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micawber (mik-kaw'-bur) n. one who is poor but lives in optimistic expectation of better fortune. [from Wilkins Micawber, character in the Dickens novel David Copperfield.]

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The Comedians Of Comedy %}

Remember this name:
Zack Gaf-- Galin-- Galifin--
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"I'm writing this letter in thanks for the great holiday card you sent out. This Monday had been going really cruddy for me and I had an overall bad day, but when I got home my mom told me I had some mail. I saw I had a letter from Looney Labs and wondered what it was. When I opened it up and saw the great Tirade art on the front I felt great that you guys sent me a card. When I opened it up and the three promo cards and the mini-catalog fell out I was thrilled. To cheer myself up even further I stopped at the mall and picked up a copy of Eco-Fluxx. Thanks for the card Looney Labs, it really brightened up my day!" -- email from a Fluxx fan named Brett


Thursday, December 8th 2005
by the Writer's Guild of Wunderland

What's New?




If you want something from our online store before Christmas, we need your order no later than Monday, December 19th! And don't forget our Holiday Special!



This Year's Holiday Gift / Farewell Russell / JD Rules 2.2

This year, for a change, we got our Holiday Gift to the Rabbits done nice and early, and judging from the chatter on our mailing lists, most people have already received theirs at this point. (Sorry International Rabbits, yours will probably be late... a sorting mistake led to inadequate postage being placed on most of the cards being sent out of the USA, and they've been coming back marked postage due...)

In any event, here's a look inside the little envelopes that many of you have already received by now, and others will hopefully be getting very soon.

As you can see, it's a set of cool new Fluxx promo cards! For years we've been wanting to make a Keeper called Earth to add to regular Fluxx so that we could also make a Goal called Peace on Earth... we decided that this was the year to do it after publishing EcoFluxx and realizing the Earth could also be fun when included in that game.

Then, having decided to make a set of Holiday promo cards, we couldn't resist the idea of making a Christmas Tree for our newest game, Family Fluxx, which includes the new Keepers it requires, the Gift and the Tree. This card makes Family Fluxx the perfect game to play with your family on December 25!

Lastly, the mailing includes a newly updated version of our Micro-Catalog, and a holiday greeting card featuring our broccoli Tirade.

It's a bit less extravagant than our holiday gifts have often been, but it had to be for us to send it to 9000 names on our mailing list! (If you know we don't have your mailing address, or just want another copy: this year's gift is already available in our Dollar Store.)

We're hoping that by mailing these cards out nice and early, many people who might have forgotten about us will look for our games this holiday season. And guess what? It seems to be working! Yay!


In other news, Russell is stepping down from his job as our Rabbit Coordinator. He has been working for us with this title for over 2 years now, but always as a part-time job... and unfortunately, his real day job still has him working so much overtime that he just can't give us very much of his attention. He is working too hard, and is no longer having fun, so he is taking off his Rabbit Coordinator hat. Please continue to be patient about bio and Rabbit point approvals... and stay tuned for what this means for our convention schedule next year. We already have one candidate for the job of Rabbit Coordinator, but if any other Rabbits are interested in this part-time, paid position, they should contact Kristin.

We're all very sorry to see you go, Russell, but believe us, we know what it's like to be too busy. Sometimes, you just gotta cut back. But thanks ten million times for all the great help you've given us these past few years! You've been a real asset to our team, and I know we will remain good friends.


Meanwhile, we've been continuing to playtest and tweak the ruleset for the new way of playing Just Desserts, which I announced last week. I'm still really pleased with it, and the feedback we've been getting has mostly been very positive... but that doesn't mean we have all the kinks worked out yet.

The new way of playing has a Set-like quality to it, in that players compete to be the first to notice something and call it out; however, the bonus we've been using for giving someone their Favorite stymies and undermines this element of the competition.

So, much as we've found it fun being able to intercept someone else's Guest by saying "Wait, I've got his favorite," I've decided to ditch that. Instead, the reward a player gets for delivering a favorite will be an extra card draw. (Now the person who makes the call first always gets to serve the Guest, but they get an extra tip if they bring out the person's favorite thing.)

Another place I've decided to make a change is in the end-game. It gets tedious reshuffling the last few picky eaters until everyone has been served, so rather than letting it drag out, the game now ends after the Guest pile has been exhausted twice.

Lastly, much as I like starting my games with 3 cards, I have to concede that the first few turns usually end in the Guest leaving hungry, and there's just no good reason to force a slow start. So, the initial handsize is 5 cards again.

AndyThanks again for your feedback and please keep playtesting!

Thought Residue
"By refusing to give in, Rosa Parks showed that one candle can light the darkness. Like so many institutionalized evils, segregation ultimately depended on public accommodation. Like so many institutionalized evils, once the ugliness of these laws was held up to the light, they could not stand. Like so many institutionalized evils, these laws proved no match for the power of an awakened conscience -- and as a result, the cruelty and humiliation of the Jim Crow laws are now a thing of the past." -- President George W. Bush, Comment on the Signing of H.R. 4145, to Place Statue of Rosa Parks in U.S. Capitol

I believe someday, future politicians will praise the leaders of the anti-prohibition movement, using words very much like those President Bush used to describe the legacy of Rosa Parks on December 1st. The War on Drugs is yet another institutionalized evil, and more and more of us are seeking to hold the cruelty and humiliation of the drug war up to the light. But sadly, like so many other Americans, the President continues to support this particular institutionalized evil. So who will be the Rosa Parks of the legalization movement, and what will be the public act of defiance that eventually leads to reform?
"Five Mickey Mouses, three Tom and Jerries, six geese a-laying, ten fat old women, one Brazilian conjurer, four fugle horns, one Union Jack, seven little men in bowler hats, one Florence Nightingale, some admirals (a rear admiral, a front admiral, a red admiral and a vice admiral), two framed masterpieces painted by Van Dyke's mother-in-law, four elephants, two Chinese policemen, one photograph of Battersea Power Station, three typical British housewives, a rugby team (complete with umpire), the Norfolk Broads, three Widow Twankies, the Empire State Building, eleven performing seals, an abyssinian fire-eater, a chocolate wristwatch, a first aid kit (complete with fretso) and a jar of stick-anything adhesive glue." -- Contents of the Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit (which I remember very fondly but haven't seen in 30 years) as quoted in an online description of the film

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