Backyard Roller Coasters: Here and here. A fun hobby, or a good way to wind up winning a Darwin Award?

This Lego roller coaster needs safety restraints.

A longer article on the Pal Mickey doll. I like the Asimov-like line:

"He has a strong sense of self-preservation, and reminds you to put him someplace safe when you get near water play areas, or on wet rides."

I had my first frozen custard this summer. It's ice cream, but with egg yolks added -- smoother, fewer air bubbles in it. Frozen custard started out as a Coney Island treat, and spread across the East coast, but never arrived on the West coast. That's not fair; I mean, hot dogs caught on, why not frozen custard?

Another Coney Island food oddity: The local Safeway market carries Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs but not Nathan's Famous Coney Island Mustard, and the local Whole Foods market carries the mustard, but not the dogs. The hell?

Amusement Park Food: It's It.

Charlotte Cooper interviews me.

I would not have enjoyed this ride when I was a child. It seems too much like work. I would have folded my pudgy arms and waited to be removed, thank you very much.

The theming on this version is great though; you ride in a hotdog and you're carried along the tracks by a thievin' picnic ant.

As near as I can make out from a really awful online translation, De Mini-Efteling, the smallest amusement park in Europe -- at 300 square meters, I'm guessing it's also the smallest in the world -- closed down this year due to fire regulations. A small barn (shed?) on the property needed a fire escape and curtains needed fireproofing, but because the park is a fan-run operation staffed by volunteers, there were no funds to make the necessary repairs.

Paraphrasing the article:

Why not ask their big brother Efteling for a loan? "That might have been possible before," sighed Erwin van Veldhoven, who started the park in 1985 with its brother Jordi. "The previous director of De Efteling, Paul Beck, was crazy about our park. In 1996, he gave us 1000 guilder. But the new management of De Efteling isn't interested in us at all. At the most, they send us their promotional brochures."

The most recent report seems to indicate that the park will re-open in September, 2003.

More Eftelinks: this time to the Efteling's brass band, De Enige Echte Efteling Fanfare. Like a lot of Efteling stuff, they have quite a fan base. The gimick of the band is: the tightass bandleader and his tattle-tale syncophant have trouble controlling one goofy, childish, fun-loving member.

Here is deeef.com, a pretty lavish fan site. Huge video files (called "Filmpjes" in Dutch) in the download section, but they're worth the wait because you can see the appeal. While the band is a little sloppy, the emphasis is on comedy, so it's okay. This is the kind of charming live entertainment Disneyland is unwilling to pay for anymore. (UPDATE 05/16/04: Sorry, that link died, and now leads to archive.org, which doesn't seem to have the pictures)

De Ratteling has pictures of the band, and some pictures of a fairy-tale performance group. More pictures.

Here is a fan club specifically for the goofball character, Appie Jansen.

Here is a paper model of Disneyland's Moonliner rocket.

I don't get the Mini-Efteling at all. It appears to be a fan's faithful miniature reproduction of the Dutch De Efteling amusement park, but from what little I can make out, it's sort of a backyard-sized amusement park in itself, which you can go visit. Is it unofficial? Is it a franchise? Since the only Dutch I know is bad German, I have no idea. Anyway, whatever it is, check out the RealVideo of the Mini-Efteling's version of Carnival Festival, which is De Efteling's version of it's a small world. The Dutch have a very different view of race than we do in the States.