Peace, and long life...

Well, here we are near the end of February, and it feels like spring down here in the Deep South already! Haven't seen much of it, what with reading a seemingly-endless stream of articles to prepare for my dissertation. That aside, it's been a good week. Oh right, I'm supposed to talk Ranger stuff here...

Well, first things first. As we speak, Stephen C. is working on implementing a little surprise that Julie and I have cooked up for the boards. We thought we'd have had it in place by now, but it's coming. I just can't bring myself to give it away, so I'll let you be surprised by it when it comes. Needless to say, it's something that's been needed to be done for some time...

Hey, does everyone know what Thursday is? It's the first anniversary of the new Cafe! I consider the surprise coming a part of celebrating it, and I've got a little something in mind to commemorate the auspicious occasion. By the way, the original Cafe was founded four years ago this month, so we can celebrate the old and the new at the same time! Hooray, us!

Okay, now for the captions. You folks sure don't disappoint! Another great group of submissions, but Kongo's gold medal performance stood out a few hundredeths of a second above the others--can you tell I wrote this during the Olympics? Several others deserve to stand on the podium with Kongo, as well:

Silver Medal - Schroeder

"Ohwhyohwhyohwhy did I let Binky borrow Dale's Iron Goose collection? And why must she play it so *loudly*?!?"

Silver Medal (tied) - Zipper

"What do you mean 'Chipper's not part of N*Sync'?!"

Bronze Medal - Dumpsterside

"Please Mr. Eisner, please put me in one more episode!  I have to see Chip again!"

Bronze Medal (tied) - Robert Knaus

"I've had this pillow ever since I was a little squirrel! You CAN'T give it to the Salvation Army!"

Whew--a lot of ties there among the judges. Must be the pressure put on the IOC. But now on to--

The week that was...

8-Bit blitzed us on Monday with a quartet of song parodies. G.I. Joe's my personal fave. "And knowing is half the battle..."

Ye Postmaster informed us of a new artist at NGS named Nort. Nort, in the opinion of this Rangerphile, you make Gadget look mah-velous! Great to see our Russian contingent still putting out great work like this.

And would you believe it? The Postmaster returned on Tuesday with another debut from Head. Gadget as Megavolt--shocking!. ::Indy ducks the tomatoes thrown his way::

Chris Silva chimed in to let us know he'd been lurking and writing in the community for two years now. Thanks for all the work you've done in our stories, Chris. You've constantly pushed me to improve, and it's definitely paid off.

On Wednesday, Robert Knaus wondered how Gadget and Monty keep their ears warm in the winter. Several theories came out, but no consensus could be reached. Another mystery for the ages...

Jaleel (hey, you're getting to be a regular 'round here again!) updated the Feature with a new drawing from Abel DuSale. The man behind the bat (would that make him Bat-Man?) also wanted to know your opinions on what outfits Foxy's friend Liddy should wear. Get over there and let him know!

Kongo asked on Thursday about what religion the Rangers would have if any. That sparked a good bit of talk, most of it speculative. Lots of good exchanges here, and again no clear consensus. Then again, it's gaps like that which make it easy for us Rangerphile authors to fill 'em in.

Jaleel asked after the whereabouts of the MIA Matt Plotecher. Happily, we learned he's still around and still writing. I wonder what complex plot twists are hatching in that creative mind, even now...

Loki brought to our attention that voice artist Corey (Dale) Burton is still employed in his trade, taking on the role of Captain Hook in the new Peter Pan sequel. Good to know the voice actors are still out there--to my knowledge, all of them are still out there but one. Hope still springs eternal.

Friday dawned with Rennod letting us know he's working on his own personal addition to the One Year Vacation series launched by Strider. I talked with him on IM last night, and what details he'd let me know convinced me it's going to be a good one.

Charity piped in last night with an update announcement to her webpage. Thanks for coming back, Charity, and for your continued contributions to the fandom!

Lastly (though certainly not least), Loneheart announed part 8 of "Gadget in Chains". It looked really good, Loneheart, though I wonder who you were talking about when you described a human wearing a fedora, leather jacket, and holding a "snake made of cow hide". Something remotely familiar about that...

That's it for this month, folks. The next Artifacts article will be in March. Until then, remember to tell one and all to come to the Cafe on Thursday! It'll be a time to reminisce and share our thoughts and feelings about this great little oasis in the ether.