Happy New Year!
As you'll read in this week's issue, Whyville celebrated New Year's in style... and a strange event involving smiley faces and good spirits may have created a new Whyville-only holiday. Shall we call it Tator Day or Newbie Day or what??
City Hall promises me the server overload that resulted in everyone going au naturel for a day or two last week will not happen again. It was a fluke of the database server that can be designed against easily.
Not so easy is winning the Solstice Safari, not with so many great competitors playing! The final stops are now open, and the end is in sight. Good luck to every team, and to anyone who missed out, keep watch for the next solstice... when do you think that will be?
The Whyville Senate Debate was held last Friday, as you can see in FairyKiya's citizen report. The official transcript will be out ASAP -- I just need to get the formatted document from City Worker neutral, who I'm afraid may have partied too much with you all on New Year's to get it done over the weekend. ;-) Just kidding, neutral!
The voting for Senator has already begun, but I'm curious -- for those of you who have already voted or who plan to vote, does the Senate Debate affect your decision? City Hall tells me the debate changed or swayed a few folks she asked at the Greek Theater afterward. I'd like to know how many folks make up their minds before the debate even happens. How quickly do you choose your favorite, the person you're sure will be represent you and your wishes? Please discuss below in the BBS, and Bigfoot will let me know what you're all talking about. Thanks!
We at the Times would like to congratulate the City Workers for netting a new advertiser for Whyville! There was a little controversy over the "butt shield" ad that was briefly hosted on the login page, so it was moved to the Welcome Page, where Why-Pass holders may (if they want to) turn off ads, though they're welcome to leave ads on so they can continue to help Whyville directly.
If there is real concern about the "butt shield" ads, no doubt the Times will receive carefully thought-out articles on the matter....
The latest Trivia Hour was quite the success. Everyone, including City Worker neutral, was in the
"Christmas-is-coming" mood, and he asked what he admits were a lot of "easy questions", such as
"What holiday is celebrated on Dec 25?" and so on. There was one question about Shakespeare, and the girl who answered it credited Media Hour for teaching her the information. Good job, MediaWiz!
I'm also proud to report that, when CW neutral polled the Trivia Hour crowd on who reads the Times, he got about 30+ "yes" answers and only 4 "no" answers. Yay for us!
In the end, neutral awarded everyone who got on stage a 25 clam bonus as a Christmas present (that's why there are so many winners) and invited everyone on stage... "We had an impromptu Greek
Theater Christmas party :)" he says. (I hear that MediaWiz does that almost every week. ;-)
The folks who received 25 clams include: cobd, armada, FireBeam, p30pl3, haphbaked, jubyjubee, gold837 and qtgirl003. FireBeam, p30pl3, haphbaked and qtgirl003 won 50 clams, while gold837 took home an additional 100.
Secret hint of the week: In the next week or so, keep your eyes peeled on the Welcome Page calendar for new weekly events!
And that's all for this, the first Times issue of 2005.
Times Editor
