Mickey Crushes Squatter; Minnie Proud

For people who like quickies, here's a quickie.

In the August 16 edition of Disney Dispatch, I wrote about Disney's attempt through arbitration to regain the "disneyspark" domain name registered by someone not Disney.

Well, the big case is over: the defendant didn't reply to Disney's complaint and Disney got the domain name - or rather, will get it after taking steps to enforce the arbitration ruling and after defendant exhausts any dubious legal challenges which I bet he's not going to make.

The official decision is pretty fascinating for a legal document.

Teaches that guy not to mess with Mickey...

Web site owners who incorporate 'Disney' into their site names should pay special attention to the narrow circumstances in which such usage has been upheld in previous cases.

This wasn't really a quickie, was it?

MORE: Domain News

Jungle Cruise: Too Late, You Congo Home Now

In my previous hullabaloo, I wrote that the Jungle Cruise was an 'E' ticket ride. I was pretty sure about that. Addicted to accuracy, however, I checked it out and in the process found a site devoted to ... the Jungle Cruise!

Brodie Brockie really, really likes the Jungle Cruise and his site, WorldFamousJungleCruise, is a shrine to that iconic Disney attraction.

Not only does Brodie like the Jungle Cruise, he was a skipper on one of the boats and there's a picture of himself on the site in full jungle regalia to prove it. (Tip of the hat back to you, brother.) A substantial part of the site is devoted to Skipper Brodie's nine-part epic chronicle of how he got hired for the job and his experiences on the river (and at Disney). He wrote a sequel, too. Absolutely essential reading!

If you just flipped over that rock and have never embarked upon or even heard of the Jungle Cruise, Brodie has photos and videos, including a brief clip of Ed Sullivan hawking Kodak cameras from a fake boat on the Jungle Cruise (fake because the commercial was shot in a studio not Disneyland).

One of the best parts about doing the Disney Dispatch (other than making sure the first hullabaloo is on the site by eight o'clock every MORNING) is discovering sites like WorldFamousJungleCruise and people like Skipper Brodie. Cruise on!

MORE: World Famous Jungle Cruise (Brodie Brockie)

Disneyland's Paper Emporium of Yesteryear

Once upon a time, you didn't need park hopper passes at Disney World because there were no other parks to which you could hop. You didn't need a park pass, period. All you needed was a book of paper tickets.

I rarely went to Disneyland back in those days, but according to the very cool site VintageDisneylandTickets, it was the same there, too.

Disney expected you to curb your desires and dole out your tickets. If you wanted to board the Jungle Cruise umpteen times, tough luck, buddy, unless you bought more tickets (or used up all your 'E' tickets on that ride alone). Nowadays it's easy: ride until your head explodes.

I better stop before I kick off one of Dana Carvey's old 'In My Day...' rants.

VintageDisneylandTickets has photos not just of old tickets but of old Disney brochures, cards, certificates, and lots more antique ephemera. I found, for instance, a Membership Card to Disneyland's Magic Kingdom Club entitling the bearer to 'exclusive values NOT available to the general public'. No idea what those 'values' were but they stopped being 'available' on December 31, 1967, when the card expired.

Make sure you have some time before you visit this site: over the past few years it's had nearly 1000 posts, each of them packed with photos of stuff I'll bet you've never seen before.

MORE: Vintage Disneyland Tickets

It's Full of ... Disney Blogs

So you're kicking the can down the lane because your blog isn't award-winning (see the hullabaloo, below). You crave the society of other blogs but aren't sure who'll take you in.

I have just the place: the Disney Blogger Collection, a service from Bruce Brodsky that provides a (nearly) real-time 'ticker' of every article posted on a growing list of over 200 Disney blogs.

Uh, Bob, you snicker: don't we have Twitter for that? Yes, we do have Twitter, but for that it's not ideal because of the difficulty in separating the few treasures from the many turd-pies.

For example, unless I'm a stalker, do I really need to know that so-and-so has just arrived at McDonald's (yes, a Disney blogger did provide that information recently on his/her Twitter feed)?

I'd rather know when said Disney blogger has written a new article. Twitter is good but far from ideal for that purpose. Bruce fills the gap, and does it more efficiently than if you were to subscribe by RSS to all of those blogs yourself.

Sheesh, what a rant! I'm off to Twitter to let everyone know about it.

MORE: Disney Blogger Collection (Bruce Brodsky)

It's Full of ... Award-Winning Disney Blogs

You know a community has reached critical mass when a site pops up to recognize some (the top 50, actually) of the sites in that niche as 'award-winning'.

In this case, the community is Disney blogs and the site is a quiet little section of Jeff Adams' OnlineSchools, a very big site that pulled in nearly half-a-million visitors last month.

You can nominate your own blog, if you have one, or nominate a blog you enjoy reading. The competition seems geared toward smaller blogs since 'big ones' like AllEars and Mousesavers aren't on this year's list of winners, presumably because they weren't nominated (or else didn't catch the judges' fancy).

Each year five (unnamed) judges evaluate each nominated blog on the basis of such criteria as content, advertising, readability, etc. The process is more complicated than that, actually, and seems to leave plenty of room for personal preference - inevitable in this type of contest.

Voting is not allowed: admirable since unscrupulous blog owners would 'Richard Daley' their readers into a massive vote drive. I thought about waking up my reader (the second one died - but we can still submit his vote a few dozen times) but then decided, nah, I'd rather win on my charm.

PS. The badge in the picture to your left is for illustration purposes, only. It doesn't belong to me. I don't need no stinkin' badges, amigo.

MORE: Online Schools (Jeff Adams)

Duffy the Bear: Drinking Lotso's Kool-Aid?

Is there something wrong with me? I've never heard of Duffy the Disney Bear.

Apparently, Duffy is quite popular in Tokyo DisneySea, and he has sailed around the world with Mickey Mouse (can't get anyone to confirm or deny whether as a stowaway). Now, Duffy has hit the big-time.

Disney has scheduled hour-long 'get to know Duffy' shows on September 18 at Epcot, according to Kristin Ford of A Mom and the Mouse, one of the Orlando Sentinel's Disney blogs. Seating at these shows is limited and open only to passholders.

Duffy's story is simply told: Minnie once gave Duffy to Mickey as a traveling companion. End of story. He never caught on in the States - though that may be about to change - but the Japanese adore him and would likely accept him as their Emperor.

I'm suspicious of all stuffed bears since Toy Story 3 introduced Disney's most monstrous villain, the strawberry-scented Lotso (which, like Duffy, is a name with five letters), and plan to err on the side of caution by having nothing to do with Duffy and hoping he goes away real soon before my daughter asks for one.

AMomAndTheMouse has gotten hullabaloo here before, most recently in the August 20 edition for The Crumple: One Man's Misadventures with Disney Towel Animals.

MORE: A Mom and the Mouse (Kristin Ford)