9 posts tagged “orlando”
Late last night after the July 4th celebration at Disney world two monorails collided killing one of the drivers, 21 year old Austin Wuennenberg which marks the first death of the monorail system. So tragic, and such a young man, Disney will be collaborating with Orange county police and detectives to figure out the cause of the crash.
I'm very close to this story, my grandfather helped create the monorail system 34 years ago, he was brought out of retirement to help with the MGM Grande in Las Vegas, The monorail system is very safe, they have had some incidents though out the years, none fatal however.
Unfortunately I think this may be user error, unless one of the monorails failed to function correctly and reversed back into the on coming monorail. There are two tracks for the monorail each operates in different directions since these were on the same track one of the monorails was going the wrong way.
The monorail system at Disney World and Disney World resorts is down, meaning longer wait times for those trying to get into the magic kingdom or back to their hotels.
Also note that most of the time the monorails do not operate as late as this. It was only because it was a special occasion, July 4th. They usually stop running at about midnight or so, this incident happened at about 2 or later.
What is the stupidest thing you have ever done?
Submitted by Southernbelle.
I have done many stupid things over the years. Many Stupid things! Some hilarous, some not so hilarous but I'll keep it light hearted on this one.
I set a club guest list on fire which burned through the first and part of the second page. It was an accident.
I was at the Social, Downtown Orlando and I was on the guest list for a great local band and one I dearly love The SuperVillians . Really Great Guys, who came from St. Cloud. Florida, and they are not afraid to admit it.
Anyway there was a candle on the podium and signing the guest list I was on the second page, so i flipped the First page right into the candle without noticing, while trying to perfect my signature. It caught on fire, in which the chick at the front of house threw it on the ground and stepped on it.
Yeah I'm sure they were not to pleased with me, but the rest of the night rocked!
Over at Chow on the chowhound message boards they were asking about your area's signature dish. What your area is known for, of course there was much disagreement and yet for some places it was easier for them to agree on things. Philly, Chicago, New York all have very distict foods. You can't go to Philly without eating a cheese steak it's just blasphemy. ... and yet still, there were discussions and disagreements on where to go to get the best quality dish.
I live in Central Florida, Orlando to be exact. When people ask me where I'm from, the number one question is never anything such as "Have you ever been gator hunting on an airboat?" which I have, or "Seriously, how high is your electric bill in the summer, whats the highest it's been?" to which I would reply that in July it's around $300 and the highest it's been is $400, but we run the air condition most of the year, it is rare when we don't have to. No one stops to think about the local wildlife, insects, or the underground culture here.
The number one question I get is typically something about the attractions, usually Disney World,iIn which I snicker and say "Here we call it working for the rat", or how we tease that MGM Studios ( which is actually Hollywood studios now) used to stand for "Many Gay Men" or that Mickey mouse is often played by a spanish speaking petite woman. People seem to be astounded that actual people live here. Crazy right. Orlando is not what it tries to portray itself as. It is quite possibly the largest small town city in America, still trying to cling on to old fashion ideas and morals, yet sell itself like a cheap hooker on OBT* to anyone and everyone.
Tourism, love it or hate it, it is what keeps Orlando thriving. It's just like if you really want to check out what New Orleans is all about stay off Bourbon Street, If you want to get to know the Real New York City, don't bother going to Times Square. It's the same with Orlando if you really want to see what this city has to offer step away from the attractions.
Try spliting up your time to see some of the things Florida is famous for, and then go and check out something more locally known or off the beaten path type of things. It's really what I do on a trip. I want to see the reality not just the fluff.
With all of that said I really think people owe it to themselves to eat some of Florida's regional cuisine and drinks. On your next trip to Florida make a promise that you will not eat at any national chains, or buy fast food. Try something new and local, you won't regret it. Central Florida is home to many Puerto Ricans and damn they know how to party
and how to cook. Their culture is loud and bouistrous and others may dismiss them as being rude, but they are anything but. Caring, family oriented and did I mention they can cook? This is why I chose Arroz Con Habichuelas as a regional dish, but you can just call it what is is, Puerto Rican Rice and Beans.
Their food is of course latin in flavor but its not cuban or mexican its some where inbetween and it usually is a little more island in flavor.
There is a cuisine here called "Floribean". It's a mixture of Florida and the Carribean with all natural and grown foods from here.
We also have The Vi-Mi district, or as some call it, Little Saigon. The heart of the district is the intersection of East Colonial Drive/HWY50 and Mills Ave. Places like Viet Garden, and oriental markets. They just celebrated fet which is veitnamese new year , the last week of January. It's a good area to get a Bánh mì or shop for a wok.
Interesting enough when I think Florida Cuisine the first thing that pops into my head is Conch. Conch Fritters, or perhaps conch chowder. Few things in life beat drinking a beer and eat conch fritters while watching the sunset at a
cafe on Duval Street in Key West. Time is meaningless all of a sudden. Enjoying good food and brew and whating the sun melt away like butter. It is also in Key West where I had the most orgasmic fish taco. No, I wasn't getting it on with the ladies, although there was that one time where I watched a Key West Stripper take off the flip flop of my dear friend Leslie and then jamming her big toe into her twat, but that is a whole other story. What I'm talking about is a Grouper fish taco with lime and a little chipotle tangy sauce. It was easily food one of my favorite meals there.
I've heard stories about how some restaurants will tell you it's grouper when it really isn't. I can't image someone being able to pass that off unless you've never had grouper. I find grilled grouper sandwiches to be quite yummy. While my husband was shooting Marley & Me I'd go down to Miami to see him and there was this little restaurant within walking distance at the marina. I can't remember the name but they made a killer grouper sandwich.
Miami is also know for Joe's Stone Crab, which was opened in 1913, by Joe Weiss. Turns out that even though Stone Crab is their most popular dish now the restaurant used to only serve fish. When an ichthyologist asked Weiss why he didn't serve stone crabs, he answered that no one would want to eat them. He turned out to be wrong, as they found out soon after first cooking them. This place is upscale and the wait times are long because they have very few reserve tables, but it's worth it for the stone crab.
Miami is great but I'm not too fond of south beach either, it's the time square of new york and the bourbon street of New Orleans. A place packed with tourist and local douchebags trying to cash in on it. I quite like the hole in the wall places. Places were pretenciousness doesn't ooze from the ceiling and where you can get a martini for under 11 bucks.
Speaking of drinks every one knows Florida is famous for Orange Juice. Noble makes a great organic Florida Tangerine Juice, worth the splurge once in a while. I'm a fan of the Tangelo. Half Orange, half tangerine and very juicy. Since we don't have seasons here, the way we tell spring is coming is by the smell of the Orange blossoms. It's such a sweet smell and the honey bee's the polinate the orange blossoms make honey.
Orange Blossom Honey. Orlando Brewery makes an awesome Orange Blossom Pilsner from this honey. We bought some orange blossom honey ourselves and made our own pilsner which came out very well. You just can't go wrong with a beer like this.
You can get this beer on tap at most establishments in town and if not just visit Orlando Brewing company they will hook you up with as much as you want.
Oh for some reason I am reminded about an actual question I got from a little girl on a plane coming back home. Her family was visiting Disney World but she was more interested in asking me if I had alligators living in my back yard. I explained to her that I did have a small ake behind my house but at current time no gators lived it but that it's common. The lake I grew up on is filled with gators, you can hear them croaking at night during mating season. you can see them sunning or chilling out on nice days. As a teen ager I was an idiot and went swimming in a lake which very name was "alligator lake". We were teen agers, we thought we were immortal but we'd never swim at night and we never really did swim out to any distance. My uncle took us out on his airboat and showed us how to gator hunt, gig frogs, and fish. He had
and annual fish fry which included frog legs and gator tail. Gator Tail has to be one of Floridas top regional cuisine. It's got this natural butter flavor and some how it manages to taste slightly like chicken without tasting like chicken at all. It's a favorite of mine, but unfortunally I don't get a chance to eat it all that often.
There was a story not to long ago about a 60 year old woman who lived in town and sometimes kept her sliding glass doors open when the weather was cool enough. I guess a 6 and a half foot gator was looking for some warmth and crawled right into her kitchen which she was in another room watching telvision. Hey it happens. Small dogs beware. Never walk your small dog by the lake, gators see them as appetizers and it happens more often than you think,
If gator isn't your style you can head back down to Miami and get some cuban expresso and a cuban sandwich. You can get a cuban sandwich anywhere, or so I thought, but for the most authentic cuban food head down to miami.
I need to go and get my passport. It's an all day event so I'll make a day trip out of it and grab some food down therewhile I wait. Plantains and a cuban sandwich for lunch.
It is about a 4 hour drive from Orlando to Miami and then another 4 hour drive from Miami to Key West. It's a nice little road trip with dozens of stops you could make along the way. Ramrod Key always makes me giggle and there is something called the Duval crawl which if your actually remember doing the Duval Crawl you didn't do it right. Your supposed to be shitface drunk by the time your friends persude you to stick a few bills in that drag queens g-string. After all of this, where do the locals go to repent their sins? The Key West Key Lime Pie Factory.which is a little piece of heaven that is
sinfully delicious and open until 4am. Key Lime Pie is the offical Florida Dessert. I think it's probably one of the most recognized florida dishes because, well it's pie and everyone likes pie right. What other dessert is more liked? Oh Ice Cream. Ice Cream is always a favorite. Well to get that you'd have to visit Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Every year my class would take a field trip there, with each grade we'd learn more and more about space travel and astronaut training. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, I was in third grade and standing on top of the roof of my school when I saw the Challenger take off and saw the devistation in my teachers face when it failed to take off correctly. I was still optimistic and I was inspired by The Space Center, my astronaut barbie, and astronaut Ice Cream. The stuff was so good, It was a little chalky and fluffy at the same
but for an 8 year old girl it was the stuff dreams were made out of. A chance to do something that so few people get to do. To join the ranks of Sally Ride and drink tang. Yeah well, I was eight and tang was in.
I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of other florida cuisine but this was just my thoughts regarding the subject.
I also wanted to mention to keep supporting the locally owned restaurants in your area. The are the gems in your city that make it unique and worth while. If money permits never eat fast food again. There is too much good food out there to waste your life eating garbage.
What is your local cuisine?
* OBT is an abbreviation for Orange Blossom Trail, which is a road made famous by the blantent solicitation of prostitution.
Why does she look so different from her mug shot. It didn't seem that long ago she was put in jail. Her hair has grown and her dye job is just about out.
The owner of SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens in Tampa has decided to stop offering free beer samples at the parks.
WHAT???! NO MORE FREE BEER!!!!! THIS STINKS!
Busch Entertainment Corp. said it will stop offering free samples of beer at hospitality centers at the parks. Beer will continue to be available for purchase.
The company said it will retain the employees who worked at the centers.
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The hospitality center at SeaWorld Orlando will close on Feb 1 and be turned into a restaurant. The one at Busch Gardens in Tampa also will become a place to eat after it closes at the end of January.
Dr. Jan C. Garavaglia, the medical examiner, made the announcement during a 2 p.m. news conference. She said the identification was made through a DNA match at the FBI lab in Virginia. She said the death was by homicide, but she is not able yet to say how the child was killed.
Rest in Peace ~ Caylee Anthony ~ 2005-2008
There is a lot of whispering in this town about Casey Anthony. I'm 100 percent sure that they will move the trial out of Orlando so she can get a fair trial. I think Tampa would be a great place for her to have her trial. Tampa is full of women her age that may actually identify with her. No, not the bad girl gone murderer part, the club hoping, bi-sexual set that frequent Ybor city. There is a reason why they call it Trampa. Trampa is home of the hot child molesting teacher Debra Lafave. Anyway we also have a reputation for being Whorlando but it's really kept on the downlow just like some of the details of the Casey case.
With all the bizzare details it's hard to focus on little Caylee. I shudder to think about how every night Casey would cloroform her daughter to get her to sleep so she could go out and party. The possibilty that she would get Caylee to come over to her to take her "sleepy medicine". How maybe it was an accident but since Casey isn't a responsible human being she couldn't own up and instead created an elaborate story of lies. I have a feeling though that the truth will be more bizarre than the lies and rumors.
If Casey Anthony is one thing it's a pathelogical liar. She's smart and she looks for gaps in which she can fold her lies
into. Her father realized long ago that she was just a bad seed and nothing he tried would keep her from doing bad things. George if you are wondering where your daughter gets her crazy from look no further than your own wife. I can't figure out which one is more batshit crazy, Cindy or Casey.
Casey is without a doubt a manipulator, a pysociopath, who uses her looks sex and charm to get what she wants. Why isn't she talking about what really happened. She was hoping that without a body to help convict her she could weasel her way out of this. That is what Casey does, she slips and slides her way through life using lies as bait. She's 22 even if she got 5-10 years on a child neglect charge she'd be out in no time. She is damn good at what she does, not that she has all of us or most of us fooled but because she can with her lies insert doubt into the situatioion.
The flood of lies started flooding from her mouth immediately. She said she still worked at Universal studios, but she had been let go from there months and months ago. She said the babysitter kidnapped her, but couldn't pinpoint the right residence where the babysitter lived. She single handedly ruined that baby sittersl life with her lies. The babysitter lost her job, her house, and was having a hard time putting food on the table all because people thought she was a kidnapper, or worse murderer. Now that she has been cleared in the case she has a suit against anthony which she probably very well will win.
She had abandoned her car and her mom said the smell was awful, and said on tape that it "smelled like a dead body", but then later changed her story to "It was a rotting pizza". What did Casey say to her mother inbetween the time Cindy called to the cops on her daughter to the time the police arrived that would dramatically cause her to switch her story? Furthermore when hard concrete evidence showsed that Caylee is deseased continues to parade around and follow stories of Caylee sightings and continues to say Caylee is alive. She too is looking for gaps to fold her lies into. She lost her grandaughter and now she is trying to protect her daughter for going away to prison for the rest of her life. George's testimony will be used that explains what he saw and thought when he opened the car trunk. George is a retired homicide investigator he knew something had happened but he lets his wife ramble and carry on. There is a feeling around here that perhaps Cindy may be taken into custody soon, if she did have something to do with a cover up.
Cindy Anthony couldn't shut her yap, urging teams to still look for Caylee alive, wearing have you seen me shirts. She disgusts me. Your granddaughter was killed and you lie and stomp around with no regard compassion for this little girl who lost her life. How can you know that this little girl is dead and not have the decency to atleast shut the hell up. Well she finally has, after the discover of child remains was found by a utility worker just about a mile from the Anthony home, which matches the age, hair color and gender of her granddaughter, she finally has nothing to say.
In the begining there had been rumors about who Caylee's father is. Casey probably doesn't know. She slept with two Orlando police cops prior to this incident who could not work on this case, Hell she probably slept with 70 percent of the guys who frequent the clubs. It is well noted that Miss Casey got around. She found a gap, a guy that she had dated was killed in a car accident while she was pregant with Caylee. Its the perfect lie because she wasn't wanting the family to help raise the child, and no one cared to go through the trouble of getting test done. I'm not conviced that he was the father. The family of the deceased lover said they didn't know Casey well, and from their understanding they didn't date for a long time if at all.
Listen up you, yeah you the dude, that nailed her after a night out at the clubs. A fusion regular perhaps? She was too crazy for you to keep seeing her, and you didn't want a relationship anyway. Yes you could be the father.
There was a another rumor that their was a insestual relationship between her and her brother Lee and that is why Caylee is named Caylee. Casey+Lee=Caylee. I don't believe this, i think the name was just a cutsey way of combining family names. Probably a name her mother suggested since it was Cindy that made sure that her daughter kept the baby.
Caylee was missing 22 days before her Cindy called the cops, and Casey was living it up. She was 22 and now
without a child and hitting the clubs hard. She had met a man she had started dating. Free of responsbility she was ready to party again. Not the concerned mother you think she would be if her child was missing, it was almost as if she were celebrating the fact.
and what about the bouty hunter that came in wanting to be a hero. I think he had good intentions at first. He thought he could find this child alive and become a hero. He thought he could help but at the same time get some attention. He got emotionally invovled in the case and wasn't able to leave it alone he used a lot of his own money to fund search and diving teams. He said this is all a game to Casey, saying that she wasn't said of the equisearch "They haven't even found her clothes yet".
Who knew that after all of this searching that a utillity worker working in a wooded area only a little over a mile from the Anthony home, would find a bag with a the skeletal remains of a child. He went to move the bag and tiny childlike skull rolled out with duct tape on the mouth. He was disturbed as he thought, Oh no. He knew even in the 911 call the company called it in said it was near the Anthony home. The area was searched earlier but because of high flood water that specific area could not be searched. This is the same wooded area where Casey would go to hang out with her highschool friends and smoke and drink. An area that Casey knew well.
So many questions, so many lies, will the truth ever come out? Will this little girl and relatives ever have closure. Will we the viewing public ever feel closure, ever feel that atleast now Caylee can be put to rest.
Everyone is saying the same thing right now. The gut feeling is that the little skull belongs to Caylee. Sure they are waiting on result to be 100 percent sure but you could tell they know. As I watched the live news my stomach sank. I knew she was dead. I've been saying it all along, I also knew they would find her body at some point. I didn't expect to be that affected. It was a since of loss I felt. I'm glad they did find her and hopefully someday the truth will come out.
"If you live in Central Florida long enough, you’ll meet someone like Casey Anthony. She epitomizes the young, pretty, trashy, narcissistic, bi-curious party people who seem to take way too long to grow the hell up, even when life presents them with little hints like parenthood. Orlando breeds them like swamps breed mosquitoes. "
This image got 72 views on my flickr account yesterday.
I really have a lot to say on this case but I'll leave that for another entry. I wish she would just fess up but I don't know if she is even capable of telling a single truth.
You can get away with a lot of things when your pretty. Not having to pay cover fees at a night club, Passing a test just because you flirt with the professor. Getting out of a speeding ticket, but you can't get out of being charged with the death of your daughter.
