First of all, yes indeed, this is the November/Thanksgiving double issue of the Times. If you celebrate the U.S. Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 25, gobble gobble to you! If you don't, gobble gobble to you too, just because it's fun. :)

Speaking of fun, Whyville has moved to all-new, souped-up servers! Let's all thank the Whyville programmers -- especially CW mark -- for their hard work in getting the entire town moved over from the other side of the continent in just one week. Imagine if you had to move your whole house from New York to Los Angeles, without help from any movers or anything. Wow! Thank you, mark and everybody else!!!

The server move started a few weeks ago and is now 99.9% complete. You may still experience hesitations and skips as you travel through Whyville, but they should be very minor and will end very soon. CW mark tells us that the new database server is "remarkably speedy," because the computer is faster and the new software we're using is really good, too. All this helps with updating things like your faces. You shouldn't have to wait 12 hours for Nose Picker changes -- try 20 minutes!

In other good news, at the same time we were shifting over to new servers, the CWs were looking at new ways to sell Why-Passes. Today you can order Passes through PayPal, a global leader in online payments. This change gives your family even greater security when buying online, and also saves Whyville a fair bit of time and money! For more on this, go to PayPal's buyer protection explanation.

The Whyville front page has new links -- go check 'em out above and below the front page island! Taken your parents on a tour of Whyville yet? Click on "About Whyville" in the upper-left corner of the front page, or "Take a Tour" at the bottom right! Learn about sponsorship in the upper-right corner, too.

A while ago, Whyville's multiplayer games like checkers and kalah started to be placed in rankings. As you've probably seen, the top 8 players get their names in the welcome page when you log in, and they also get a bunch of clams! If you're a tic-tac-toe aficionado, though, you're out of luck. It's too trivial a game for Whyville to record, so there's no clams for you. ;-)

City Hall would like me to announce that the sparkling 5-year veteran medals went out to our oldest veterans last month, only 7 months late... normally, you get your medals in March during Whyville's birthday. Haven't seen a 5-year veteran medal? They actually sparkle -- they're the first animated face part in Whyville!

The Balloon Game was also fixed in late October. CWs tell me this was a big deal for some folks. :)

You can now access the official Whyology Report at the WhyHouse... and look forward to a new Whyology Survey soon!

I hear there are supposed to be new rounds in the Treasure Hunt (I think you have to sign up for them at the Tiki Hut).

Club Why members gave City Hall HUNDREDS of great suggestions and compliments about the Getty ArtSets beta game over the past month. City Workers took those ideas to heart, improved the game, and will soon make it available in the brand-new Getty Museum! You'll learn more about this in a week or two... remember, Times double issues do get updated with the occasional new article in our off-week.

The October 22 Trivia Hour had three winners. Berriblue took home 50 clams. JasmineK won twice, taking 50 clams each time. But it was Krikie who was the big winner, getting 200 clams for her victory!

The October 29 Trivia Hour had four winners. Coconut02 won 50 clams. Savvvy brought home 100 clams and Zodiac101 got 200 clams. JasmineK was the big winner this week, though, winning twice: 50 clams the first time and then 200 clams the second!

The Halloween Party was a huge story, too, but I'm too tired to write that all up. :-) But Akbar wanted me to tell you he apologizes for "the garlic incident!!

A "security hole" in the furniture decorator was removed in mid-October.

Bet you haven't heard about this... achoo! Yes! The Why-Pox has been detected rearing its ugly, sneezy head in Whyville once more. But the strange thing is, those nasty acne-like splotches are invisible, and the sneezing is so small you don't notice it at all. What's going on?

City Worker mark tells us that it's all part of a test to improve how the disease spreads itself through Whyville, to make it more accurate and natural. Or is it?

CWs have increased the space around the trading board in the Trading Post so that it's much, much harder for scammers to block things and switch the amount of clams or face parts that they're trading. Whew!!!

Keep your eyes open in the Face Factory for templates that will help you increase your acceptance rate big time... You can also look forward to being able to categorize your parts, which will help people find the parts they want once they're made! In the meanwhile, read up on Akbar's rules, starting with Part 4 this week and moving backwards.

Finally, as you should all know, the latest Senator is hotboi764, ending Sonner's term as Senator, and the next Senate Race will begin next week -- platforms will open around November 27!

Oy, that's a lot. Let's all give thanks, shall we? :)
Times Editor