Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

[Darkbeer]

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...cal&id=5762824

But on Friday, the ride was closed temporarily. Security cameras caught a woman dumping a white powder into the water. The woman told Disneyland officials it was baby powder, but some aren't so sure.

"Well it's been going on for awhile, it started sporadically with the Haunted Mansion and lately because of the spectral nature of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films, there's been this been this connection between people and that," Al Lutz said.

Lutz runs MiceAge.com, a Web site dedicated to all things Disneyland. He says it's not unusual for people to surreptitiously scatter a loved one's remains at the happiest place on Earth.

"As you grow up with something, especially now that it's over 50 years old, you can develop an attachment to it," Lutz said.

Check out the link for the full story, and the video.

[speederscout]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

LOL, if Disney would just ADMIT that people are doing this - and then reveal how rides have to be shut down for cleanup afterwards... and what happens to the ashes (!!!) then people would think twice before dumping.

I do believe, though, that most people do this simply as a symbolic gesture. After all, no one actually believes that any attraction will literally be there "for eternity". And every Disney fan knows how clean that place is kept, so they know their ashes will be promptly dust-busted or pumped through a water filter.

The company just needs to find some tasteful way to accommodate this particular consumer demand, as unusual (or maybe not-so-unusual) as it might be.

[WDW Peak Seasons]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

This is crazy I had never heard of that before!!

[Dustysage]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

Here's the link to the very active thread that we started on this topic last night:
http://www.micechat.com/forums/showt...ght-83291.html

And here is the YouTube video that Monorail Man uploaded for us last night as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<obje...mbed></object>

[AmandasDad]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

:ot:

I gotta commend Al on this great info and I am glad to see that he is getting this kind of acknowledgement. :bow:

But I gotta say that it's pretty lazy of journalists these days that they have to report on what other report to make a story. It's just regurgitation and dissemination of existing info. Not much real work on their part. I guess all it takes to be a journalist nowadays (low-end at least) is the ability to surf the net and write copy. At least they cite their source.

I've done this kind of thing (regurgitation and dissemination of others' findings) and it's comparitively easy to the hard work Al and others put in building the relationships and networks to get this info and then writing it up. :sleep:

[PanTheMan]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

My Mom was a ranger in Yosemite, and she would get requests all the time. She would tell tell then if they got caught it was illegal.....if they got caught. The Merced river must have 10,000 people in it over the years.

But Yosemite is Permanent. Disneyland is not. And yes, during a refurb they will be sucked out and sent to the Anaheim sewer plant. Save the middle man and just Flush Grandma from the Hotel folks.

[Darkbeer]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

It is the way of the news world, especially nowadays with the amount of "raw" info...

You have Main Newspapers making blogs, such as the LA Times Blog

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/

People like Brady MacDonald, who is a staff writer and the "Theme Park Blogger"

He checks the net for interesting stuff (and finds out stuff himself) and posts it on the website. If he thinks an item "has legs", then he approaches the "Paper" staff and gets approval to write the story himself, or hands the story off, in the last two cases, to Kimi Yoshino in the Business section. She takes the initial info and then does additional research, and gets quotes from others and confirms the information.

Then it runs in the paper. It then gets noticed by the Radio and TV folks and they do the story, basically based on the work the newspaper did.

Then the wire services, both nationally and internationally pick up the story from papers like the LA Times, NY Times and the OC Register, all major papers that are tracked by the wire services. They have deals where they can either run the entire story as originally written, or write a story based on the original article, sometimes cutting out a bit to shorten the length.

So you have the "researcher", in this case someone at the NY Times or LA Times that finds out about the story, either reading it directly or that someone they know read it and pointed out where to go. Then it hits the main paper, then all the Radio and TV outlets go with the story, since they feel it would make a good story to match their viewers (such as TMZ), and then the wire services spread the story to other papers.

Seems like MiceAge.com has become the primary Disney "News" site for info that isn't directly from Disney. And in the news business, that is a good thing.

[TheManator]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

It's on TMZ right now too...

Edit:
Kind of pyst...they dubbed MiceAge "The TMZ of Disney"--wtf?


There, edit. And the wtf is what the fudge.

[cyre]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

It's on TMZ right now too...

Edit:
Kind of pissed...they dubbed MiceAge "The TMZ of Disney"--wtf?

I just saw that as well...yeah that's a big wtf??

[mouseinphilly]

Re: Are People Scattering Ashes at Disneyland? - KABC, 11/14/07 (includes Video)

"It's on TMZ right now too...

"Edit: Kind of p****d...they dubbed MiceAge 'The TMZ of Disney.'"

"I just saw that as well."

That's funny. I always thought we were the MiceAge of TMZ.