Bonjour, mes Rangerphiles amis!

Traffic's picking back up here at the Cafe, so the holidays must be over. I've just spend my Christmas money on upgrading to Windows XP, a wise investment from my end. We've got more newbies to welcome and lots to look over, so on with the fun!

Another week of clever caption suggestions, folks! This week, the gold stars go out to KS and Robert Knaus. Great work, you two, but that doesn't detract from the rest of you. Now this week's is interesting. It seems Gadget's said something to someone that Chip's trying to cover for. What could it all be about? I'm sure you'll be glad to tell me, so just follow the obligatory link at the bottom and fill me in.

And now, for the week that was...

On Monday, Dumpsterside revealed his true identity--he really Cecil B. DeMille! Well, a wannabe anyway. Dumpsterside is working on a Ranger movie script, and that's something to get the natives curious. I am honored you took an idea or two from the work of me and Chris Silva, Dumpsterside, and if you need anything explained I'll be glad to respond to an e-mail or two.

On Tuesday, Brian Walmer came up with the idea of crossing the Rangers plus the rest of the Disney Afternoon with the WWF. Now, I haven't watched wrestling since the days of Andre the Giant, so it doesn't hold a lot of fascination for me. Still, anything done tastefully could be interesting. Brian's got his work going on over at the Story Board, so let him know what you think!

Wednesday brought us a new Rangerphile! Welcome to the group, Painless Doc Johnson! Uh, you're not a dentist, are you?

The J.A.M. alerted us on Thursday that his epic story is about to hit the stands! Everyone proceed in an orderly manner, and no mob rule when the doors open ;-)

Also on Thursday, Ray Jones, that clay modeler extraordinaire, brought us his latest attempt at sculpy figures. You're definitely getting better, Ray, and soon you'll be doing online classes to teach the rest of us!

Rounding out Thursday was Dragondreamerx's report on his latest submission to Disney. Apparently, he's gotten the attention of the legendary legal department and they've said "thanks, but no thanks". Also noted in this thread was the clause put in about submissions in general. Apparently, they don't want any unsolicited submissions of ideas, but any that are (throughout the universe) are immediately Disney property. Like someone said, that's paranoid.

Friday opened up with Nelson's announcement of the Munks of Hazzard, part four, on the Story Board. It's becoming one of my favorite comedy crossovers, and I can't wait to see how it's going to come out! Yee-haw!

Loneheart caught the group's interest on Friday with a little game that asked us to imagine why each of the Rangers might would be sent to the principal's office during their tour of school. The answers were great, and I think each of the Rangers would've given any teacher room for pause. Of course, when Fat Cat was sent to the principal's office, I could just imagine what fate that would mean for the school the next day ;-)

Also on Friday, Robert Knaus started up a discussion about why Gadget doesn't wear shoes. The theories were plentiful, and for my money the reason is simply that most of the time she doesn't need them. That may sound simplistic, but most animal's feet are tougher and better able to stand up to the environment than ours are. Still, I could see her wearing protective shoes when doing experiments with chemicals and such in case the stuff gets on the floor.

The speculation continued with Painless Doc Johnson wondering about Chip's bomber jacket. To me, a purveyer of jackets, it looks like an A-2 bomber jacket which was prevalent in WWII. My take would be that it's a reproduction of one of those, likely given to him by his parents or possibly another relative.

Painless had another thought on the area of whether chipmunks and mice are omnivorous. They are, but they tend to stick to easier fare as I understand it unless an opportunity presents itself. Since our Rangers are sentient, it makes sense that such opportunties would be much more common.

Johan R. had a question himself today, concerning an inconsistency in "To The Rescue" where we see the RR logo on the RangerPlane that Gadget constructs from the remains of the Screaming Eagle. Now at that point, there were no Rangers officially so why would the symbol exist then? The obvious answer is, it was a simple mistake by one of the artists who copied the model complete with the Ranger symbol. I did notice that "To the Rescue" wasn't originally scheduled to air first before the other episodes, so I wonder if that played a role. Anyway, it's a mystery, and we all like mysteries.

Damon Togath got into the question-asking game as well, wondering who our favorite Ranger girl is, and why. I'm sure there will be tons of accolades for Gadget, and deservedly so. That's not why I'm not choosing her, though. During the course of writing the Untold Ranger Tales, I've enjoyed developing the character of Lahwhinie.

Now, I know that the fanfic Lahwhinie and the one from the episodes are quite different, but the development has led to a fascinating personality in my opinion. Anyway, I think she's more than sufficient to keep Chip on his toes ;-) Also, Ares found this question so interesting he's taken it for his Ranger poll question. So head on over there and let your vote be known!

That's that for this week, folks. Until our next gathering around the Ranger campfire, remember to stay down when spying on an enemy force with your binculars. You may not quite be out of range.