ginzo

Oh, it's definitely just a put on to promote Asheville. I've spent a lot of time in Asheville, and I don't think it's crappy at all. It's a very pretty area with awesome outdoor recreation. The downtown area is a nice assortment of unique, non-chain stores with stuff that you might actually want to buy, unlike the swarm of T-shirt and trinket shops you typically find in tourist destinations. There are many good restaurants in Asheville, including a Spanish tapas restaurant that is easily my favorite place to eat. In short, it's a great alternative to the obnoxious Gatlinburg carnival. I think crappy far better describes Pigeon Forge. Yes, there are some rather bizarre people in Asheville, especially if you frequent the book shop downtown on weekends and catch the speakers talking about aliens or energy vortices. But, I find this just to be a bit of free entertainment.

The solution is obvious. Someone should give her AIDS. If that happened the only TV airtime that she'd get apart from a few made for TV movies would be if she got involved in some sort of AIDS charity work. I could go for that- Paris putting her COMPLETELY UNDESERVED fame to work towards a good cause.

Yeah, and you get a seating assignment with Airtran! Southwest's system sucks when you're not traveling alone.

The backwards section on the Orlando Mummy is very tame. The Hollywood version has a more intense backwards section. If you're worried about airtime, sit in the middle and staple yourself in with the restraints. The Orlando Mummy is an awesome experience even without the coaster part, not to be missed! If you're worried about a backwards section, you might not like Expedition Everest, which has a very pronounced section where the train runs backwards.

Everything in the park looks good, except for the removal of the clock. WTF? You're operating an amusement park here, not a Vegas casino.

Yes!!! I still don't understand why Florida doesn't have a hyper yet. Who is going to do it first, Universal or Busch? My money is on Busch.

The turkeys on the Turkey Whirl look pretty sweet. But, one burning question still remains: will they have GRAVY at the Plymouth Rock Cafe?

Well, I'd go on that trip because we'd have Jahan to protect us from jihad.

The "good" Mummy (Orlando) does have some airtime, but I wouldn't call it outstanding. It's outstanding airtime for the type of ride that it is, but it doesn't match up to some of the better woodies or hypers that I've been on. It's still an excellent attraction though, perhaps my favorite at the Universal resort.

If you get a moment, would you mind scanning it and posting it here? There are so many apocryphal coaster accident stories, but this one I've always supposed to be true.

There have long been stories about the King Cobra at Kings Island de-railing shortly after it opened 1984, but with no fatalities. I've searched long and hard, but can't find any sources reporting about this supposed accident. Of course, this was so long ago that any sort of news story would be hard to find. I wonder if this points to some sort of design flaw in the Togo coasters, which doesn't exactly make sense as they've been running for decades without serious issues. If there is a design flaw, I think we'll see the rapid death of the Togo death machines in the very near future. Anyway, this is very sad. This is about the last thing you expect to happen when you to to a park for a day of fun. Although it's obviously worse for the woman who died, imagine the horror of the other passengers on that train- being banged up and trapped on a train next to some serious real life gore.

The situation is more complicated than that. The Saudi government is obviously very much against Al-Qaeda, but the kingdom remains the major funding center for Al-Qaeda. Here's a congressional report documenting this: http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32499.pdf I don't watch Fox News, and never have.

I've been playing Super Paper Mario for the past few days. Although I really like the game, I think it's a bit too easy. I don't pay too much attention to games, but it seems like Nintendo games are much easier today than in the past. The bosses especially in Super Paper Mario are absurdly easy to beat.

I don't think it's absurd to question the security of western tourists in the ME in light of recent events.

Do you really think that security could be guaranteed with millions or even tens of millions of westerners visiting each year? The word is "target". The Saudis have been paying Al-Qaeda off for years. Why would a neighboring country not do the same, especially when their financial future is at stake. I understand what Dubai is trying to do, and I know that they're very rich. This still doesn't mean that this project is the best use of their resources. To me your reply just confirms my suspicions, they're spending their money like drunken sailors.

Although I think the scale of this project is impressive, I'm not sure it's the best use of money. The vast majority of the people in the Middle East are too poor to patronize Dubailand. And how many Americans or Europeans are really going to want to vacation in the sweltering desert with extreme restrictions on alcohol consumption, especially with Arab-Western relations being at nearly an all time low? And if they do get a significant number of western tourists, the UAE will probably have to budget money to pay off Al-Qaeda. Ugh. No thanks.

Riverview Park in Chicago: it had 17 woodies over the years it operated, including a flying turns and the bobs. Crystal Beach: crystal beach cyclone (duh).

I'm going to assume that you've ridden Tennessee Tornado because you've ridden Thunderhead. Do you really prefer Vortex to Tennessee Tornado? Both have pretty strong first drops, but Tennessee Tornado is a lot smoother and more intense. Vortex has more inversions and is longer, but I think TN Tornado has it whipped overall.

#1: Drive time is going to vary depending on the Chicago traffic on the Dan Ryan. Don't trust mapquest because that route gets congested often. Indiana Beach is basically on the way to Great America, but remember that it's like 20 miles off the highway. #3: IB has an antique car ride. I don't know about height restrictions on it. #4: Free in Chicago??? If your kid likes fish, you might check out the Shedd Aquarium. The Chicago skyline looks really nice from the John Hancock building. If you've never been, you could check out Ikea in Schaumburg. That's a singular experience.

Yes!!! I'd settle for one good coaster there, but we can't even get that.

Not to be a douche, but why does someone selling some Disney trinkets on eBay merit creating a new thread?

Yeah, this country was deinstitutionalized long ago. Involuntary psychiatric commitments are totally out of vogue now, unless the patient has actually become violent. I agree that these copycat idiots need harsh treatment. Perhaps a return to some arbitrary police brutality is in order. Cho seemed like he never got the ass beating that he desperately needed.

Dr. Phil?

This chick is just plain scary looking. Jocelyn Wildenstein: scary plastic surgery addict

Where did you hear this? This certainly hasn't been announced officially, and Screamscape says that nobody seems to know when Son of Beast will re-open. http://www.screamscape.com/html/kings_island.htm They don't appear to be making much of an effort to get SOB up and running, except for buying crappy used trains. Of course, they could just be focusing on getting Firehawk up and running.