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^I rode it for the entire ERT session. It was brutal and terrifying, but I loved it. It's somewhere in my top 5 for steel.

Yo quiero this video.

^I'm pretty sure they normally require riders on both sides of the "cars". The unbalanced rides were an ERT exclusive and the forces were actually creating tangible injuries to certain people.

Spending billions to screw your competition out of millions = business for Pollocks.

They don't want money during an otherwise slow time? I doubt it. Late Summer/Fall is just a big time for park rent outs. Beech Bend might be a possibility. It's a bit of a drive though.

The most likely story is they'll do what they always do: make it a generic version of its former self. Just a generic shooting dark ride with ghosts. It's really not that special of a shooter anyway. The guns often don't work that well. Maybe they'll call it something hilariously generic like "Shooting Dark Ride".

That wasn't really the point. The point was big companies make poor decisions all the time. And, believe me, the New Coke decision was a lot more carefully focus grouped and reviewed than anything CF or just about any theme park company outside Disney will ever do.

^Ever heard of New Coke?

Those awesome people that force the ride operators to e-stop the ride on the lift hill because they epic failed at sneaking their camera on the ride. I love having to wait another 10 minutes for the op to climb the lift hill and take the camera from the rider. Oh, and obese women in Norway who almost start a fight with Steve C because they don't know that you're not allowed to get out of line to buy a chocolate-covered waffle and then try to cut line to your former place.

'Nuff said! BTW, it's really lame to name drop TPR in your bitch letter. AFAIK, Timber Falls treated TPR super well when the 2007 Midwest Trip hit the Dells. It's NOT cool to do anything that might jeopardize the reputation of the site for your own purposes.

Seeing as I've never been to Carowinds, this just sweetens the deal. This is also a great excuse for me to visit my brother, who lives only two hours away. As to the ride itself, I'm sure it's going to be a great addition to Carowinds. But, will it make my top 10? Probably not.

Honestly, most of your standard furniture stores also sell poorly-made crap. Only for a LOT more money. "Real" furniture costs more money than I care to think about. When you look at what IKEA charges, it's not bad for what it is. If you're after Stickley, you're going to pay dearly for it.

To me, I think that restraints and rider comfort are a big deal. Would Phoenix consistently make the top 10 if it had the standard PTC ratcheting lap bars and seat belts? Would Balder be as good if they gave you the same stapling that they often give you on El Toro? Would Bizarro and EGF consistently make the top 2 or 3 if they ran with the Intamin OTSRs? I don't know. I just find it sad that Anton S. managed to send people safely through inversions well over 30 years ago with just a lap bar. And now here we are putting in OTSRs on rides with 0 inversions. It just seems like a serious step backwards. A lot of the fun of hyper/mega/giga/whatever coasters, to me, is the freedom afforded by taking all that speed and airtime in the open trains. Not having some clunky restraint obstructing your view and getting in the way of you putting your arms up. B&M clearly gets this. Anyway, not trying to feed the new coaster thread whinefest. Just wanted to point out that restraints are hugely important to the ride experience.

While this by no means looks like one of Intamin's finest projects, I still see a trip out to Deliverance country in my plans next year.

According to this article, because the man was pronounced dead in a Hamilton County hospital the autopsy falls under the responsibility of the Hamilton County Coroner. Though I think it's not uncommon for one medical examiner's office to cover more than one county. For example, the same office in Florida covers both Orange and Osceola counties. And, if you die at Disney or Universal, that's where your body will go.

I've never experienced it much in England, but yes BO is a problem in much of Europe.

TRs are a LOT of work to do well. It's very easy to start them when you just got back from a trip and are still excited about it. Then real life has a way of coming in and stealing all your time and motivation.

This does look rather nice. Maybe I'll have to hit up HW next year.

I'm glad Kennywood is getting a new coaster. Rehabbing Phantom's Revenge just wasn't enough to justify another visit for me. Now I have a good reason to go back.

That doesn't seem very B&M-like as you now have two lift systems that could break and take the ride down instead of one. In general you want to reduce complexity/points of failure, not add to it/them.

I've never found Cornball to be rough. Sure, it's not B&M smooth, but I don't think that's what most people expect from a woodie. I haven't been to IB this year, though. If Cornball is falling out of repair, I hope it gets some off-season love.

It's very easy to come by in Brugge. It did cost me 7 euros per bottle though.

^CP does not have a virtual queuing system, which means you'll probably want to plan for 2 days for your first trip. You could, in theory, do it all in a day, but considering that you're coming from overseas you should just play it safe. Also, whenever you come over bring a case of Westvleteren 12 and I'll meet you at CP and pay you top dollar (or euro) for it.

Did we all enter into some kind of time vortex where we were magically transported to April 1st? Oh, and Robb, are you going to get us all bikini waxing ERT on the UK trip next year?

The main problem is manpower at the coroner's office. Hamilton County is in a severe budget crisis. So, they've furloughed the coroner. http://www.wlwt.com/news/20343365/detail.html