Sinclair Exhibits Weird Dinosaurs

For most of us that grew up in and around Walt Disney World, the first time we linked dinosaurs to petroleum probably had something to do with the Universe of Energy at EPCOT Center. It’s also possible that the first time we heard about a World’s Fair was in correlation with Walt Disney’s efforts at the 1964 World’s Fair, which also happened to feature a few famous dinosaurs. However, the Universe of Energy wasn’t the first time that the myth of dinosaurs as a form of fossil fuel was employed; the Sinclair Gas & Oil company had been utilizing them for years. In fact, they even took their dinos to the World’s Fair.

Actually, Sinclair dinosaurs were present at multiple World’s Fairs, including the New York edition in 1964. However, Chester and Hester seem to be interested in an earlier appearance, at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. Sinclair had been trying to come up with an iconic image for their logo that would be immediately recognizable to passing motorists when they hit upon the dinosaurs. By the time they reached the World’s Fair in 1933, their exhibit featured a brontosaurus that could move its neck and tail, along with a selection of other, static, dinosaurs. According to the guidebook from the World’s Fair: 

“Giant prehistoric monsters. On the heaped up reddish brownstone hillside of the age of reptiles the forty-ton brontosaurus swings his long next, jerks his huge tail, clashes his jaws and emits life-like screeching grunts. In a pool a glaring-eyed trachodon, bigger than a hippopotamus, splashes with his huge clawed foot. He is watching a fight between a three-horned triceratops and a tyrannosaurus, most ferocious creature that ever lived, with crocodile haws and hind legs like a kangaroo. Near them a stegosaurus, large as an elephant, browses on prehistoric vegetation.” 

That may be the first time I’ve ever read of a t-rex being compared to a kangaroo.

The dinosaurs were featured in Big News, a special edition newspaper publication created especially for the Chicago World’s Fair by Sinclair. Chester and Hester were able to located one of these issues to place up on their walls amongst the photos and comic books featuring their favorite creatures. This makes sense, considering that the Sinclair dinosaurs were so popular that the giant figures began popping up at fueling stations around the country. Additionally, the dinosaurs spawned multiple toy lines, including the petroleum-based injector models of a number of dinosaurs.

Sinclair would be the inspiration for Pixar’s Dinoco, the gas stations and company that can be seen in everything from Toy Story to Cars. Eventually the dinosaurs of Sinclair would stop showing up around gas stations and the touring exhibit became extinct. Sinclair still has stations far and wide, although those of us on the east coast would have to travel a fair distance to find one. Regardless, Chester and Hester seem to have a soft spot for the gas company that seems to love dinosaurs as much as they do.

Silent Saturday - Spaceship Earth Mural (April 2016)

Found at Hawker Centers

Coming out of the gate I want to be completely up front and honest. We are reviewing the Morimoto Spare Ribs that can be found at both Morimoto Asia and Morimoto Asia Street Food, if you haven’t heard about them yet, I’m not sure what rock you’ve been hiding under. If you haven’t taken the time to try them yet, then maybe I can finally be that voice of reason that sends you scurrying off to take your first bite. If you’re just here for the food porn that is a picture of the Morimoto Spare Ribs, here you go!

The ribs come in in orders of three at both Morimoto Asia and Morimoto Asia Street Foods, but an order of six can be obtain at Morimoto Asia. An order of three of these behemoth ribs is more than enough for one person, and six is definitely for sharing. The menu lists the Morimoto Spare Ribs as pork ribs with cilantro and hoisin sweet chili glaze. Those descriptions hit the basics of what is included in terms of flavor, but miss out on a lot of the other wonderful components make up these ribs. In the mélange for the ribs, from either the braising ingredients or the glaze, are tamarind paste, garlic, onion, ginger, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and soy sauce, to name just a few.

Each rib is huge, and that is not an understatement. I know that beef back ribs can sometimes be referred to as brontosaurus ribs, but these pork spare ribs want to compete for that title. For as big as they are, each of the Morimoto Spare Ribs contains just as much flavor. They are crispy on the outside, with tender, juicy meat that falls right off the bone just underneath. The glaze strikes just the right balance between sweet, heat, and salty. I absolutely cannot recommend these ribs enough.

How much do I like these ribs? We all know I am prone to recreating Disney recipes that I love at home. The Morimoto Spare Ribs were so popular that the recipe was released a little more than a month after the restaurant opened. Here’s the rub, I know that utilizing recipes supplied by Disney that I can generally make a fair stand-in for any given dish, but with the ribs I’m almost certain to be disappointed. The ribs are so good in their original form that anything I would create would only pale in comparison, so I won’t even try.

If you weren’t hungry before you started reading this article, I’m willing to bet that you are now. If you hadn’t tried the Morimoto Spare Ribs before today, I hope you are making immediate plans to rectify this situation. And if you need someone to take an extra rib or two off of your hands because you order too many, then I’m your man!

Where the Stars Stay and Play

When you wander down Sunset Boulevard in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you could be forgiven for being distracted. After all, your attention is almost immediately drawn to the screams being emitted from the large hotel at the end of the street. With all the chaos and attention that the Hollywood Tower Hotel is bringing upon itself, have you ever paused and looked at artifacts on the street just below your line of sight?

On the left hand side of the street, as you make your way down to the Tower of Terror, there is a sign on the curb near Sweet Spells. The sign is a California marker for US-66, otherwise known as Route 66. The more interesting artifact, however, is the sets of luggage found at the base of the signpost. The two pieces of green luggage belong to Gilbert London, while the matching three piece set of brown luggage is the property of Carolyn Crosson.

Both Gilbert and Carolyn, though perhaps she is better recognized by her stage name of Claire Poulet, both come to Sunset Boulevard as characters from the Tower of Terror episode of The Wonderful World of Disney. The episode aired on October 26, 1997 and featured Steve Guttenberg and Kristen Dunst as a reporter, Buzzy, and his niece, Anna. Gilbert and Carolyn are two of the five ghosts featured in the attraction and the film, though they are portrayed by a different acting pair in the television installment. Gilbert is the snarky and snide actor who, deep down, has compassion for his fellow ghosts. Carolyn is a warm and caring individual, who tries to be as open and honest as one can be in her situation. While not what one would expect, they were in love prior to their deaths in the Hollywood Tower Hotel’s elevator in 1939 and remain so in the afterlife.

The episode would go on to be released as a standalone film, but there are never references made to the attraction or story’s tie to The Twilight Zone. The Tower of Terror feature can be seen as the beginning of Disney’s attempt to bring attractions and their stories back to film, as this predates Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, The Country Bears, and the like. In fact, all exterior shots of the hotel and several of the interior scenes were filmed at the Hollywood Tower Hotel at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, then Disney-MGM Studios.

Gilbert and Carolyn finally get their storybook, or science fiction television, romance at the end of Tower of Terror. However, their theme park counterparts are still sending chills up the spines of guests daily. I much prefer the first ending to their story, don’t you? Regardless, these sets of American Tourister luggage have been awaiting the return of their owners for a very, very long time.

The Essence and Flavor of France

It’s no secret that the level of attention that went into the selection of landmarks, as well as the attention to detail, for each of the pavilions in World Showcase was monumental. In fact, the story of each pavilion was so intricate, from the choice of restaurants, to decor, and even to the placement of the pavilion, that Cast Members had manuals dedicated to the individual pavilions that they worked in when EPCOT Center opened in 1982. The design stories from France are, if not my favorite, amongst a very short list from around World Showcase. I could pull out a couple of details for you, but why not give you a chance to read some of it for yourself?

“When Architectural Designer Harry Webster began designing the France pavilion, one of the first questions he asked himself was, ‘How do you symbolize, represent, create images for and capture the essence and flavor of France in an area roughly an acre in size.’ 

“One of his goals was to provide a historical stretch of French architecture, representing several styles and influences. Our provincial street, La Pétit Rue, could have been built in the 1600’s, while the chateau façade of La Signature recalls those grand country estates of the 1700’s. Parisian architecture is best remembered for its structures built in La Bell Époque, or the beautiful age, those years between 1850 and 1900. 

“An earlier concept was to re-create the Place du Tetre, the artists’ colony up near the cathedral of Sacré-Coeur, but we found that the Sacré-Coeur would have dominated the skyline too much, and hence, decided on our symbol and exclamation point provided by the Eiffel Tower. 

“From the outset, we thought it was only appropriate that France should reside near a river in order to provide atmosphere of Paris on the Seine. After securing the pavilion’s site, Au Petit Café was relocated from the west side to its present location. The move gave us the opportunity to include the small park near the canal. 

“Under Baron Von Haussmann during the 1850’s, Paris’s great boulevards were almost standardized with uniform seven-story high structures. This was known as the Grand Design, depicting elegance with its mansard roofs and dormers. 

“Masters of scale, our Disney designers have made our Paris buildings look much higher than its three-story layout.

“The original Eiffel Tower in Paris, France was built in 1889 for the Paris Exhibition, and was the tallest structure in the world until 1930.

“Although ours is duplicated from original blueprints, it stands without a base. However, this peculiarity doesn’t take away from the show, as the tower’s sale makes it not only look as if it’s farther away than it actually is, but also looks as if the buildings before it are ‘hiding’ the base.”

There are as many stories about the France pavilion as there are artists and composers present throughout the pavilion. The document created for France’s Cast Members doesn’t share all of these stories, but it sets a great foundation for further explanation, even if their Eiffel Tower doesn’t have one! From windows to the river, the France pavilion is a masterclass of design.

Silent Saturday - Mike Fink's Cabin (February 2015)

Be There to Experience It

Let’s start with the obvious, if you’ve been around the Gazette for a while, you’ve probably caught on that my adult beverages of choice often contain whiskey or bourbon. However, I will often try something else in order to give you a proper review, but also to come into contact with new things. It is this second reason that makes me feel so at home at Nomad Lounge. Here, on the opening page of the menu, they explain, “Our trips are about research, but they are also about understanding cultures, exploring environments, and having unique experiences.” With that mantra in mind, today I offer up two very different cocktails for your consideration, the Annapurna Zing and Jenn’s Tattoo.

The Annapurna Zing comes from the Indonesia section of the menu and is comprised of Bombay Sapphire East Gin, passion fruit puree, mint, simply syrup, and lime juice, topped with Ginger Beer. While the specific ginger beer isn’t listed, Disney’s fondness for Fever Tree recently makes me think this could be the splash that they are using here. This has a lot of ingredients, but has a very simple flavor. The zing comes from the ginger beer and lime, which are always a good combination, regardless of what spirit you choose to include with them. The simple syrup and passion fruit do their best to minimize, but not entirely mute the zingy elements of the cocktail. If you’re a fan of gin, but you don’t want another martini or gimlet, the Annapurna Zing should be right up your alley. I know I certainly enjoyed mine.

Jenn’s Tattoo is a concoction of Ketel One Vodka, watermelon, hibiscus, and lime juice that comes to us from the Central and South America segment of the menu. The drink comes topped with a lime wheel and a candied flower. I’m going to say this right now, if you do not like sweet cocktails, this is not for you. It is on the opposite side of the spectrum from what I typically enjoy, but the watermelon, hibiscus, and lime juice combination had me intrigued. Unfortunately, the lime and hibiscus were overpowered by the watermelon, which was as sweet as you remember it from your last slice this past summer. It is definitely a dessert in a glass type of drink, but if you want something that is very sweet, and that masks the vodka well, this is the cocktail for you. For me, the best part of the beverage was the candied flower on top, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It may not be the adult beverage of choice for me, but I could see where others would enjoy it.

My first visit to Nomad Lounge will in no way, shape, or form be my last visit to this hideaway in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. To paraphrase Nomad Lounge’s travelogue present in the menu, whether you’ve traveled across the world or around the corner, as long as you are doing it for the experience and open to new things, the spirit of travel will remain the same. There is always something new to taste, to widen my world just a bit more, and I’ll keep on exploring menus for all of you, but also for myself!

Yah-Hah-Buoy

It should come as no surprise that the Magic Kingdom’s Storybook Circus has a cubic ton of nods to animated classics and theme park stories per square foot. That might be a slight over exaggeration, but only slightly. Case in point, this single life preserver from the queue of Goofy’s Barnstormer offers up a great deal of tales to discuss. It reads: Water Ski Championship, “Yah-Hah-Buoy,” Manufactured by Geef Industries, “Your How-To Company.”

The question here is where to start? How about with the simplest explanation, and that comes from the name of the preserver itself, “Yah-Hah-Buoy.” This is clearly a cleverly disguised nod to the Goofy’s famous yell. While the phonics of the yell may get lost in translation, whether it is actually yah-ha-hooey, yah-hoo-hoo-hooey, or yah-ha-ha-hooey, it is unmistakably Goofy’s trademark call when he is surprised or sent for a rather long flight and fall.

Let’s move on down to Geef Industries’ slogan, “Your How-To Company,” next. Goofy has long been known as a Do-It-Yourself type of guy, from exercise and dancing, to sports and household repairs. The How-To series of animated shorts starring Goofy began in the 1940s and ran into 1950s before taking a sabbatical for the next several decades. The series would see a return to prominence in 2007 with the introduction of How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. It goes without saying that Goofy’s best laid plans, even those with step by step instructions, never went quite according to plan.

Moving back just a hair to Geef Industries itself, this is a reference to one of Goofy’s other personas. During the 1950s, Goofy became an everyman, hence some of the Do-It-Yourself type shorts, and had a family to take care of and provide for. During this slate of animated shorts, Goofy was known by the name George Geef. During this time is when we are introduced to Goofy’s son, Max, or Junior as he was known then, as well as Mrs. Geef. While Mrs. Geef’s face was never seen, she did have a distinctive head of red hair.

Last, but certainly not least, we come to the top of the bill, err…, life preserver. Water Ski Championship has the most amount of story to tell, but let’s start on the animated side of things. The most obvious Goofy short that this is referencing is the 1961 cartoon, Aquamania. In this short Goofy is determined to get a boat and get out onto the lake with his son. The name of the short itself is introduced very early on in the short, as this cartoon is a case study in Aquamania, or the obsession with boats and boating. Through a bizarre series of circumstance, Goofy ends up in a water skiing race, picks up an octopus companion, takes a trip aboard a roller coaster, and ends up winning the race.

This isn’t the only water skiing that Goofy is known for, however. Between 1972 and 1973, Goofy partook in two water skiing shows right on the Seven Seas Lagoon. Known as the Walt Disney World Water Ski Spectacular and the Wonderful World of Water Ski Show, the show would run up to five times a day, including the occasional evening show. The best location for viewing was right down from the Magic Kingdom’s monorail station, but there was a price for the show. Tickets were 50 and 75 cents, or later the show was one offering of a “D” ticket. Even after the shows had been cancelled, Goofy and his character friends would ski along the lagoon, sometimes right up alongside the ferries. On rare occasions, they would even ski right up to the shore of spur-of-the-moment meet and greets with guests.

Goofy has had an illustrious career as, well, just about everything you could imagine. His exploits are known far and wide, but they are particularly well known around Storybook Circus. If a single life preserver can hold this much story, just imagine the wealth of tales some other artifacts may hold!

Silent Saturday - Jawa and Sabacc Table (April 2016)

Happily Ever After

It’s been quite the week in terms of news and nighttime entertainment for Walt Disney World, huh? Pandora is opening for Memorial Day Weekend, we’re probably a bit over two years away from Star Wars Land opening, Rivers of Light will officially debut next weekend, DisneyQuest is preparing for its end of the line, and Wishes is going out with a bang to make way for Happily Ever After. There’s excitement throughout the community, some sadness, and I’ve even heard the comment that it’s too much happening all at once. The first time I saw that thought I brushed it off, but then I saw it again and again and began to put some stock and serious thought into the idea.

It occurred to me that, as Walt Disney World enthusiasts, we’re used to changes big and small happening at one time. However, we also are used to these changes happening one at a time. The opening of a new land has always been filled with much pomp and fanfare. It was built up, and built up, and discussed, and dreamed about until the day finally came that it opened and we got to finally experience. We would then dedicate weeks and months to pouring over every corner of the land until we felt we had fully immersed ourselves in every story we could and it had become as much of our Walt Disney World consciousness as any other land. With some minor tweaks this could be the same pattern for a new attraction, show, parade, resort, or any other venture from Walt Disney World. The point being, that for a time it is the new and shiny experience and there isn’t anything playing tug-of-war for our attention.

Has 2107 just become the apex of change in Walt Disney World by pure happenstance? After all, Star Wars Land, while a tentative opening date has been announced for 2019, but that doesn’t have any true standing for this year, just this news cycle. Rivers of Light was scheduled to open last April with other nighttime activities at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Since Disney Springs was announced and began opening in sections, it was only a matter of time before DisneyQuest was replaced. Surprisingly, new fireworks shows don’t come along too often for the Magic Kingdom, but with all of the projection technology being utilized in every park, including the Magic Kingdom, can anyone really be surprised that the marquee fireworks display really wanted to get in on the game? So, yes, there’s a lot happening right now, but how much of it is just happy circumstance?

Enthusiasts of Walt Disney World are more accustomed to bemoaning our plight as being overlooked and only getting hand-me-downs from Disneyland or a sparse smattering of novel attractions. On some level, we should be thanking Universal Studios for their aggressive expansion over the past several years as bringing the battle for Orlando back to the forefront and giving the parks and resorts the love and attention we all know that they deserve. Once Pandora is open, the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom are going to be in relatively great positions as marquee theme parks. Although don’t get me started on the needs of Tomorrowland. Disney’s Hollywood Studios is in the midst of a major transition, but its stock will rise exponentially once we can visit a new world in the Star Wars universe and Andy’s backyard. Epcot and its assorted festivals still continue to wow guests year after year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard of major overhauls coming to Future World, World Showcase, and the park’s nighttime spectacular by the end of the year.

Are there a lot of changes coming to Walt Disney World in a comparatively short period of time this year? Yes, there are. This is considering that the changes we’ve already heard about still don’t consider a nighttime parade at the Magic Kingdom, which we all know is a staple of the Magic Kingdom experience and can’t be absent for much longer before the natives get very, very restless. Is this the new status quo? I don’t think so, but it is the standard for the next several years. We should all be grateful that our beloved Vacation Kingdom is receiving the love it so deserves and set ourselves up to rejoice the new attractions, lands, and resorts, and know that there will be times that we’ll have to pay our respects to beloved experience before they are transformed into something new. It’s the circle of life, and with a resort that will never be completed, we should be thankful that we are being given new worlds to explore and build into our consciousness of what makes Walt Disney World wonderful.

Have an Ice Day

Guests head for Blizzard Beach for fun in the sun and some chill thrills, they aren’t flocking to the water park on the meltdown with their bathing suits and beach towels in order to have a culinary experience. However, when working up a hunger climbing mountains and splish-splashing around, it’s important to make sure you are rehydrating and getting enough calories to maintain a high energy level. With that in mind, let’s take a look at three offerings from Blizzard Beach’s main dining venue, Lottawatta Lodge.

On a recent excursion we opted for two of the main offerings, the Blizzard Cheddar Burger and the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Exciting options, I know, but the menu also features salads, wraps, and flatbreads, but we wanted entrees we could really sink our teeth into. Both sandwiches come with a pair of sides, coleslaw and fries, and as sides go they were fair staples, but nothing to write home about.

The Blizzard Cheddar Burger is amped up with bacon and cheddar (obviously), along with guacamole and barbecue sauce. Bacon and cheddar cheese go with just about everything, guacamole and barbecue sauce included. However, if you’re thinking that the idea of barbecue sauce and guacamole may not complement each other, you’d be on to something. That isn’t to say that they’re actively fighting with one another, but there is an odd disjointedness when you get a bite with both. Your mouth may be confused, but it’s not distracting enough to not stop eating the sandwich.

Meanwhile, the grilled chicken sandwich is just that, grilled chicken with lettuce, tomato, and onion on a multigrain bun. It isn’t fancy, but it gets the job done if you’re looking for a simple, no nonsense lunch. Also, if you’re not thinking about the fries and coleslaw, it does offer a fairly healthy option without going all the way to salads and wraps.

When it comes to beverages, or Brrr-Everages as they’re referred to over at Lottawatta Lodge, there are the regular options and a few specialty items. The Brrr-Everage that seemed to be calling my name, however, was the Frozen Hot Chocolate. Just the name alone had me, and perhaps I should have done some more investigating before I jumped to order it. I think I was expecting a rich, cocoa-y milkshake or something akin to a Frosty from Wendy’s. What I received in the place of that dream was an Icee-type chocolate beverage. Even in the warm Florida sun it melted quickly into a watery, chocolate mess topped by whipped cream. It definitely won’t be a treat sort of item I’ll order again. While it’s rare that I won’t give something a second chance, save a complete reworking of the Frozen Hot Chocolate, I don’t see much in the way of a redeeming quality.

Bad food can turn a great day into a mediocre day very quickly. Lottawatta Lodge does lunch well, and does not distract from the experience the rest of Blizzard Beach has to offer. While I would stay away from the Frozen Hot Chocolate, both sandwiches we sampled left us full and ready for the afternoon without much fuss over the meal. Oh, and don’t worry, we waited 30 minutes before venturing back into Melt-Away Bay!

We are Reckless, Brave, and Loyal

Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar is filled with wonderful bits of history, from tales of aeronautical flights of daring, to archeological finds, and a ton of nods to Jock’s friend Henry Jones Jr. However, one of my favorite hidden details comes from the lost and found and is the passport of none other than Samantha Sterling. It just goes to show, the Adventurers Club may be gone these nine years, but it has certainly not been forgotten.

Some of you may be asking yourself who is Samantha Sterling. Let’s provide a little background. Samantha Sterling was the daring adventuress who headlined the show stopping cabaret at the Adventurers Club. It is said that stop a man in his tracks by just a glint in her eye and a beast in his tracks with a dart from her blowgun. The character was dressed in the best safari gear and was based upon Amelia Earhart, which makes it easy to see why she and Jock would have been friends.

The passport gives us another tidbit of information that is worth looking into, and no I don’t mean that she was a 5’8” blonde that had blue eyes. I’m sure any man that ever got caught in her gaze could tell you that. No, I’m referring to the date in which the passport was signed by Samantha. In the bottom corner it reads, “Given under my hand and the seal of the Department of State in Washington, DEC 23, 1937.”

Why is this date so interesting? A couple of reasons, for starters it is a mere week before guests visited the Adventurers Club. As guests, the story you were told is that you were visiting the club on the night of a recruitment drive, which also happened to be New Year’s Eve 1937. It’s likely that this is not Sterling’s first passport, as she regaled guests with many a tale of her expeditions, but seeing as how it was issued so close to when guests were visiting the Adventurers Club, it’s no wonder that she hadn’t headed back out on a new trek yet.

We know that Jock was a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, along with many personalities scattered throughout Disney resorts worldwide, and that the S.E.A. was founded after the Adventurers Club, so it isn’t any wonder that membership would have its overlaps, quite possibly including Samantha Sterling. Either way, their free spiritedness would have made the two fast friends. It does make me wonder what other adventurers this pair got into though.

Silent Saturday - Port of East Africa (September 2014)

The Natural History of a 'Forest Ghost'

The okapis may be known as the ghosts of the forest due to their ability to hide, but we’ve never hidden our love for these wonderful relatives of the giraffe. From discussing the Ituri Okapi Project to looking at the Weekly Journal’s story of okapis arriving from a forest in Zaire, we love to delve into the history of these creatures and their place in Harambe and the larger Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As part of the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, there are many motes and questions about all manner of creatures, but there are many documents, postings, and exhibits dedicated to the okapis.

One such posting is for a lecture, which one would expect from an educational facility. This, as it turns out is part of a regular series of known as the Sunday Lecture, and this one just happens to be scheduled for next Sunday (perpetually, next Sunday, I would imagine). The lecture is entitled The Okapi: The Natural History of a ‘Forest Ghost.’ Now, I could tell you about the lecture myself, but the posting does such a wonderful job, why not let it do its job?

SUNDAY LECTURE

The Okapi

The Natural History of a ‘Forest Ghost’

This Sunday Dr. Kulunda will show some slides of the okapi in its native habitat of the Ituri Forest. As we as discussing its natural history, Dr. Kulunda will cover the following topics:

Okapi Conservation – The okapi is rare – is it endangered? How do you keep a reliable count of a creature that is so hard to see? 

Okapi Diet – Establishing a correct browse list. Do our relocated okapis have the right browse here in Harambe?

Okapi Rump Patterns – Why the zebra-like stripes? Do they function as a ‘follow me’ signal to baby okapi in dim forest light? 

Okapi & Giraffe Evolutionary Divergence – We will examine the similarities and difference between the savanna giraffe and its forest cousin the okapi. Did the giraffe neck evolve in response to greater competition for food in the savannah?

The location will be the Research Centre hut. The slides will begin as soon as it is dark.

Prayers for the generator are highly encouraged!

The idea that you may never get to attend this lecture may be disheartening to some of you. However, this posting is really there for curious children, and adults who have a child’s love for the okapis as well. There are often Cast Members present at the okapi viewing area along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. This lecture is a combination of some of the most common questions, and some more in depth discussion points. If you’ve caught the post, you’ll have just the right question to ask to learn more about these magnificent ghosts.

Of course, I’ll understand if you missed this posting because you caught sight of an okapi and became enamored…

Audio Antics

The Wonders of Life was the last major pavilion to come to EPCOT Center’s Future World when it arrived in 1989. From the gorgeous, spiraling double helix known as the Tower of Life to no less than three marquee attractions on the inside, this was a pavilion where you could spend hours engaged with attractions, dining, and shopping. Some of the smaller attractions could be some of the most fun; I for one never passed up an opportunity to ride through Disneyland on one of the Wondercycles. Today, however, let’s look at Sensory Funhouse, and more specifically the Audio Antics.

The Sensory Funhouse section of Wonders of Life included six different components. Each of these areas had been designed for guests to utilize one of their five senses, although there was an emphasis placed on sight, touch, and sound. Pipes that utilized hot and cold features to show you how your sense of touch could be manipulated (Perplexion Pipes), sensory boxes with objects inside where you had to use your sense of touch to figure out what was in the box (Touchy Subjects), balance was tested in a room with a slanted floor (Crooked Room), there were examples of brail where you could take a beginner’s lesson in how to read utilizing brail (Reading Brail), and many a visual riddles (Optical Illusions) were all a part of the Sensory Funhouse.

Audio Antics was one of these smaller areas of the overall Sensory Funhouse zone. This area featured oversized headphones with a bench in the middle for guests to sit on. They would then put on their own set of headphones and take part in a guessing game. The trick here was to listen to a sound and guess what it was. Most of the time it was a trick and you would guess wrong, such as the sound of rain falling outside that turned out to be bacon frying in a pan. It was another example of the pavilion showing us how our body could lie to us and how easily we could be tricked by removing a piece of our senses. It was also critical to make sure that the “R” side of the headset was on your right side, as the audio would sometimes move and having he headset on backwards could definitely throw you off.

You may not have spent more than a minute or two within the Audio Antics booth, especially after multiple listens, but it was a fun part of the Wonders of Life journey. In fact, the entirety of the Sensory Funhouse section made for a great way to occupy some time if it was raining outside or if children were becoming squirmy from standing in too many lines or if you just loved the idea of messing with your senses. What was your favorite part of the Sensory Funhouse?

Service and Refinement

The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge has been working on becoming the spot to see and been seen for quite some time now. With top-notch small plates and a bevy of finely crafted cocktails, is it any wonder that guests have found this little alcove to be their perfect spot to relax while at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Granted, the serene Hollywood of old feel the lounge and background music loop provides can occasionally be shattered by the booming pyrotechnics of Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away, but most of the time the scene is perfectly set for a small party to unwind.

We’ve been working our way through the menu of The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge slowly with our reviews, and today we’ve come up against another trio of beverages to sample in the name of research. The margarita flight features three specialty margaritas; Classic, Mango, and Pomegranate. While each can be ordered separately, we tackled the trio today in order to give you as thorough of a review as possible. Each margarita is prepared with Sauza Conmemorativo Tequila and sweet-and-sour, but from there they all become drastically different. The Classic Margarita features Cointreau, Lime Juice, and a Grand Marnier Float. The Mango Margarita adds Cointreau as well, but also includes Mango Juice. Last, but certainly not least, is the Pomegranate Margarita which includes Stirrings Pomegranate Liqueur.

These are all well-prepared and it really comes down to what you are looking for in an adult beverage. For sweetness, I recommend the Mango Margarita. It isn’t an overly sweet cocktail, but it is sweeter than its counterparts in this trio. The Pomegranate Margarita packs in the tartness, as one would expect from something that includes pomegranate, but the flavors hold up and make for an excellent addition to the flight. Then there is the Classic Margarita, which expertly blends its sweet and sour elements to make something that can be considered traditional, but also has its own personality thanks to the Grand Marnier float.

You’re not going to find a bad margarita in the set, but if you’re craving something in particular, then I would recommend against the flight and focus in on what you’re really looking for in a margarita. These cocktails from The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge may not be up to the ridiculously high standards set by La Cava del Tequila, but they most certainly hold their own.

Silent Saturday - Belle's Cottage (April 2016)

Mickey's Magical TV World

Part of the allure of Mickey’s Starland would be the namesake stars. While the land modeled much of itself after Duckberg from DuckTales, there were a whole host of characters from The Disney Afternoon to pull from in order to gain the attention of children visiting the Magic Kingdom in the early 1990s. When Mickey’s Birthdayland transformed into Mickey’s Starland in the spring of 1990, it brought along with it Mickey’s Magical TV World.

The show was host by C.J., seen at far left with the Gummi Bears, who oversaw the stage production that include characters from the entire line-up of The Disney Afternoon. The stage included sets from the various shows, such as the tree from Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears or Scrooge McDuck’s vault. The first iteration included not only DuckTales and Gummi Bear characters, but also Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Ranger cast members, pictured here, and friends from TaleSpin. Mickey was also present to assist with co-hosting the whole affair with C.J.

The show would change each year with shifts to The Disney Afternoon’s line-up, with additions such as Darkwing Duck joining the show. As the years went by, the show also became a surprise for Mickey, and C.J.’s co-host became the rapping computer known as D.U.D.E. Looking back at the show know, it is clearly a time capsule of its day, and one that would probably cause a fair amount of headshakes amongst adults who know they were kids screaming in that audience. Regardless of the show itself, how many of us wouldn’t leap at the chance to revisit some of these characters in the park today!

There are other interesting tidbits to explore in this photograph as well. Let’s start with the most obvious, Mickey’s house. This is not the squashed and pulled animated house that many of us remember from Mickey’s Toontown Fair, but instead a version of the house that had a few outlandish architectural features, but that otherwise could have lived on any street in the country. Similarly, if you look just behind the tree to the left of Zummi Gummi, you can see Mickey Mouse’s mailbox. This mailbox, while seemingly normal, was out of place once the land transformed into Mickey’s Toontown Fair, so it was shelved, literally. It could always be found tucked away on a shelf in Mickey’s garage.

Last, but by no means least, if you look just about the roofline on the left, right in front of Cinderella Castle, you can one of the posts and the lines of the Skyway between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. While there are no gondolas running in the photo, my guess is that this picture was taken early in the morning before the attraction was operating, as the Skyway would remain in operation until the end of the decade.

With all of the history of Walt Disney World, it’s easy to forget how much worth and information can be contained within a single photograph. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to find some crimes that are slipping through the cracks.

He's Worth a Lot to Me

The lost and found area of the Star Wars Launch Bay is home to a wealth of stories, some canon, some now belonging to galaxy of Legends, and some that even pull back the curtain on the creation process. Take, for instance, this white Z-6 jetpack. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is the jetpack used by the Stormtroopers during one of the opening scene scenarios in Star Tours: The Adventure Continues, but that wouldn’t be the case. And as with everything Star Wars the more you shift through the lore the more interesting a single artifact can become.

Let’s start our conversation with those Stormtroopers. In the Ambush at Star Tours four action figure set, they are listed as Sky Troopers. However, Skytroopers have existed previously in the Star Wars Universe, specifically as a model of battle droid utilized during in Star Wars: The Old Republic as replacement soldiers for the Eternal Empire. We’ll stop there and let you uncover more about The Old Republic for yourself. The Imperial version of Stormtroopers with jetpacks are more commonly known as Jumptroopers, but have been known to call themselves Skytroopers or Air Assault Troopers from time to time. So could this be their jet pack? Not likely, the equipment these Jumptroopers were typically furnished with was either the AJP-400 Hush-About jetpacks or a JT-12 jetpack.

These dead ends leave us with the man most of us are familiar with for his use of a jetpack, Boba Fett. I can hear you now, Boba Fett’s armor isn’t white you nincompoop! And you’d be right, but this is when we start to peer behind the screen as it were. In original designs for Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett wasn’t necessarily the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy, he was actually going to be a type of Stormtrooper known as a Supertrooper. The pure white armor was conceived around this concept by Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie, but the jetpack utilized in their concept art was drastically different than what we know today. Production moved on and Boba Fett became his own character and not a tool of the Empire.

When test footage was shot for the character in 1978, the armor was white, but only because they hadn’t taken the time to apply color to the armor. In fact, the character was in such a state of flux at this point that Boba Fett hadn’t yet received his cape. Instead, for the test footage, production crew utilized what they had readily available, a Star Wars towel.

Back to the jetpack at hand, the Z-6 jetpack was a favorite of Mandalorian commandos, with specific examples being utilized by Boba Fett and his father, Jango, as well as members of Death Watch like Bo-Katan Kryze. While the coloring of armor can mean everything from duty to mourning the loss of a loved one, there is no official standing for white Mandalorian armor.

None of this gives a definitive answer to who this Z-6 jetpack belongs to in the Star Wars Launch Bay Lost and Found. It could be any number of Mandalorian Commandos, a member of Death Watch perhaps, or something from Boba Fett’s personal collection. Personally, my belief is that this is a nod to the Lord of the Bounty Hunters and the process by which he was created by the folks at Lucasfilm.

Silent Saturday - Congress Park and Village Lake (March 2012)