In many parts of the world, today is the beginning of Daylight Saving time. (And a whole lot of cranky people on Monday!) So, to mark the occasion, your challenge is to work in a little Daylight Dazzle everyone with your brilliance!

Woo can't wait to see what folks come up with.

Lucky you.... the UK still have three more weeks of winter

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KT -- Julia is finally seeing daylight, let's see if she will recover from the shock... I wonder if Nambu let her hear his use of the name Nambu on purpose. By the way, I love the idea of "Nambu" being a code ... and the idea that Jun's outfit points to dressing in the dark. Can't wait for the next installment, after Julia picks herself up from the floor...

Uh oh, everybody's in trouble! It's gonna be a crowded dog house!

I wonder if Julia will be more or less likely to do as he asked...

//Princess looked up from the counter at the J, putting down the glass she had been polishing. "Hey, guys," she said to the male members of the team, who were huddled over a table playing cards, the last customers in the otherwise empty bar. It didn't seem as if they heard her, even Keyop, who was not a very enthusiastic card player -- as he invariably found himself on the losing side. "Hey, guys," she said, more loudly this time, banging the glass on the counter for good measure. Mark looked up. "What?" "Hey, I was thinking, you should be bying me a drink right now," she addressed her team-mates in general. "It's your bar," shrugged Jason. "You can buy yourself as many drinks as you want." But Mark had caught the subtle message in Princess's voice. "Um...Princess? Did we forget something? Is it your birthday?" Tiny and Keyop looked up as well, startled. Surely they could not have forgotten that? "Well...not my birthday exactly," she blushed. "Forget it. If I'm going to have to spell it out for you, there's no point." Angrily, she turned back to her washing and polishing glasses. The boys continued playing for some time, the only sound in the bar the banging and clanging Princess made as she put away the crockery and cutlery. She shook her head in despair. Daylight was fading fast, she noticed, looking out of the window. The day would soon be over. One more missed opportunity to knock some sense into their thick skulls. One more year that they had not remembered. Just then, the door to the bar opened, and Anderson walked in, a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. Princess just stared, as he walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek. "Happy International Women's Day, Princess," he said, handing her the flowers. "You remembered!" she smiled. "Chief, you remembered!" Anderson nodded towards the boys, who were eagerly clapping. "You think your team-mates would let me forget?" he winked, as Jason opened the champagne. "They may look, and act, occasionally like sexist pigs" -- here Mark raised an eyebrow -- "but they certainly know who's the boss!"

yay, Good for Chief Anderson, the only one, it seems, who knows how to show a woman how much she's appreciated!

KT: Now let's see if Julia keeps digging or comes to her senses ... very curious to see what Nambu intends to do. DT: LOL ... I suppose the Chief does have more years of experience with the fairer sex

KT - now that Julia has figured some things out, will she follow his request or decide that her original plan now holds more "promise"? Lots of potential for all kinds of adventures there... DT - cute, nothing like putting the male team members on the spot...

KT, is there a previous story? DT, it was nice of the chief to cover for the guys but I suspect Sara had a hand in this...

Originally posted by E.D. Darling KT, is there a previous story?

E.D. This is one prompt of an ongoing story which begins at #158 - Renewal. if you want to send me an email address, I can send the whole thing (so far) to you, to save you scrolling through all the threads to follow it.

Okay, so am I the only person who has never heard of 'International Women's Day'? Is that something you made up for the story, Daniella, or do they celebrate this in Belgium? And do people really give gifts to women on this day? I thought maybe it was Valentine's Day or something! But I can see the guys trying to pull one over and pretend they didn't remember the day was anything special! KT, I really liked this segment. Julia may desperately want a child, but she's not stupid, and this shows it. But... how did she know how to spell 'Nambu'? If I heard that word and didn't know what it was, I might think it was namboo, nomboo, or nohmbu!

TJ - it is quite possible that Julia had not only heard the name before, but also read it, in newspapers, or on a caption to a tv news broadcast, as in ep #62.....

The narrator explains "A few days later, the International Police Federation announced that they would hold a ceremony to pay tribute to the Science Ninja Team's outstanding achievements, and that the Ninjas, previously veiled in secrecy, would be making their first public appearance. The news, continues the narrator, was spread worldwide in a great public campaign, sure to attract Galactor's attention."

As for International Women's Day, there was a lot of posts about notable women posted all over social media sites, but if you don't use them, then it's quite possible that it passed you by. (not that I - or any other female that I personally know - got any gifts to commemorate it though )

Originally posted by KT1972 As for International Women's Day, there was a lot of posts about notable women posted all over social media sites, but if you don't use them, then it's quite possible that it passed you by. (not that I - or any other female that I personally know - got any gifts to commemorate it though )

I'd never heard of it before Daniella's mention of it, either. In fact, the only mention of it on tv that I came across was during David Letterman's monologue last night. After he announced that Sunday was International Women's Day, he added that -- as if unequal pay wasn't enough -- the one day just for women was on the one day that was an hour shorter!

You don't have IWD in the US? It's very big in Europe (especially in "former Eastern block" countries -- it was definitely big in Sarajevo when I was there), but also in Greece when I was a child. We had speeches in school etc. In Belgium it's a bit more low key, but we had a nice lunch with women colleagues to celebrate. It's like a mix between Valentine's Day and May 1st, commemorating mainly the struggles of working women for equal pay.

Originally posted by E.D. Darling KT, is there a previous story? DT, it was nice of the chief to cover for the guys but I suspect Sara had a hand in this...

Hee hee, nice to see Sara remembered! I have to pair her up with Anderson again soon .

IWD doesn't get nearly enough attention in North America. I've been glad to see it get so much exposure on social media this year!

I did one, but because of language, I posted it in the Rubber Room. Here's the link to the thread. http://gatchamania.net/thread.php?threadid=4828&sid=

read, and commented, msAnn

Originally posted by Daniella T You don't have IWD in the US? It's very big in Europe (especially in "former Eastern block" countries -- it was definitely big in Sarajevo when I was there), but also in Greece when I was a child. We had speeches in school etc. In Belgium it's a bit more low key, but we had a nice lunch with women colleagues to celebrate. It's like a mix between Valentine's Day and May 1st, commemorating mainly the struggles of working women for equal pay.

No, I've never heard of this. And I spent half my life in Canada, and never heard of it there either. It seems strange, Why would there be a day to celebrate women, if there isn't a day to celebrate men? Why would women have to celebrate the same achievements as men, who have no need to celebrate the,? The idea seems almost patronizing to me... but then I'm probably missing the point? Sorry, This is all just very weird to me. What's May 1st? Does May Day have some kind of special significance too? All I know of that is the theoretical dancing around a maypole, but as far as I know that's very antiquated and no one has done that here in over a century...? Clearly European holidays are very different from North American holidays!

there is an International Men's day, it's on November 1st this year. May Day, you have pretty much got the jist of, but read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day It marks the start of Spring, and the celebrations are symbolic of ancient fertility rites (probably explaining why so many birthdays fall in February ), the UK mark the day with a Bank Holiday on the first Monday in May, this year it falls on May 4th.

May 1 is also International Workers' Day -- the Communist Labor Day. They mark it with big military marches. (Remember the parades of goosestepping soldiers, tanks, and missiles moving through Red square?) We'll probably see footage of North Korea's parade on the news...

Perhaps because men's achievements are often emphasized over women's? Every day is pretty much International Men's Day isn't it? On International Women's Day I've seen dedications to all kinds of female scientists, etc., who I'd never heard of before because they're typically overlooked for not having extra stuff in their pants.

How many of us have heard the compositions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sister? She was just as talented as her brother, but she didn't receive any support. (Her family "humored" her a little.)

This is a continuation of Bradbury's Jar #165. If you missed it or need a quick refresher: http://gatchamania.net/thread.php?threadid=4819&sid= =========== "Think about it." Asmodeus said as he got up from the table, "If you're interested, talk to me at the north basketball goal at three. I'll hook you up." With that, he left. Jinpei swatted away another stray ball. He leaned against the basketball goal in spite of the two-on-two pickup game. Even though it was an overcast day, enough sun punched through to make everyone squint a little. The Swallow swallowed down a nervous lump forming in his throat and then quietly chastised himself. Did Aniki or Joe feel this way when they were undercover? Of course not! This was Jinpei's time to single-handedly kick Galactor's ass and put an end to the latest recruitment scheme! Finally he saw the goth-ish boy with black, greasy-looking hair heading his way. Percy -- a.k.a. Asmodeus -- didn't seem to be in a hurry. Beside the extra grubbiness his hair seemed to have, and a pentagram tattooed in the middle of his forehead, nothing set him apart from the other residents at this juvenile detention facility -- he was just another faded orange jumpsuit in an orange jumpsuit lake. "I see you're interested." Asmodeus said. "Yeah." Jinpei replied coolly. "Here's what'll happen," the older boy moved in closer and lowered his voice a bit, "You'll get a visit from your new lawyer --" "New lawyer? I already got --" "Shut up!" Asmodeus hissed. "Your new lawyer's one of the 'friends' I told you about! If they like what they see, you'll be outta here in no time. If you screw up, they can make sure you never see daylight again. Got it?" "Yeah," Jinpei replied, somehow maintaining the cool facade, "I got it."

EW: It's natural for Jinpei to assume they don't get nervous, but I think they must at times! To never get nervous in those situations is to get overconfident and then get dead. Hang in there Jinpei!

I think the nervousness is in Jinpei's favor. It would be normal for any kid in his situation to be nervous!

he was just another faded orange jumpsuit in an orange jumpsuit lake.

I love this line.

Originally posted by msannomalley

he was just another faded orange jumpsuit in an orange jumpsuit lake.

I love this line.

Thanks!

Here's an example of why IWD is needed.

Originally posted by KT1972

Originally posted by E.D. Darling KT, is there a previous story?

E.D. This is one prompt of an ongoing story which begins at #158 - Renewal. if you want to send me an email address, I can send the whole thing (so far) to you, to save you scrolling through all the threads to follow it.

Thank you KT! now I'm all caught up! Now all I have to catch up on is EW's story! I did not know this was here...

You're welcome E.D. Glad to see you jumping in here, too.