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B&M Megas at Cedar Fair parks. I think Behemoth (not 100% on that) opened on time, but Diamondback absolutely did and Intimidator looks to be on track for opening on time as well. You'd think with as expensive as these rides are that you'd want to get it open on opening day so that you maximize your ROI in the debut season, while the ride is still new and being talked about. But what do I know?

Wow, I love this idea! They should get ED-209 to work the guest relations office. You have 15 seconds to comply!

Because typically the Olympic Committee won't let this fly. You don't like the cost of hosting the Olympics? No problem. They've got like 50 other cities fighting for a chance to build that nice, new facility to put on a proper event. Enjoy it while it lasts. I doubt Canadia will get this chance again.

That would be an awesome work of spite. It would be even more hilarious if they started a kiddie "coaster war". That's all either chain has money for now anyway.

Will this property ever work as a large scale corporate amusement park? It's wedged between Holiday World and Kings Island. A "coaster war" would likely be a fail. Also, this property, being in an ugly part of town and cut in half by a bridge, doesn't exactly project "squeaky clean wholesome family fun". What if they took more of an Indiana Beach approach where they: 1) Embrace the quirkiness of the property. Do not try to make it something it is not. 2) Be really good at what you do. IB has never had the biggest or fanciest rides, but almost everything they have is really fun. And not run in a lame, corporate way with low forces and short ride cycles. 3) Bring in some decent food. 4) Have more Louisville-friendly prices on concessions. I remember not buying an ICEE because it was like $5. Then, when I was at the Quick-E-Mart up the street, I had almost the exact same thing 10 minutes later for $1. That is another problem with this property. It had almost no "lock-in" effect to where you'd just say, "Screw it! Give me that damn $5 ICEE." Also, I guess a lot goes into how they work the property to their advantage. For example, when Ravine Flyer II flies over the road, I think, "Damn, this ride ROCKS!" When I was at Kentucky Kingdom walking over the street on the bridge, I was thinking, "Damn, this place is GHETTO!" I dunno. I'm just brainstorming. I know I wouldn't want to try to turn this property around. It sounds like a tough job! Good luck to anyone who tries.

I was at my uncle's house. While he was extolling the virtues of Windows 7, he got a BSOD on his Windows 7 machine. That was pretty funny. He had just installed a new display driver though. Buggy video drivers will crash any OS. I upgraded my laptop from Vista to Windows 7 a few months back. My little HP laptop is massively improved. It was unusable out-of-the-box with Vista. It was probably a combination of all that HP default install trash and Vista, but it sucked. I was never a fan of XP. I was always a Win2k fanboy because Win2k was an immense and unexpected improvement over NT4. Everyone thought 2000 was going to suck as much as NT4, but it did not. It was stable. XP always seemed less stable than 2000 to me. Anyway, Vista sucked and XP is aging fast. Win7 is the only way to go, unless you've got the cash for a Mac.

^They have a language called "Belgian" now?

^Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2b6OaI0BXM At around 0:45, the operators at Knott's assaulted Mr. Kernacs with a T-bar. There was a spectacular accident on this very same ride less than 10 short years later. Coincidence???

^That's just what the Swiss want you to believe!

QFT. I am not a sports watcher, but even I love the ski jump and the luge. You've just got to skip all the boring stuff, like figure skating.

^&^^Actually, all that is plausible considering where Intamin is from. In the cold war, Switzerland became a giant alpine fortress. No bridge was built without building detonation into it so that it could be destroyed at a moment's notice. Many families have bomb shelters with concrete thick enough to resist fallout. Innocent-looking alpine barns conceal anti-aircraft guns. They also have giant subterranean hospitals carved out into mountains. Seriously! We cannot know what evil lurks behind the mild-mannered Sandor Kernacs. He could be holding a detonator at this very moment that could implode every Intamin installation in North America, thus crippling our economy.

You don't need good coasters when you have hype and fanboys. Great marketing can beat great product.

^What if they sent them to Italy wearing jerseys for the France national soccer team?

^Yeah, and the hunger strike thing is just stupid and makes no sense. The dispute isn't over food benefits.

^It is a great idea, if you can get it. A lot of executives negotiate *full* health, dental, and vision coverage. Meaning they don't pay a dime. A relative of mine has such good coverage that he even gets 100% free cosmetic dental. Aka Invisaline, veneers, whatever at no cost to him. Unfortunately, health care has grown too expensive to give this to "regular" people now.

I bet anyone here $20 that Danny Rogers is one of the "legitimate operators".

^What if the fountains shot mayo?

^Yeah, they pulled off a nice sleight of hand there: Posing as an income-based investment while aggressively gunning for growth.

Not necessarily. My former employer went through a very similar deal with a failed expansion about 10 years ago. They used to pay a fat dividend, but had to cut it to buy the other company. Not only did investors not revolt, the share price rose like crazy for a time. Of course, the whole thing went south and the company is still paying off the debt to this date. But at least they're servicing the debt and not going bankrupt. Of course, this isn't the amusement industry, but it's the same basic principle: Investors love growth. They love it enough to mentally minimize the risk they're taking to get it.

It's TPR tradition to pick apart, make fun of, nitpick, and be generally skeptical about a new attraction between the announcement of the attraction and when it opens. It's just how we roll. We've seen a lot of stuff and we hold parks, especially Disney parks, to a high standard. But, if the attraction turns out to be good, we own up to it. The best example of this is Midway Mania. That totally got ripped apart on here when it was being built, but basically everyone loves it now.

^Can't we throw the people who fail the screening process over the side of the boat?

I wonder how many of these unit holders objected when Cedar Fair opted to buy Paramount Parks. I could be wrong, but I don't remember so much outrage from back then. Also, a lot of the shareholders are not long term investors, but sharks coming in to feed off this situation. Note: I'm definitely not on Team Kinzel's side.

Piss: The Show.