Hey Ho, the World Expo

by Erik Olsen on

Well ruffle my hair and call me Frankie. Did you know that one of the globe’s biggest
events is happening RIGHT NOW? Really, truly, honestly. The 2005 World
Expo is happening NOW, until September 25 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan…somewhere between Tokyo and
Osaka.

The exposition is a global showcase with exhibitions, entertainment and non-stop fun that will
showcase everyting under the sun…from nature to the future of technology, but also haute cuisine to
Beaux-Arts (what a funny word, that is, Beaux). Now don’t say I didn’t tell you it was coming. Yup, we here at gadling
are ON THE BALL. We posted about this MONTHS ago. Of
course, like you, because we didn’t see anything about it on CNN or the Daily Show, well, it may just as well not be
happening.

 

BBQ 4U

by Erik Olsen on

Nothing says America better than a good BBQ. And this year’s season o’grillin will
officially commence at the first Great American Barbecue event,
going on from May 26 to 28. Oh, there will be BBQ available, plenty for everyone…enough to feed the state of
California…or four really fat people. And beef and pork aren’t the only things on the menu. Uh uh. There will also be
a hot-air-balloon rally, a beer garden (is that where they actually grow beer?) and for the carnivorously
skilled, a barbecue contest, in which grilling teams will go head to head, brisket to brisket to win $10,000.

La Ceiba Carnival

by Erik Olsen on

And here’s yet another event for you should you be heading to Honduras anytime soon. In the town of La Ceiba around May 28, the people of that fine locale will be holding their annual carnival. The celebration is held to honor Saint Isidro the Farmer, the patron saint of this busy fruit-exporting hub.

This year’s celebration runs from May 22 to 28 and features all manner of elaborate and colorful costumes, song, food, drink, and local color. The key is to be there for the finale, on the 28th, when the party kicks into high gear and the music and dancing in the streets makes this normally sedate town look like the tryouts for the next season of Fame.

Mike the Headless Chicken

by Erik Olsen on

Sit back youngun and let me tell ya the story about
Mike the Headless Chicken.

Now the story began in the small town of Fruita, Colorado on September 10th, 1945. That’s when we find the strapping
old rooster pecking through the dust. Farmer Lloyd Olsen (no relation) done took one of his roosters to the chopping
block in preparation for supper. He decapitated the chicken, the way farmers will, but somehow thisun’ was different.
And for 18 months that headless chicken walked around as if nothin’ had happened. The farmer fed him with an
eyedropper, and that rooster done grown from two and a half to five pounds.

Well to celebrate Mike’s tenacity, not to mention keepin’ his head after he lost it, the town holds a festival every
year. This year’s celebration runs from May 20 and 21 and will include live music, an auto show and a five-kilometer
Run Like a Headless Chicken race. Attendees, why they come dressed as chickens, sometimes with head, sometimes, as the
French put it, sans head. 

Anyhow, if you don’t take my word for it, check out the
site dedicated to everything Mike.

Disneyland Sub Returns!

by Erik Olsen on

It wasn’t exactly Jacques Cousteau, but as a kid filled with wonder, to me the submarine
ride at Disneyland was one of the park’s best
rides. The sub ride and then the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, these were amazing. How sad the
sub ride it was closed.

 

Since then, Disneyland has gone mostly for the thrill rides. Space Mountain, California Adventure. Great for the
roller-coaster rush crowd, but bad for creative types who saw in these thematic rides a real-world fantasy.

 

So it was cool to read that the Magic Kingdom is bringing
back the submarine ride which is set to re-open in 2007. Like the boing boing folks, I think the idea of
tying the new ride to some marketing scheme is pretty lame…it will be dedicated to Finding Nemo…but we’ll see
how it comes out.

(via boing boing)