[color=tan][b][u]Celebrating World Lion Day[/u][/b][/color] -------- Lonnie Lionus speaking; you know me as the Macho Major, leader of the Drumbum Lions. This now includes all those lionesses in the all-female marching bands that are included in the first-ever group of female Drumbums. (There are also three bands of tigers and three bands of unicorns. Every human that turned into a unicorn by CNG's doing was female, however, so that shows it was guilty of stereotyping.) Just as July 29 is World Tiger Day, August 10 is World Lion Day. I don't really have much to say, though; we were doing the same thing the tigers were doing, because today, August 11, marked the end of the Olympic Games for the humans. The furries will take their turn next, and then the Paralympics follow starting on August 28. Like the tigers, we held daily watch parties, except we held it at Drumbum Village, since His Majesty, King Leo V, was there in person at the Olympic Games. Drumbum Village is a private neighborhood that is closed off at certain times, and so it was no problem setting up the big screen so that we could watch all the events. Depending on who won gold, we'd play their national anthem (although never more than once per day), and to mark the upcoming football season, we played a lot of football drum cadences, although usually during the commercial breaks. (In all cases, I use my whistle while playing a snare drum.) And just like the tigers, all nations around the world with Drumbums were celebrating World Lion Day. If you're not familiar with World Lion Day, it is an international annual event on August 10, dedicated to raising awareness and support for the conservation of lions. Conceived by conservationists Rae Kokeš and David Youldon, then both working for the conservation charity The African Lion & Environmental Research Trust (ALERT), with the launch event taking place in Livingstone, Zambia on August 10, 2013. Since that time, World Lion Day is now recognized by many wildlife organizations and celebrated annually across the globe. (Of course, I am talking about the regular lions, and not the anthro variety such as myself. The holiday has, however, been expanded to include tributes to Leo the Patriotic Lion and all his parallels. Nobody is allowed to talk about the flaws and mistakes they have made; we can only speak about the good things "Leo's army" has done.) ---------- The musical payroll system allowed us to take the break from doing our usual daily assignments for the purpose of watching these Olympic Games, and are basing our salaries instead on how many times we play an anthem or a drum cadence, although they also appreciate it when we have a variety instead of playing the same thing over and over again. Nevertheless, we found ourselves playing the "Star-Spangled Banner" quite a bit. Note that we just did this during the daytime broadcasting; by the time NBC would start its nighttime replay program known as "Primetime in Paris," we were done for the day, and so we concluded each day with the national anthem of Leonine, "Hail to Thee, O Mighty Lion." --------- However, this is the part Timpani Tiger forgot to mention, but we can forgive him for that. Because to be a Drumbum just means you keep in shape physically as well as mentally (not just form playing the music and singing), and you do not necessarily have to be a bodybuilder like me, Timpani Tiger, or Snare Soldier (or any others who are full-time bodybuilders), we will have Drumbums competing in the furry division of the Olympic Games. This is the first time this has happened. This also includes some of the female Drumbums. However, you'll only see these Drumbum athletes competing in the following events: swimming, diving, Olympic weightlifting, and gymnastics. The rest of the many events (including break dancing) do not have any Drumbums from the U.S. competing. (I don't know about the foreign nations; I am just talking about the lions and tigers.) I know; it's a strange combination. Still, keep your eyes out for these Drumbums. None of the unicorn Drumbums will be competing, but they will definitely hold their own watch parties just as we have been doing, and they will be playing all the national anthems that they know. (The International Olympic Committee hired a few Drumbums from Greenland, France, Hungary, and Germany, however, to notate sheet music for all the countries with national anthems, so that the bands could learn them, and then sent them to us free of charge, so we thank them for that. This is because while recordings of anthems were used for a while so that they wouldn't have as many cases, if any cases, of the wrong national anthem being played, the influence of the Forsythians has led all these major sporting events to use live marching band performances; the bands are all volunteers, and the IOC and the host nations don't have to bother with any technology, especially if it breaks down. Technology does that; it ultimately breaks down in the end.) To account for the Drumbums competing at the Olympics, the musical payroll system has allowed them to take a break from their daily musical duties, and graciously offered to compensate for their travel expenses and other expenses needed. In the event one of them medals, the payroll system will pretend they uploaded an assignment to YouTube and pay them accordingly. The fact it is funded by Cripto's unlimited wealth allows them to do this; this was his powers acting without him knowing about it, so Super C did not penalize him for it. It makes its money in multiple ways, but the way Cripto's wealth contributes to it is that at random intervals, any money Cripto makes from his pinball talents or from his variety of money wheels representing different eras of the California Lottery's first television game show, "The Big Spin," goes to the payroll. As such, Super C gets a notification of when this happens, and he will tell Cripto to turn the money switch on. This later expanded to the other Money Moguls, including all the DCI-themed recruits, because when IC2 ceased to exist from putting too much time and effort into torturing Levi the Mountee Lion, the blinding flash that represented it also altered the body chemistry of the Money Moguls one last time. Cripto, Lotto Lion, Quiz King, and Cash Cat are the four original Money Moguls that were cursed with this infinite wealth, and all four still talk to Super C from time to time for advice on how to cope with it. With the DCI recruits from Corps Coon and Corps Scout to Trooper Tiger and Bugler Beagle, CNG had originally given them the same kind of money powers, evident by how they also earned one dollar per point. Then it took it away from them, but by that point, the beagle in question was already a billionaire, and was going into philanthropy. With IC2's death, these money powers have been reinstated, and now it can't go away. (NOTE: Cash Cat is the only British Money Mogul; the rest all come from the USA.) To solve this problem, however, Super C authorized Cripto to use his powers without limits (since he usually puts limiters on himself), in order to create more money switches, so that if they don't want free money deposited into their specific bank accounts, they don't have to get it. This is why we called a meeting shortly before the Olympics began, and let them know about this. None of them were happy about it, and Boomer Wolf even said, "I thought we were done with this." "It's a good thing we have those pinball machines, then," Trooper Tiger added. "But now," said Super C, "you can control it. Please note, though, that the real reason we're telling you this is because we have discovered something you should know. The fact the musical payroll system pays what it can is that it partially depends on the unlimited wealth of the Money Moguls. But the term 'Money Mogul' doesn't apply to just my number one here. Cash Cat, Lotto Lion, and Quiz King are also Money Moguls, and so the payroll feeds off them. Now it feeds off you as well." "Thus, we're giving each of you a money switch so that it will only pay you when it is turned on," Cripto added. He then explained how it worked, and demonstrated how to use it. Parade Phantom then volunteered to test his switch to help with the demonstrations, and played a couple of games on one of Cripto's machines, "Genie." Afterwards, he saw that the specific savings account he had chosen for himself had increased by the exact total he scored. "Does it ever show the grand total?" he asked as he turned the switch off. "No," Cripto replied. "It just shows each individual game, and so you have two deposits, one for each score. So you have $79,460 for the first game, and $82,450 for the second." "With the interest you gain on it," Super C added, "you can easily help us out in case an emergency happens." "Works for me; thanks for the tip." "No problem." -------------- It was a great World Lion Day for us, even though we were watching the Olympics. If you want to learn more about the holiday, there are various websites you can visit. Thanks for letting me bend your ears, and have a wonderful evening. -------- [color=skyblue][b]THE END[/b][/color]