Happy Holidays, folks! Welcome to a huge double issue of the Times, courtesy of the fact that we didn't publish anything last week, this Saturday is the Winter Solstice, and next week is Christmas!

As most of you know from reading previous weeks, Whyville's own MediaWiz has started up a "media hour" on Wednesdays. The deal is, if you watch the highlighted show(s) and then come to the media hour, discuss what you learned (or didn't learn! TV is, as we all know, not perfect...), you'll earn a bonus of upwards of 50 clams!

Hmm... watch TV, spout off on my opinions, earn clams... I think I can handle that....

And speaking of value for the holidays (wasn't I saying something about that?), check out the Whyville Store -- you'll find real life t-shirts and sweatshirts with the brand spanking new Snowbird image on them! Get them while they're still here -- Winter 2002 lasts only so long before the bird melts away!

And don't think that the good deals stop there. City Hall has brought back the 3 months for $3/month sale on Why-Passes! According to an unnamed source inside City Hall, the March "3 for $3" sale was extremely successful for both Whyville and its citizens, and they expect even more citizens will take advantage of this year's Mid-Winter Sale.

The Winter Solstice Safari has also begun this season. Are you signed up? How have you dealt with the numerous glitches that have already happened? Are you ready for the next level? For those of you who haven't signed on yet, run over to Kiki's Tiki Tours right away. This is one of the biggest clam-earning activities you can do, so grab your keys to the Warp Wagon and get moving!

One more note: the voting in the AbilityFirst RecRoom got stuck after the first vote -- so everybody should get in there and cast their votes again! Which multiplayer game do you want to play?

Finally, I'd like to send out a special happy holidays to each and every one of you. We've seen some recent issues in the Times about being kinder, better people. Let's take these words to heart, shall we? It's hard to think of a better gift to give or receive....

Thank you all for reading the Times. Thank you for supporting your local paper, for writing and responding and thinking about everything you see, in Whyville and out. Thanks for being Whyvillians, folks.

Take care,