Missives from the GWN

I recently returned from a 10 day road trip to Orlando, Florida. Yes, I went to DisneyWorld. Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I have the most sickening fascination with theme parks, Disney parks in particular. I am filled with useless trivia about their construction, what used to be here or there and more details about the facilities and 'how its done' than most would ever care to know. I think this comes about as a result of the fact that I never attended a Disney theme park till I was 25 years old. My father thought that Florida was a giant tourist trap. And Disney was a giant trap with a mouse built-in. So the first time I went to Disney, my eyes were wide with the awe of a 6 year old. But my adult brain couldn't get past the 'how'd they do that'. The internet seemed to provide all the answers. Before this trip, I went on the internet to investigate the cost of gasoline along route I-95 from Houlton, Maine to Orlando, Florida. I needed to budget out the...

Las Vegas was pretty much founded in 1844 by John C. Fremont, when he led an overland expedition west and camped at Las Vegas Springs Mormon settlers from Salt Lake City traveled to Las Vegas to protect the Los Angeles-Salt Lake City mail route and in 1855 began building a 150-square-foot fort of sun-dried bricks made of clay soil and grass, a substance known as adobe. Eventually this fort would become the Flamingo Hotel and Resort. Unfortunately, this would not happen until a photographic wallpaper with a fake Vegas skyline could be printed. The Mormons planted fruit trees, cultivated vegetables and mined lead for bullets at Potosi Mountain. Mormon pioneers abandoned the settlement in 1858, partly because of Indian raids. But they didn't go far. In fact, the Mormon's returned when the settlement of Las Vegas springs became more formal with the Nevada gold rush. From those early beginnings and throughout the history of Las Vegas, who has been in charge of counting and accountin...

I've been watching the news all morning this morning. As a Canadian who very rarely experiences hurricanes, tornados.. or really extreme weather of any kind - other than snow - I can only come to one conclusion. God Hates America. Or more specifically, Americans. Either that or this is the ending that is so well documented in Revelations and now is the time to repent. I actually prefer the latter theory. Katrina was nasty.. but this Rita thing.. she's going to be downright mean and contankerous (is that a word? and if so .. is it spelled right?) And these storms aren't satisfied to chew up a few trailer parks in Arkanasas or Alabama. These storms are angry and aiming at cities. Big cities with large populations... large populations of Americans... Why would God hate America? Well if I were God, I'd be pissed about you Americans trampling on my trademarks. "In God We Trust", "God Bless America" etc. Did you pay for the right to use his/her name thusly...

Perhaps it is too soon after Katrina to make jokes about another storm with a name. I'm not worried, I've never been one to follow social norms anyway. All that said, it has been raining all-together too much here in Canada the past few days, and reknowned forecasters the likes of Dallas Storm, Dallas Reigns and Cecilia Chu are all informing us that Ophelia is to blame. When I lived in Southern California, I eventually got used to the non-stop rain in February and March. At first I was like "Whhaaa? Albert Hammond LIED to me.. " I finally realized that song lyrics are not a verbal contract. Learned that lesson the hard way. Regardless, two months of rain for 10 months of nearly perfect sunshine and the chance of running into Pauly Shore at the AM/PM. This was a fair deal in my book. While nobody has ever written a song about it not raining in Canada, it's kind of a given. We are supposed to get a 'normal' amount of rain. Seattle gets the amount o...