The Grogs are Sessile sentient creatures, shaped like furry cones. They are eyeless, earless, and have a prehensile tongue. They can also control animals telepathically. The Grogs are thought by some to be the descendants of the Thrintun species, after 1.5 billion years of atrophy.
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After the initial success of the Grogs, the pair were hired full time by YTV. The most famous of the Grogs was Warren Chester Grog, a frog/turtle/moss character with a grumpy voice and cynical disposition. Other Grogs included Gidian, Chigonk, Rosencrantz, Jasper, Filth, Sorbet, and Iffer. During the Grog era, a ceiling hung television was prominent on the YTV's programming blocks and the PJs of these blocks sat behind a desk in a style similar to a news broadcast.
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Having worked together since teenagers, Shannon and his partner Jason Hopley founded The Grogs puppet company troupe in 1994. Shannon had first developed the idea for The Grogs while traveling in Europe and seeing the prominent place puppets have in street theater. He and Hopley then developed the puppets for children's birthday parties. Shannon voiced three-year-old Mona in the television series, Nanalan'.
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Player characters typically alternate between the role of a magus (plural magi; female maga/magae), and a companion (Consors). Companions are select skilled non-magi who help wizards conduct their affairs (as magi tend to be distanced from "mundanes" due to the effects of their magical "Gift"). Additionally, there are a number of Grogs (usually skilled peasants, often bodyguards or watchmen) who can be controlled by any player. (As of the Third Edition, Grogs are also a viable player 'class'; the Fifth Edition has added an entire supplement dedicated to 'fleshing out' Grogs.) The wizards generally gather in specialized strongholds called covenants, which are often built in places of power.
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Due to the public relations problems of the Grog power, a campaign is launched to show the Grogs as harmless and useful. But just in case, an old Bussard ramjet ship is placed in orbit that can be used to cause the local sun to emit deadly radiation. Garvey still worries that the Grogs might not be truthful regarding the range of their power and defeat that fail-safe.
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'Grogs were the different puppet characters on various YTV programming blocks between 1992 and 1994. They were created by 21-year-olds Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon in their first professional puppeteering job. The duo later founded The Grogs puppet company, and went on to do other puppet based entertainment such as the Mr. Meaty show, Nanalan, Playhouse Disney, and Hotbox. Hopley and Shannon originally began the low budget project as volunteers, after having dropped out of York University.
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The latter observation is later confirmed by a local exobiologist. The next morning, Garvey has a revelation. Somehow he knows the Grogs are sentient, without knowing why he knows. He returns to the desert and finds another Grog that begins to communicate with Garvey telepathically.
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Omaha The Old World transportation hub set in the wide, wooded valley of the Missouri is a sad shadow of its former self. Like its sister St. Louis farther down the wide Missouri River, Omaha is now the breeding ground for assorted Grogs and human scoundrels.
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The Hunter's equipment is restricted by agreement to make things more equal; about 40% of the hunters do not return. Along with Grogs and Dolphins, Bandersnatchi are described as a "Handicapped" (with a capital "H") race, in that they are sentient but do not possess any prehensile limbs.
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First publication Cover art by Gray Morrow "The Handicapped" is a science fiction short story by Larry Niven, originally published in the December 1967 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction as "Handicap". Set in the Known Space universe, the story introduces the Grogs, the sessile but sentient inhabitants of the planet Down.
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The Grogs were very popular, receiving as much fan mail as the human PJs. The Grogs had a number of specials on YTV. Most notably on January 1, 1994, Warren staged a fictional coup of the YTV television station and "hijacked" the network, which was renamed WTV (as in Warren TV), and involved him locking up any way in or out of the YTV studio and assigning Filth as the chief engineer. The takeover was announced by Warren in late 1993, and the character started a tie-in contest in which kids could fill in some "skill-testing questions" printed on the Christmas edition of TV Guide, send it to YTV and, if at least one answer was correct, could win one of 100 t-shirts signed by him.
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The "Afterschool" portion of the title was soon dropped and PJ "Phresh" Phil was sometimes joined by another PJ, Jenn (although she featured more prominently during weekend morning programming and was rarely on The Zone). The segments usually involved discussion or banter on various topics, video clips, previews, and viewer mail. Eventually, the PJs were joined by a variety of puppets named the Grogs and Spitfire.
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YTV wanted to produce toys based on the Grogs, but Hopley and Shannon demanded rights over their creations, which resulted in the pair being fired from the station. A purple, gum-covered TV/computer named Snit soon filled in the "fictional host" niche, from 1994 until 1997. A new series of puppets parallel to Snit, called Fuzzpaws, eventually took over the full roles of their early 1990s counterparts in 1995.
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Mr Garvey arrives at the planet Down, having heard about the natives called Grogs. Garvey Limited, a company owned by his father, makes artificial limbs and other tools for the "Handicapped" species; sentient beings that evolved minds but with nothing that would serve as hands, like dolphins. A local reluctantly agrees to show him a living Grog in the desert, but the Grog turns out to be a disappointment. It is sessile enough, being a furry cone living anchored to a rock, but it seems utterly void of sentience.
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The Grog indicates that life as sessile creatures is very boring. They would like an animal with something like hands that they can control, plus access to human libraries and guest lecturers that won't object to having their minds read. They offer to use their powers to herd livestock, guard Down against invasion, perform police work, and monitor zoo animals. They deny any knowledge of the Slavers and claim that working together the Grogs can't reach more than halfway across the planet so they are no threat to humans.
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The book begins with Valentine and his men learning of an invasion. Southern Command, once a bastion of freedom, has had its military strength broken and much of its territory overrun by a formidable army of soldiers borrowed from various Kurian Lords, all led by Consular Solon. Valentine encounters General Martinez, a Southern Command leader that hides away from fights, and acts like a mob warlord, and likely collaborates with the Kurians. Martinez orders Ahn- Kha's remaining two Grogs killed, which precipitates Valentine to draw his own firearm on Martinez.
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It turns out the Grogs are indeed sentient beings with strong telepathic abilities, but for fear of being perceived as a threat for this very reason, they have concealed this until now. But having read Garvey's mind, and seeing that he can help them break their isolation, they are willing to take their chances. Garvey worries that the Grog telepathic power is very like those of the Thrintun (or Slavers). He returns the next day with a typewriter that a Grog can use to communicate non- telepathically, as he does not like the "crystal certainties" placed into his mind.
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Valentine is working undercover, deep in the Kurian Zone living as an officer in the Coastal Marines. Duvalier is supporting him and posing as his wife. Valentine's goal is to take a ship that can be sailed to the Caribbean, where Valentine is supposed to meet up with someone who has a weapon deadly to the Kurians. Valentine convinces Lieutenant Post and a few other members of the Thunderbolt's crew to rebel along with Ahn-Kha and his Grogs, although it goes poorly when the captain of the ship learns of the planned mutiny before it is scheduled to occur.
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Hopley and Shannon, who continued to work with Nickelodeon afterwards on their creation Mr. Meaty, produced the series through their puppetry troupe The Grogs in association with Lenz Entertainment. The show uses a blend of hand puppetry and the manipulation of cardboard cutouts, particularly in the opening theme. While the shorts do not follow a structure, the half-hour episodes follow a loose format that includes at least one song and reading an original story to the viewers. The show received three nominations at the 2004 Gemini Awards and was fairly well-received by Canadian and U.S. press, with some critics calling attention to the show's surreal presentation and genuine approach to its concept.
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Autopsies revealed that pilot Hattinen had a blood alcohol content of 0.20 (2 ‰), while co-pilot Halme had a BAC of 0.156 (1.56 ‰). In all, the group that included one person more besides Hattinen and Halme, had drunk 16 bottles of beer, 7 gin grogs and 900 grams of cognac from 21:50 to 02:00. Hattinen had thus neglected his responsibility for the plane's and passengers' safety, and while co-pilot Halme had been in Hattinen's command, with no official responsibility to prevent him from flying, he too should not have been flying that day. Both the International Civil Aviation Organization's treaty and the pilots' personal job contracts barred intoxication while in command of a plane—provisions that the pilots ignored.
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Saga Pack is a set of gamemaster's aids for the second edition of Ars Magica, including a gamemaster's screen, and 24 loose- leaf pages that outline 16 pregenerated characters, guidelines for role- playing, and background information on the Code of Hermes. The three-panel gamemaster's screen has tables of information on the gamemaster's side that include a summary of melee and ranged weapons and their effects, armor, spellcasting penalties and distractions, combat maneuvers and phases, movement factors, interactions with various Powers, difficulty factors, and healing. A continuous piece of artwork by Michael Weaver covers all three panels on the player's side. Eight pages of loose-leaf sheets are designed to be cut on half, with pregenerated "grogs" (fighters) detailed on the front and back of each page.
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A Navy Grog with a Don the Beachcomber-type snow cone of shaved ice. The Navy Grog was a popular rum-based drink served for many years at the Polynesian- themed Don the Beachcomber restaurants; it is still served in many so-called tiki restaurants and bars. First created by Donn Beach, who almost single- handedly originated the tiki cultural fad of the 1940s and 1950s, it was one of dozens of rum concoctions that he, and later Trader Vic and numerous other imitators, sold in exotic tropical settings. Not quite as potent as the Beachcomber's more famous Zombie, it was, nevertheless, shown on the menu as being limited to two, or sometimes three, to a customer. Reportedly, Phil Spector consumed at least two Trader Vic’s Navy Grogs at the Beverly Hilton restaurant, without eating any food, the night he later killed actress Lana Clarkson.
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In 1921, Fischerkoesen launched a highly successful advertising career with an ad for the Leipzig shoe factory Nordheimer, Bummel –Petrus (Strolling Peter). In the same year he made another three animated advertising ads: Die Entführung and König Grogs Löwenabenteuer (both Transocean-Film) and Professor Sprit (Dux- Film). The success led to a two-year contract with Julius Pinschewer, owner of the leading Berlin advertising company Werbefilm G.m.b.H.-Pinschewer, who had pioneered the use of animated commercials in movie theatres back in 1911. As a result of this collaboration, he produced Die Besteigung des Himalaja (1923), Abbau auch im Harem (1924), Brand im Wolkenkratzer (1924), Glück auf! (1924), Der Glücksvogel (1924), Im Urwald (1924), Nunak, die Eskima (1924), Der Pfennig muss es bringen (1924), Sonnenersatz (1924), Das Zauberpferd (1924), Der kluge Dackel (1925), Jette’s Ausgang (1925), Meier glüht (1925), Der kluge Einfall (1925), Das Seegespenst (1925), Die Geschichte vom Scholokadenkasper (1926), Auf der Skitour (1926) and many other.
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