While Sylvia R. finding the "key evidence" did make national news, it wasn't the only news from Animalia. There were some that were amusing, and some that were downright absurd.
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One of the six mares that had gotten converted to treat what Dr. Jones called "Frustration & Repression" (or to use a 19th century term, suffering from "female hysteria") was waiting to meet someone at Lyre/Animalia International Airport when she noticed a guy heading to the departure gate with "something that was a little off.", according to her "experience". So she charmed him into an available storage room, and left him there, unconscious but unchanged. While the TSA were a little surprised when she dropped off half a kilo of cocaine that she had found on the now identified smuggler, she did get a slap on the wrist for a minor violation of the Edicts. It was later joked on various news comedy channels on YouTube, because she had found that the smuggler had stuffed it into the front of his underwear, that she was probably even more frustrated than she had been before.
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There was also a minor incident on Mieni Atoll that made their way onto the news. Apparently a cargo ship, due to a simple tropical storm, lost a cargo container overboard containing hundreds of snack-sized bags of potato chips of various flavors. Almost all of those chips ended up washing ashore on the various islets of Mieni Atoll. Everyone was pitching in to clean up all the bags, but because all the foil bags were still sealed (and the chips still good), the reason for this mass cleanup aid was an even mix between 'This is an environmental catastrophe! Let's get down there and help clean up.' and 'I love free potato chips! Let's get down there and eat some!'. While it was a bit of a story, it did have a somewhat happy ending, since this kind of thing was not uncommon in oceanic shipping.
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The second-to-last week in November was one of the "coldest" weeks in Animalia because it had one of the first "cold snaps" of winter. Fortunately there wasn't any snow to make it even colder, but there was a spate of colds and sneezes going around. Fortunately, Eliza came up with an interesting way to beat the cold. She had announced on Monday, that the weekend before Thanksgiving would have WSA's first ever "Chilly Cook-Off". While some were confused about the wording, Eliza was more than happy to explain.
It was not only chili that was being cooked during the "Chilly Cook-Off" but also soups and stews that were both hot and healthy to eat during the winter months. The International Student Affairs Office was able to hop onto the bandwagon with soups, stews and chili (labeled as either carnivore- or herbivore-safe) from around the world. Ellie really liked this idea because she definitely had some recipes from home that she was sure that others would like.
There was also a special mailbox for a special charity event. It was noticed in the grade school section of WSA that there were some students who were already working on letters to Santa. So the special mailbox was placed there for starters, and for every letter placed into said mailbox, Horizon would donate money to a few well known charities. While Horizon had suffered some from recent events, this was considered a good thing to do.
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Sylvia R. and Tommy were both interviewed for their role in clearing Andrew Weary's name. While Tommy wanted to mess around in front of TV, it was allowed so he could focus on answering the interviewer's questions, but wasn't included in the main interview. While there were those who commented how they weren't 'amused' about this, there were those who fired back by saying 'He's only a four-year-old. He doesn't know any better.'
The Questionable Documents Lab were able to confirm that it was indeed Paulina's handwriting in the diary that blew the case wide open, and Andrew's original lawyer was able to help Sylvia clear Andrew's name. But it was a political cartoon inspired by the case that was considered the funniest.
It showed a clown (that was as non-frightening as possible) labeled 'Karma' eating a banana and throwing the peel beneath Paulina's feet, thereby causing the slip that would lead to her fate. While Tommy wasn't old enough to understand it, he did see enough cartoons to know about the infamous "banana peel gag".