BlackJack walks into the local milk bar and slams down a large bundle of freshly printed newspapers onto a stand which reads:

National Mafia Times - $10,000 

BlackJack walks up to the store keeper and collects a large bag full of cash before leaving the milk bar. The owner of the store keeper then makes his way over to the stand and picks up a paper. It reads: 

THE NATIONAL MAFIA TIMES - Edition One

Hello readers and welcome to the inaugural  edition of the National Mafia Times. I am the editor BlackJack. The National Mafia Times is light and enjoyable read for those seeking a break from the day to day slog of being a mafioso. Your feedback and input will always be welcome and you are encouraged to gather here to discuss and debate the topics presented in the paper. 

I will not waste too much time talking about myself. Lets get into it...

HOUSING CRISIS

A housing crisis has hit our shores in the past few weeks with the mass destruction of previous head quarters. Although the issue of this has now been resolved, with 154 open spaces in crews at the time of the writing of this article, the past two weeks certainly uncovered some interesting discussion points. One of the most interesting points was the possibility of short term government housing due to the lack of potential crew leaders.

Roughly a week ago, Squishy was toying with the idea of forcing all current crews to relocate to one central city and setting up various container crews. This was purportedly due to crew leaders not having a unified approach on how to bet manage the housing crisis. At this point in time, there were only roughly 65 members of our community which were eligible to be a crew leader. Of this, roughly 20 already were leaders. Also at this time, there was only about one housing space for every 3 homeless.

As you may be aware, the current Godfathers had given an opportunity to all budding crew leaders to try their hand at running a 10-man crew. It is fair to assume that each member of our community that was wanting to do this and was of age had already set up. This still left a housing shortfall and a large portion of the population which had not yet met the requirements to set up their own crew as a made man.

In the end, the plan of Squishy was abandoned, most likely due to the fact that several members of the community would be shortly meeting the requirements of being a crew leader and offering housing to others. As it transpired, we are now two weeks on from the massive repopulation of our shores and there is plenty of housing for everyone.

This event has left one real lasting issue in our community which is how do we better deal with housing shortages in the future. It is clear that the current 'rebuild' guidelines do nothing to protect our homeless, otherwise there would not have been so much fuss. Is government housing in the form of container crews the way to go? I do not think so. I would much rather see either the requirements for a crew leader be lowered to allow crews to pop up to support members still under protection. Or perhaps during rebuild we offer full protection to the homeless unless they are found guilty of shooting? I would love to hear what you all think.

Reporting from the roulette table - BlackJack

ADVERTISING

How I met my CL - -MafiaTrivia- and others star in a new wacky television series titles "how i met my cl". Check it out here. What weird adventure will they get up to this week? Tune in to find out!!!

Interested in Advertising Space???

If you are interested in advertising in the National Mafia Times, please contact BlackJack directly. We specialise in advertising events in the streets and have special rates for advertising businesses. Mention this ad to receive an introductory discount!!! 

Looking to make a bit of money? Want to increase your personal exposure? Become a writer today!

Here at the National Mafia Times we are looking for content writers to report on the happenings of our community. Think you have what it takes? Get in touch with BlackJack for more info! 

ASK SQUISHY? 

This week we asked Squishy if there were any hidden achievements which had never been unlocked by any member of our community. Squishy told us that there are no achievements that are currently active which have not been unlocked. He noted that some achievements had been removed and that some had only been unlocked by a small number of people given the requirement to literally play for months to be able to unlock them.

We wonder what achievements have been removed! Unfortunately we can only ask one question at a time :( - Maybe next week!

Do you have a question for Squishy? - Let us know what it is below and we might just ask it to him next week. If your question gets chosen we will reward you with $100,000.

Trivia time with -Mafiatrivia-

This weeks trivia time question is - How many destinations can you currently visit in Detroit. What are the names of the places?

To be in the running to win the $200,000 prize for this weeks trivia question, send your answer to -MafiaTrivia- by mob mail.

Good luck!!!

 The National Mafia Times - Edition One - 31 January 2017

BlackJack races back into the milk bar and heads for the newspaper stand. He rapidly inserts leaflets into each of the papers. The leaflet reads:

2017 Super Bowl; Patriots VS Falcons betting center

 

Taking bets until kickoff

What's a Super Bowl? And why do you have over two thousand bowls of something?

BlackJack approaches Kathryn with a lit cigarette. He takes it out of his mouth to speak:

"I don't know what a super bowl is ma'am. I just put the ads in the paper when people pay me to. You might be best to contact the advertiser directly about their paid content."

"Also, is this a paper from the future? I thought we were in the 30's. What's with the date at the bottom, and now this other non existent game thingy you want people to vote on. And this Squishy fellow. I did hear some worshipping of a God with a similar name. You must be practicing voodoo or something."

"But look, beyond the weird futuristic and otherwordly feel, and trust me, I seen some otherworldly shit, this takes the cake, there's really nothing to read in this thing."

"The only mention of something happening in these times is of something most might want to avoid noticing. No offence, as papers can be a hard thing to get going and maintain, but it seems you may be only here to make a dollar off others to bring in some add revenue and take bets on a non existent game or something or other."

"I really sense here you may just be wanting others to write for you, yet how can they commit to such an undertaking with this as an example? Show us some substance, make it relevant to us today, in this world, and you may just have a contributer."

"But as it stands, I dont know what to make of this. And no offence to you personally, sir, but it needs to be said and I guess I have to be the asshole that's out here doing it. Take it as constructive business criticism, nothing on you as a person, just a consumers non fluffed feedback."

As he sat in his usual spot at the local bar Melkor began going over the newspaper that was lying on the oak counter top. Grabbing the paper with his left hand he began to skim over the beginning briefly as the war hit quite close to home . Raising his right hand he gave a signal to the bartender. Immediately she was right in front of him with his usual; a shot of Canadian whisky and a bottle of beer to chase it down with. Flipping the page a headline stole his attention. ASK SQUISHY? "Guess they finally made contact with the god" he began to ponder. Reading over the section his mind was blown.  As he got to the end of the paper he thought to himself what question would he ask if given heard by the gods and how big that super bowl must be if it were really made of 2,017 bowls..?

Again he found himself pondering and signalling the bartender while he await the arrival of his friend..

"JohnConstantine, I can not comment on the above mentioned game as you described it. I merely sold some advertising space. You might notice that it is one of your fellow city members who has asked for this advertising space. You may wish to chat with him regarding it.

As for the date, it appears to be a misprint which was spotted on production. Unfortunately as this is only a start up I was unable to afford reprints to fix the date stamp. Perhaps we might make it a bit of a joke tradition in this publication.

Further, do you really think that housing crisis is not worth noticing or discussing? History repeats itself my friend. Best learn from our mistakes to better handle situations in the future.

Finally, Squishy isn't a god. He is one of the better known people in these parts. He might not run around shooting at others, but you really should recognise him as a person." 

"As editor, you are responsible for what's printed and advertised in this paper. So less passing the buck, and more taking responsibility as the one organizing and rolling out this thing. Do you walk blindly down the street and blame others when you jump into them?"

"And no, he isn't living and breathing in this world we live in. So a person in these times, he is not. You may worship him or it to such a degree it's real to you, but unless you can point to the man himself as a full fledged character in our world, a living breathing personality, then you are mistaken sir."

"What do you mean 'character'. If someone wishes to get a message out, no matter how crazy the idea seems, I want to give them the opportunity to do so. If you are uninterested in the message or even scared by its forwardness then you may wish to either ignore it or not pick up this publication. For all I know a Super Bowl is an eating competition. It is not up to me to tell someone they are unable to advertise their thoughts and ideas. To suggest that I am passing the blame is ridiculous as there is no blame to be had. As far as I see it, a member of our community is running some sort of gambling operation."

Caesar raises his eyebrows at BlackJack's words. "A joke tradition? A joke tradition that transports us seventy years into the future? That mistake needs to be corrected from the next edition onwards without fail. As for the advertising space, since you are the editor, you are responsible for what gets printed."

Caesar leans back and lights a Cuban cigar. "I remember a while back that another gentleman had appeared here on the Streets with what he called an autopsy report of a recently deceased mafioso. The report went on to make several innuendos and suggestions about the person and his sexuality, and was a very evident case of grave-pissing. Despite the speaker's claims of it being written by someone else, it did not save him from the repercussions of his speech. I urge you to not follow in his footsteps, as you clearly have talent with the pen, and it would be a real shame to see it wasted." 

"Augustus_Caesar, as clearly stated earlier, there is nothing in my mind wrong about the advertising. All I can see is a man providing a gambling opportunity. Perhaps you are privy to some information which I am not aware of which would make this seem more odd than it is?"

She gasps as she sees the paper handed to her. Finding a quiet bench she settles in looking forward to the read. The aroma of fresh ink made her nose tingle. 

Yes! Something to read while I take a break from life.

She excitedly unfolds the paper to read the headline and becomes confused as she flips through the publication.

2017?!?! What the hell? 

She looks around her to see the same old dirty streets as before.

I would have sworn it was still the 1930s though. 

She looks up with bewilderment and searches for the editor in chief, BlackJack.

Sir, excuse me sir, I was wondering how often you will be publishing this, erm, newspaper? Will the next edition contain actual news and highlights of events in our world or will it just contain references to discussions for us to find our own way to again? Also, 2017? That's 70 or so years from now isn't it? What is this.. Super Bowl? 

She scratches her head in wonderment.

You say you aren't responsible for the content of this publication, but as the editor and publisher you are responsible for the content and making sure that it is worthy and acceptable. I do wish you luck with the second edition... You may want to grow a bit of a thicker skin though. When you put together something for the public to read, the public will respond. Sometimes it will be with criticism and sometimes it will be with praise. Advertising is fine, I encourage it, but content should be appropriate for the setting it is presented in and shouldn't make references to times yet to come. It's just common sense really. The job of an Editor is to edit the paper. You can "just say no" to content that isn't appropriate or edit it so it is.

She smiles ever so sweetly.

Also, for the record, Squishy and those that help with the construction of our Streets and, quite simply, the rest of our world are often referred to as "Gods" (They are the "creators" of our reality after all.) or "Staff at City Hall". You shouldn't be so quick to condemn someone for making reference to him or his co-workers in this manner as it has been a longstanding tradition borne of respect for those that make our cities habitable. You may not see them as "gods", but I'm sure you can wrap your brain around the fact and reason that some do and will refer to them as such. Gods, City Hall Employees, Mashed Potatoes... Doesn't matter. It's about respect and tradition. Deal with it.

She smiles again sweetly and places the newspaper on the bench for someone else to come across and read. 

Good luck sir.

"Lillith, as previously discussed here, there was a printing error in the original publication. As for the advertising, I am not one to regulate what messages people want to put to the world. You can't gamble on an event which has already happened, alas, it must be something that is to come. I am not so sure why you and your city colleagues are so quick to jump to the conclusion that the reference to 2017 is a reference to the future. To me it is a mere coincidence that the 2017 appeared in the same typographical error in the date stamp. Perhaps the setter at the printing press saw it in the advert and got confused. Will teach me to go with a cheap printing press!!!

As for references to Squishy, I will follow my beliefs, My father told me a family story of when he used to grace these streets with his words. I prefer to give his name meaning rather than simply bulk him in as an unnamed god. This is how I will respect him.

You may find this controversial, but i refuse to moderate and filter our media. This is a newspaper not designed to fit in with the norm but to challenge the way people feel and think about things. Don't be another sheep of this place, dare to believe the unbelievable, dare to dream the undreamable."

BlackJack picks up his bag, puts his cigarette back in his mouth and proceeds to travel to Las Vegas. He has heard there is a team eating competition there where teams are required to eat as many bowls of food as they can in four seperate sittings.

She catches up to BlackJack before he departs and hands him a special cookie wrapped in tissue paper. The recipe had been in her family for generations, some say back to the beginning of time.

Here, take this... I've been told it helps fend off and treat severe cases of OOCitis. In fact...

She pulls three more cookies identically wrapped.

I think you should have a few extra. Given the content of your paper and attitude towards the content you may need them. Have a nice day!

She turns on her heel and skips off to her apartment to refill her pockets with cookies.

Pretty poor attempt at a paper here, mate. That's ignoring the OOC parts people have already blasted you for. If you don't have the resources, time, and desire to put in a vast amount of effort, journalism in this game it not for you. Which is a shame, because we've had what...one decent paper in the past two or three years? And even that one only lasted a few issues. But one half assed story and a couple ads? That's not a paper, that's a flyer tacked on a street post.

It would be great to see someone (or a group of someones) really give it a go at this. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would really enjoy a consistent publication on the streets. It's very helpful for those of us who don't play much or aren't in the "inner circles" to get caught up on our recent events. Not to mention a good time consumer while we wane away our wack timers.

All that aside, I applaud you BlackJack, for at least having the sack to try. The majority of us will critique or ridicule you, but won't be too quick to pick up a pen and start our own paper. I sure as shit won't.