilty. His great size and strength makes him quite formidable in the wilds of his home of Siberia. His teasing of Zoie, local raccoon has made the little raccoon, who doesn't know Borris all that well, a bit nervous. So nervous in fact that she spends most times hiding in her tree. A momentary bit of tension was seen when Zoie's nervousness caused Gilead, local otter, to actually instinctively bare his fangs at Borris, and Borris hadn't even swept anyone! Of course, Borris and Gilead are friends and not harm was done. It was just interesting to see the otter protecting Zoie with such vigor.

Jaxen, local fox, is still green after his encounter with Chalky, Darius is still somewhat ferrety and enjoys scritches, and Sally, local velociraptor and Niran local Grey Wolf/Furry Dragon, discussed the possibility of Argon, local centaur as a source of food. Luckily, both found the prospect not worth the trouble.

So, there was a lot going on, some I haven't noted, but nothing more than the usual fun in the Rose Garden. So stop on by and see what's going on!

Tuesday being what it was-(April Fools' Day), Spindizzians everywhere braced themselves for pranks of various types, many recalling the prank loaded Spindizzy @Action Newspaper that had come out the year before. "To someone who dislikes being pranked, April Fools Day is a bed of landmines. " Ba'ar, local bear, is quoted as saying. "We go through the day not knowing who or what to believe, so what's a fellow like me to do?" "

They needn't have worried. When April first rolled around, all was well in Spindizzy with no practical jokes of any kind being pulled. Even the celebrated oak tree in The Rose Garden decided not to participate in the April Fools Day festivities, dispensing its usual compliment of popcorn, nuts and such.

The citizens were shocked, to say the least. "It was the darnedest thing." said Cora, local she-bear (and social maven),. "I was expecting a bucket of water over the door or something, but nothing happened." Unlike some, she was philosophical about it. "Perhaps no one had any good pranks to pull." she added with a shrug.

(Editor's Note - Due to a mistake on my part, last week's Classic Gaming Article should have run this week and this week's Classic Gaming Article should have run last week. So if things seema little out of order, it's my fault, not Zoie's. Sorry Zoie, and thanks for a great series of fun articles! - Argon)

Hey all!

Its the 'lil night time gamer raccoon here again with her new article.

Well, this one comes when I first discovered the internet back in 1997. It was a game that everyone was talking about and you were able to play the game for free download, despite the fact you could only play as the warrior instead of the full game. The game was dark, the game was brooding, the game was brutal, the game was demonic, the game was...

You start out in the town of Tristram as a warrior, rouge or sorcerer. As you begin to talk to the the towns people. As you begin to gather information you discover that the King sent his own son to fight Diablo's minions and eventually the townspeople, under the guise of Archbishop Lazarus led a rescue party, only to discover he led them into a trap and the wounded townsperson begs you to avenge them from the demon called only "The Butcher". As you delve deeper into the labyrinth, you face even darker horrors and demons.

As you begin to notice the difficulty grow even more fierce, you discover more of the story, King Lorick, filled with anger and grief over his son, blamed and killed many of the townspeople and his knights were forced to slay him. With the king's dying breath, he cursed everyone and came back as a skeletal figure with one, the barkeeper asking you to put his soul to rest.

As you perform deeds for the townsfolk, saving various souls and gathering items for your deeper plunge into the darkness, you eventually will talk to Deckard Cain regarding the assault on Archbishop Lazarus, whom you discovered actually was the one who kidnapped the young prince. After gathering the staff to open up his sanctum in the pentagram, you can face and slay the corrupted Archbishop and open the way to hell itself.

As you fight through the denziens of hell, you must perform four tasks to unleas Diablo, whom was sealed at the bottom of the Labyrinth and retrieve his soulstone!

However you get a VERY evil twist to the ending!

This game brought a lot of shock to many parents that it delt with demonic forces. Even though you were the one slaying them, it brought many parent groups as well as others that wish to "protect" children from such brutal violence. This game brought forth an expansion that brought new classes and quests to the game as well as a sequel with its own expansion.

The online version of the game brought many allies together whom wanted to fight and kill the demon race as well as PvPers (Player vs Players). This game was also very well hacked by people who wanted the best weapons and gear rapidly and started the trend among other players to PK for laughs against those who where newer (newbies/noobs). This in turn brought out the guild systems in this game and others for those who wanted to be PKers, PKKers (player killer killers) and Player defenders.

This game holds a special place in my heart as it opened me up to online gaming! Though I have walked way from the Diablo series, I am still very active in other gaming series! In the end, let me leave you with a thought, a game is only as good as how much you enjoy spending time on it.

This game has plenty of replay value if you enjoy the online experience though if you don't want to associate around hackers and PKers, I advise you stick with the sequel, Diablo II or stick around non-PK areas and games.

If you are into PvP, this game is an early example that you can bear your teeth into!

I hope everyone can take care and enjoy yourselves! Since no one took a guess at my lil question last week, I leave you with a thought of my next game. It is a very well known game who's tune is very simple, yet catchy and currently an attraction in the new "Brawl" series. Lets see if you can guess!

Zoie, the rogue raccoon

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the newspaper!

Special thanks go to:

Argon who described activities in the Rose Garden,
Ba'ar for his April Fools article,
Zoie for her "Classic Gaming" article,
Patch O'Black for his "Four Kolor Kitty" article,
Gilead, for his puns,
Ba'ar for his his survey and
Argon for this week's cartoon.

Welcome, once again, to another edition of Four-Kolor Kitty. Today, we will be looking at an oft overlook, and in my opinion underused super-hero. He has a snappy superpower, a great supporting cast, and even a rather nice uniform. His name is Buddy Baker, but he is better known (though maybe not well known) as Animal Man!

Animal Man's origin took place in 1965 in an issue of DC Comics Strange Adventures. In it, we meet Buddy Baker out on a hunting trip in the Adirondack Mountains. While there, he finds an alien space craft. Like any curious young man, he goes up to it...and promptly gets cooked by the engines firing up. Oops. However, he is in luck, as the aliens not only rebuild his body, but they give him the ability to duplicate the powers of any animal near him. After a few outings using his powers, he downs an orange, black, and blue costume, first being named "A-Man", then the more descriptive "Animal Man".

However, after a few years of adventuring, the Man with Animal Powers decided to hang up his mask, get married, and settle down. However, one day, Buddy crosses paths with another super-hero known as the Immortal Man, who recruits him into a team known as the Forgotten Heroes. They set out on a mission to save the world and, when it is over, Buddy decides that the time is right for Animal Man to once again resume his super-hero work. However, he also decided to champion the cause of "animal rights". He became a vegetarian, and publicly acted to stop animal cruelty. He stopped fox hunts, intervened in fishing that hurt dolphins, as well as exposed labs performing unethical experiments on animals. This was mostly due to him being now written by one Grant Morrison, who is a vegetarian himself.

Grant would also make Animal Man's life rather odd during this period. Animal Man would find himself facing a cartoon coyote who was transported to the "real" world by his creator as part of a deal to end the violence of his animated world. He would fight against the returning worlds that were returning through the mind of the one being who remembered the Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earth multi-verse, the Psycho Pirate. He would eventually meet his maker (Grant) and discover the truth about his existence as a comic book character. This would become something of a running gag, such as when the Martian Manhunter came to get Animal Man's help facing a war-creating alien bio-machine, Buddy comments "I've vital to the plot..."

Later, he would be ret-coned to have gotten his powers through a shaman, but this would later be changed back in favor of his original origin. He would then discover he could duplicate powers from any animal no matter the distance, and more recently, he could duplicate powers of non-terestrial animals. He spent some time stuck in space, died, came back to life, and is now back on Earth with his family, and trying to once again to balance super-heroics with a family.

And that's it for our look at the Human Zoo, Animal Man. Remember, if you have a character you would like us to explore, a topic that you would like see discussed, or a question that needs to be answered, just page mail the ol' Four-Kolor Kitty, PatchO'Black. Until next time, see you in the funny pages

Q: How do you cure a centaur's alcoholism?
A1: With a 12 clop program.
A2: With a 24 step program.

Q: Why did the half-man half-horse cry in the movie?
A: He got very centaurmental.

Q: How do you find out the centaurment of the electorate?
A: With a gallop poll.

Q: Why did Graham Kerr want to become a centaur?
A: So he could truly be The Galloping Gourmet.

Q: Why did the centaur call in sick to work?
A: He had the trots.

Q: Why did he later go to the hospital?
A: He started to get the canters.

Q: Why did they put him in the ICU?
A: He got the gallops.

Q: Why did the centaur stay home instead of going to the big centaur parties?
A: He never herd about the centaur parties.

Q: Why shouldn't you ever waterboard Argon?
A1: It'd be 'taurture.
A2: He's not a 'taurorist.

Q: Why did the half-lady half-horse buy some Lysol spray for the barn?
A: It was beginning to get a bit otauriferous.

Q: Where's a quick place to eat in the barn?
A: The cafetauria.

Q: What if you wanted to go a bit more upscale and leisurely?
A: The tratauria.

• Elissa would like Ronald Reagan for president, and Jerry Lewis for vice president.
• Argon says, "Oh, Bozo and Clarabelle. If we're going to have leaders who are clowns, they might as well be funny ones!"
• Eliahn yips, "I think the least likely candidates are Ted Theodore Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esquire."
• BunnyHugger says, "I think the unlikeliest presidential candidate is my sidekick, Chitter and the unlikeliest V.P. would probably be... Borris."
• Marcus says, "Osama bin Laden as President, with James Randi as his running mate (Running on the Al-Qaeda/Atheist split minority vote, of course)."
• Lamar yaps, "My answer, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are least likely to be President and Vice President in 2009. I hope."
• Dingo says, "Castro and Nikiita Kruschev"
• Zoie mmms a bit,"Morticon and Argon."
• Ba'ar says, "The obvious choice: Argon for Prexy and Morticon for his Veep."
• Borris Gruffs, "Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd!"
• Kamida lilts, "Well, that's easy? My human as president and me as vice president (or the other way around)."

A "classic" Doze Garden from 2003

Got something that You'd like to contribute to @Action News, but aren't sure if you should, or how to do it? Here are some basic guidelines.

Contributing a story or artwork for @Action News is easy! Just send it to newspaper@spindizzy.org!

• @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