GrowlerZone Issue # 13

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GrowlerZone #13 + + + + GrowlerZone #13

+ + A Cultural Posting From Growlerville + +
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Issue #13
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"I refuse to be a pig!" (Brother Huhu)
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In this issue:

- - DEAR GROWLERZONE: Feedback forum

- - SUGGESTED LISTENING: Growler Radio 8 Invisibility Crisis

- - GRIST: The Pendulum Swings Too Far part 1

- - AMAZING HUHU FACTS: The cure for invisibility involves invisibility

- - THE REAL GROWLERVILLE REPORTS: More first hand Growlerville News

- - ALMOST RANDOM: Stuff to make you cringe with thought

- - UNCLE HUHU'S KNOCK-KNOCK CITY: More silliness from a Pro
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Did you know that our website has 28 age appropriate crossword puzzles?
Go here: The Growler Tapes Crossword Puzzles

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DEAR GROWLERZONE

Dear GrowlerZone,
I can report with certainty that we have some toxic obnoxic
in the house. And because of our behavior, it has grown and now
takes up the entire basement. Help! XLNt1

Dear XLNt1,
If it really is Toxic Obnoxic, you need to go on vacation
(unless you have it on you). When the TO doesn't get the
rudeness it requires, it will wither. GZ

Dear GrowlerZone,
Are there any real Baby Growlers singing on the new cds? Mary says
she can hear them singing. I think I can recognize all the performers
listed, but don't see any Baby Growler credits. Is Mary hearing
something I can't? ZZbottom

Dear ZZbottom,
Answering this question is like describing what Growler Fred
looks like - he's different for each listener, and that's the beauty
of audio. Chill out ZZbottom, listen like Mary. GZ

Dear Growlerzone,
Do you have to have annoying characters in your programs? My
kids have all of Growler Radio, so I've heard a lot. There's this one
character, Brother Huhu, who makes me cringe every time I hear
his annoying voice. Is he so necessary to your programs?
Just asking. MoiraLess

Dear MoiraLess,
Brother Huhu accepts your compliment and dedicates his
vocal on The Impolite Huhu Waltz to you. If you want to avoid it,
it's on Baby Growlers 4. GZ

Got questions or comments? Let's hear from you.
gz @ growler.com Put "Dear GrowlerZone" on the subject line.

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Baby Growlers 1-4 MUSIC for ages 2-6 Available now for free!

These are programs designed to grab those little ears with the amazing world of highly produced audio. We've got all the Huhu and Growlers singing, plus real creatures, lots of sounds, and foot stomping danceables galore. Each album features it's own animal stars, a mystery, a dinosaur event, and humor throughout, all in the context of really great songs. Like all things Growler, these fun listening experiences trick kids into learning by exposing them to nontraditional ideas, a challenging vocabulary, and an appreciation of the unexpected - guaranteed to become part of the conversation with your child.

Listen to samples: Baby Growlers

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GROWLER RADIO 8 - Invisibility Crisis

Those ancestral enchantments can be real tricky.  Most don't work at all.  Sometimes they do the exact opposite of what you expect them to do.  And every once in a while, one gets so completely out of control that all you can do is hang on tight and hope that the ancients knew what they were doing.

Just before she disappeared, Mother Huhu was experimenting with an ancient enchantment.  Because she didn't have an updated (Vol.2) version of Magic Reference, she thought it was safe.  Now the kids are involved in a full scale emergency.

Concepts: frame of reference

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GRIST: The Pendulum Swings Too Far

by QB Snifs

It's truly incredible how fast juicy news can travel. If only there were a way to harness this powerful force. Most of the city knew the outcome within seconds of the Huhu Authority's ruling on the new restrictions on encrusted processes. The year old licensing requirements are being amended, to recognize two new areas, previously unregulated. The first was expected and not a big deal: the new restrictions on companies involved in waste disposal, as a result of the Camouflage disaster where city garbage was dumped right here in town, made invisible by the encrusted agent. The second regulation was a surprise, because it meant that the authorities are now recognizing a new danger to the citizenry. The new amendment prohibits something called "encrusted public performances."

This is not a town that embraces regulation of any kind. But the abundance of practitioners, dangerous encrusted reagants, and the reality of magic accidents became too perilous to ignore. Growler Fred's landmark legislation was only possible because of the failures of the independent practitioners to guarantee public safety through self-regulation.

The inevitable disasters occurred, and so the law passed.

But the possibilities of really controlling encrusted activity was dubious to begin with, since most practitioners have strong wills, high egos, and a distrust of government. Their trade organization, the NRE (No Restrictions Ever), is one of the most powerful political lobbies. As a result, the Authority is pretty much limited to reacting to problems, after the fact.

That means damage control, always making an effort to avoid further regulation. So this new amendment is significant.

The unspoken truth is that a disaster has occurred, or this legislation would never have passed.

But if this is true, and an encrusted public performance (EPP) resulted in a disaster large enough to warrant legislation, what exactly happened? The usually talkative members of the Authority avoided the press after the vote. The government web site had nothing on the new legislation, and email queries concerning this issue went unanswered, and soon afterward, the internet became inaccessible.

Secrecy is the fuel of gossip, and this town is now buzzing.

The talk is about unknown dangers, and this is not good. And if such dangers exist, how do we protect ourselves?

How would we even recognize an encrusted public performance?

Theories abound. The last election was corrupted by an encrusted political speech. EverCool products are sold with encrusted advertising.

What do you think tv is? What about that new hit song?

One can become so paranoid that even these stories and their tellers may be part of a much larger encrusted public performance. And the ultimate: Our experience of life is an EPP (Encrusted Public Performance).

The foolish Huhu Authority must have hoped the controversy would just disappear with time. The midweek press conference was abruptly cancelled, and in its place, a press release was handed out, saying that we are all safer now than ever and to go about our lives.

They knew the press had questions they did not want to answer, so now there are even more questions, and more people interested. And then there are the uniforms. A very visible security force is present throughout the city. On closer inspection, it gets even worse.

No one can leave - there are imposing quarantine barricades and checkpoints blocking the roads leaving town. The train station is closed, as is the airport. City Center Theatre Complex has cancellation signs across the marquee.

The security officer at the closed ticket window told me that due to an emergency, the city was shutting down all public venues until further notice. It took a while for this to sink in.

It is shocking. There are no radio or tv broadcasts. No internet.

Our cultural activities are being preempted and we don't know why.

Of course it is possible that whatever is behind these tactics truly warrants this restrictive policy, and that it is all being responsibly handled with our interests in the fore. By the end of the day, it appears that many people are trusting the government, even without any reasonable explanation.

But the buzz among the media dogs is that the newspapers will be all over this story with the morning editions - they have no choice. They're now the only media game in town.

Someone has to explain why you can't get the news the old fashioned way - on the internet, or a public news performance viewed on a tv set.

The editors are pysched, not just because they know they'll be read. They've got the ball and they're going to run with it wherever it takes them.

But there's a sense of victimization in the air. There are rumors of injunctions arriving before morning.

Government lawyers are suggesting that printing and distributing the paper could be interpreted as an encrusted public performance.

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WHAT'S UNUSUAL ABOUT THIS PARAGRAPH?

Go HERE and see if you can solve it. It's so obvious, it's painful.

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AMAZING HUHU FACTS (Growler Radio 8 Invisibility Crisis)

Item: Here Nor There.

Fact: There is truth in the power of opposites.  Back in the early stages of our magic evolution, experimenting with invisibility was quite fashionable.  Of course, many mistakes were made, and many of the early experimenters disappeared.  To help find them, our ancestor Oldold created an enchantment called Here Nor There, which he claimed would make visible all those who had mistakenly become invisible. 

But the Natural Forces Society refused to let him conduct Here Nor There when they saw the way it explosively reproduced itself, making everything it touched invisible. They feared that if everything became invisible, no one would see ANYTHING.

Now we know that Oldold was right after all. Here Nor There finally stopped exploding once everything was invisible.  And guess what? The invisibility crisis is over! 

When EVERYTHING is invisible, nothing is.

 And that's an amazing Huhu Fact!

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ALMOST RANDOM:

• Fred in Norwegian means peace.
• In order to be believed, you may have to make things up.
• Normal is so rare that it may not exist.
• Help stamp out and eradicate superfluous redundancy.
• Nothing beats the deuce of excuse.

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UNCLE HUHU'S KNOCK KNOCK CITY

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Oliver.
Oliver who?
Oliver time was taken up doing invisibility experiments.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Oscar.
Oscar who?
Oscar if she knows how to catch a Noise Thief.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Energy.
Energy who?
In her jean jacket, she looks like Mother Huhu.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Stopwatch.
Stopwatch who?
Stopwatch you're doing and get over here!

Click here for the big collection of knock-knock jokes from Uncle Huhu: More Knocks

Other recommended stories that relate to this issue of GrowlerZone:

THE HUHU'S WHO'S WHO

Want to reference a character in Growlerville?  Click here. Anyone who's anyone is in this book. Well, most everyone!