Founder’s Day Commemorated with Quiet Reflections, Clock

Founder’s Day, the 28th of September, was commemorated this year with a low-key memorial held in Charter Park (“charter”) in which people shared their reminiscences of SpinDizzy and its ancestor mucks, both Toons, Furr, and Fluff, and the private Dreamtime. Austin [ coati ] startled many by pointing out how Speckles [ mink ] had been one of the original wizards back on TF&F.

Austin remembered, “TF&F was a moribund little toon/Care Bear/Sonic the Hedgehog muck with Speckles and a handful of other people hanging around. Speckles invited me over, I forget just on what pretext, and we worked up the idea that maybe it could be revitalized. To be fair, in 1997, most mucks were partly toon and Sonic, but the Care Bears thing was novel.”

Morticon [ wallaby ] remembered, “Sonic disappeared entirely. I remember the Great Forest, and how we took a tour of it… I think Bob [ raccoon; another early wizard ] did the honors of blowing it up.”  It was in the obliteration of the Sonic area on TF&F that the odd catchphrase “To the south is” became part of a handful of people’s cultural memories: it was the terminal description of one of the Great Forest rooms.

In considering the changes of the world — particularly over the past year which has seen a considerable growth in the muck’s population and diversity — Nigel [ hyena ] said, “Really, everything’s rather, uh, plunged into the garden at the moment, mmn? I’d like to see the, uh, lagoon repopularized as a start of sorts, no?”

Morticon said, “But I suppose the most important thing is that we’re still here…! And #79 out of over 1000 MU*s, no less. :)” This was a reference to www.mudstats.com, which lists many text-based communities. “Even though,” he added, “we have the worst summary of our world on every MU* lister out there.”

BunnyHugger [ devilbunny ] brought a birthday cake, which she said was “made with a bunch of different batters all swirled up, and different frostings, and… well, it’s a cake for everyone.” Its decoration was a reproduction of the whole city in the icing of its top. Chitter [ squirrel ] sliced it, and the marble cake made a fine snacking piece while people shared their origin stories, and moments of the past which they cherished most.

BunnyHugger said, “Mine is probably the first time I kissed Austin, which happened as we lingered around the ruins after everyone had left from a Story Circle event in March 2008. Uh, I don’t think he would mind me telling that.”

Endy [ badger ] said, “Mine was fighting with Mina in the sprinklers. Dunno who won, but we both got good ‘n’ wet!”

Adara [ feline ] said, “I remember…a long time ago, I was a judge…and we held a trial based on the witch/duck sketch from Monty Python….”

Cadge-Tuesday [ squirrel-squirrel ] said, “We, Cadge and I, were on TF&F. And then here. Of course that’s how our city was destroyed as most of you probably know.” Cadge-Tuesday, then known as Tuesday, was among the first set of characters created after the wizards were created and the basic template of the muck, including the Rose Garden, was founded.

Cadge-Tuesday also remembered, of TF&F, “Holmes was here and I sort of befriended him but Chit thought we shouldn’t trust him and was suspicious. Then Moriarty appeared and Holmes had a nemesis and that was pretty fun for a while.” Morticon claimed to have then killed Moriarty “in a mysterious explosion, and that was that.”

Beltrami [ balloon ] showed off her original form, the (inflatable) human she had been in her earliest weeks among SpinDizzy’s community.

Besides the reminiscences, Skyler [ bunny ] took the chance to unveil the massive Father’s Day Clock at the Pedestrian Mall, N0 W1. The clock, tall enough to give a view of the Rose Garden, the peaks of Neopolis towers, and Memorial Plaza, is tuned to sky time and should be usable for anyone in the world who wishes to know astronomical time rather than server time.