Something remembered at Disney

I’ve visited with princesses and blasted off into space and fallen back down again into the briar patch this week and I just couldn’t figure out what I was forgetting.

The autograph book is near full. The souvenirs are bought and bagged. And the return trip tickets are all lined up.

We’ve been to every Disney park in Orlando.

What else is there? What more in the land of bus schedules and efficient meal plans and your vacation package with a bow on top?

Well, just one little thing I almost forgot.

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One night only, at Disney

The spotlight crept closer and my daughter moved slowly to meet it and a crowd of 8,000 plus seemed to press in closer around us, waiting.

The guy with the mic and the makeup knelt down then, asked her to go ahead, and was answered by silence.

That’s when I knew this was going to go badly.

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At Disney, the magic bus

He was alone at the front of the bus and that’s probably what caught my eye because he was about my daughter’s size and he had a “Happy Birthday” button that looked just like hers.

The name on the badge started with a ‘C’ but the rest of the black marker had come off. He was 6 today.

And he had red shorts and big glasses though they were hard to see because he was staring at the ground.

He was just sitting there on a bus about to go to an amusement park and that’s when I saw him and worried. Too young to be alone, I thought.

Then I thought, why have we been sitting here so long?

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Playing the part at Disney

They call themselves “cast?” Really?

When we got to the airport the transportation cast members guided us across the acres of hard tile. At the hotel the cast at the front desk was oh-so happy to help.

I imagine that guy in the lobby bathroom pushing a cart full of supplies is in the toilet cast… probably waiting for a better-smelling roll.

Disney World- home of Mickey Mouse where we’re all required to pretend this isn’t goofy. Continue reading

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A date with Disney

This is Major Tom to ground control; I’m stepping through the door.

And in the next days I will be floating in what, for me, is a most peculiar way  – sitting in a tin can, even — as I wing my way south with the family.

Vacation? Yes.

Frightening family theme park experience? Certainly.

Blogging opportunity?

You bet your sequin-studded mouse ears.

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A bluegrass legend passes on

He’s been called the Babe Ruth of bluegrass, the Thomas Edison, the man who not only brought about a distinctive new way of picking the banjo but made it known worldwide through his own talent.

Earl Scruggs, a legend in bluegrass, died of natural causes at the age of 88 on Wednesday in Nashville.

Scruggs’ name comes up in nearly all of the interviews I do with bluegrass musicians and bands before the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival – in talking with banjo players, it’s practically a guarantee. They talk about the music he made, first with Bill Monroe, then in a duo with Lester Flatts.

The North Carolina native was an influence and an inspiration to bluegrass and country musicians, with his three-finger style of playing and the way those fingers could fly over the banjo without missing a note.

“Some nights he had the stars of North Carolina shooting from his fingertips,” banjo-player and comedian Steve Martin wrote in an excellent New Yorker column on Scruggs. “Before him, no one had ever played the banjo like he did. After him, everyone played the banjo like he did, or at least tried.”

I like the story of how Scruggs started playing a three-finger picking style.
It starts with Scruggs getting into an argument with his brother, as the biography on his website explains:

Earl went into his room and closed the door. He was playing a tune on the banjo titled “Ruben.” He was subconsciously picking when he suddenly realized he was using three fingers rather than the usual two– the thumb, index and middle finger. He had been trying to play with three fingers and had not been able to do so. His brother said Earl came running out of the room yelling, ‘I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I can play with three fingers!” He became so engrossed in playing the tune that he did not try playing anything else for a week.

It’s a sweet story, a nice beginning for a man who friends say remained sweet and humble for all of his days.

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Happy Hunger Games

Hearing all this buzz about “The Hunger Games?”

I was, too, months before my sister caved and finally bought book one of the three-part series by Suzanne Collins.

I say caved because a lot of people said this is a book for tweens, teens and Twilight fans (ok, we both read the Twilight books, too, so I guess we’re counted in that group. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it is what it is).

But friends my age had read “The Hunger Games” and said we’d like it. Or at least, we’d get sucked in to the story. Continue reading

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Pandora? Yes, please.

Not long ago education reporter Heather Faulhefer blogged a brief ode to the Gettysburg Battlefield, something she called the most obvious of posts for our Adams County site.

Welcome to the entertainment blog equivalent.

But I couldn’t help offering a quick plug for Pandora Internet radio.

You know, for the half-dozen people not already using it.

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Navratilova will sweep ‘Dancing with the Stars’

You heard it here first — Martina Navratilova will be the star to beat on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ this season.
How can she not win? She’s athletic and she’s Russian, the two most important things for a dancer, not necessarily in that order.
And it helps that she’s one of the two “stars” on “Dancing with the Stars” announced this morning that I’ve ever heard of. I just hope I know more about ballroom dancing than I do about who passes for a celebrity these days.
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Berenstain Bears co-creator dies at 88

There’s Mama in her blue polka dot dress and cap.

Papa in his yellow shirt and overalls, and usually a sheepish grin on his furry face.

There’s Brother and Sister, learning simple life lessons from their parents in the comfort of their tree house. Continue reading

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