Our sympathy

Over the last few weeks two castmembers who were stunt performers died
while performing.

First it was a pirate doing the Jack Sparrow routine. He apparently
slipped and hit his head.

And yesterday, it was a performer in the Indiana Jones stunt show. He
was performing a tumble and landed awkwardly and broke his neck.

As I have said in the past all CMs are like family and it's sad to see
people doing what they love perish in doing so.

The legend of the 5-legged goat

Next time you're in the Contemporary resort, take a look at the mural in the main lobby of the building.  It can best be described as unusual, with its various images that seem incongruous with the nature of the futuristic building.

 

The mosaic itself was created in 1971 with 1,800 one-square-foot tiles and took 18 months to construct.

 

Even so, there's one unusual element buried in it. Look closely: there's a five-legged goat facing the monorail track.   Disney Cast Members report that the extra limb was an intentional addition, meant to express the belief that no man-made creation is perfect.

 

And that's the story I heard back in 1971, and again when I was a CM.  But on occasion, you'll hear CMs tell you that it was just a mistake they decided to leave in place.  I find that hard to believe, because if it had been a "mistake," it would have been corrected either at the time or just after opening.

 

Its another subtlety in the long list of Disney creations that help to tell a broader story.  Nothing is without meaning, and everything has a purpose, even if its not immediately obvious.

 

Oh, and by the way, last year, they created a pin of the 5 legged goat.  I managed to get one in a pin-trading expedition earlier this year.  Later, when I was trading again, a CM said "wow you got a five legged goat.  I think those were all misprints."  I had to correct his thinking and explain that it was intentional, and he could see the original in the Contemporary.

 

Fantasyland expansion?

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2009/07/disney-world-fantasyland-expansion-magic-kingdom-princesses.html#trackback

Walter Cronkite

I grew up with Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News.  I loved his voice.  So authorotative.

 

And for me, I will always think of him as the signature voice of Spaceship Earth.  He did the original narration from the opening of EPCOT in '82 until the re-did it in 1990.

 

I can still hear his voice "Travel back in time...."

Are you kidding?

There was a bus accident on Disney property yesterday afternoon.  But this was your basic traffic accident and is unlikely to have been caused by a confluence of events.  A bus was attempting to merge into traffic, and had to hit his brakes.  Another bus didn't stop in time, and rear ended him.

 

20 or so people were mildly injured, and a few went to a hospital for a checkup.

still more to the story

As it often happens in accidents where there a lot of safeguards, it takes many things to simultaneously happen in order to cause the accident.

 

In the case of the monorail, there's an indication that the person in the roundhouse who is responsible for the switch thought he activated the switch, and then radioed that he activated the switch.  Only, he didn't actually throw the switch.  That prompted the supervisor who was off site (on what might have been a legit dinner break) to radio the monorail to back up.

 

Now had someoneone been in the control station, or had the roundhouse person noticed, or even if the person with the kill switch was paying attention, this might not have happened.

 

The final report is due out by the NTSB in a week or so.

 

And...No surprise, the mother of the pilot who died is suing Disney.

The final tally on the "quest for food"

Back in the early 1990s, a friend and I decided to start on a quest to
visit every restaurant on Dinsey property. And over the next 18
months, we made a tremendous effort, heading over to the park
regularly and doing some serious eating.

How did we do? Well there were 121 (and a half) restaurants on
property at the time, and we went to an astonishing 116 of them!
While we fell short of our quest to eat at *all* of them, we did
manage to get to 96% of them.

I'm pretty proud of that!

=======================
Here's the summary:

On the monroail resort hotels, I was a little weak. During the tour, I
ate at 12.5 of the 17 dining options, which is only 74%.
While I did eat at most of them at one time or another, there are 2.5
that I have never eaten at.

Inside the Magic Kingdom, I fared much better eating at 27.5 of the
28.5 restaurants (96%) during my 18 month quest. I missed only one due
to bad timing; it was closed often.

I also gave myself a bonus point for my panache in dining at the
Liberty Tree Tavern during my lunch break while I was a CM.

In the Studios, I went 15 for 15. Perfect.

At the Swan & Dolphin, I also was a perfect 6/6.

The "other" hotels: 11 out of 15 (73%), with one that I ate at later.

In Ft Wilderness I went 1/2, though I ate at 1 before the tour.

In Downtown Disney / PI, I was 10/10

In EPCOT's Future World, we went 12 /12 including all the food in the
Land's food court

And in World Showcase, we would 21 / 22, only missing in Marrakesh.

So there are only a handful of restauarants that I've never tried on property...