Editor's Report
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"My oh my what a wonderful day!"

Today marks the three month anniversary of the new LaughingPlace.com, and the seven month anniversary of the launch of the original LaughingPlace.com. If you're fairly new to the site, here's a little background. The original LaughingPlace.com (then known as "The Laughing Place") was Disneyland only. It provided a search engine, website directory and daily news updates. Occasionally we'd have a feature story. On August 1st we launched the new LaughingPlace.com. The look was completely changed, we added coverage of all of Disney, the trivia contests, online polls, and we became an online magazine with our regular feature stories and columns. Our website directory grew from 200 sites to over 1,000 sites, the largest Disney website directory on the web and the only one that incorporates a Disney search engine. Since the change from the old LP to the new LP was so dramatic, we now consider August 1st as our official start date. So let's start again...

Today marks the three month anniversary of LaughingPlace.com. In that short time we've brought you 30 feature stories, over 20 columns and hundreds of news stories. We've watched our readership grow steadily and, by the looks of our feedback, we're meeting our readers' needs. Many of you have told us that you consider us one of the best Disney sites on the web which is high praise considering the hundreds of sites that are out there. But I know we can improve, and I know many of you have ideas, so feel free to send us Feedback anytime with comments, suggestions, criticisms or even praise. We read it all and always respond if an email address is provided.

Most importantly, thank you to every one of our readers for making this site such a success. We really appreciate your support.

Now on to Disney...

Last week was very exciting for Disneyland fans. Pirates of the Caribbean reopened after an extensive rehab and Thursday night guests were treated to a Mr. Toad Enchanted Evening. Below are some of the highlights of the week for Disneyland and the rest of the Disney world:

• Disneyland has made some major changes to their annual passport program. Read the details in this week's Disneyland Update.
• The Orange County Register had an article on some of the changes in the Pirates of the Caribbean. Also look for a LaughingPlace.com article on the rehab early this week.
• By most accounts the Mr. Toad Enchanted Evening Thursday night was a huge success. LaughingPlace.com was there and here's Mr. Toad's Enchanted Evening report.
• Need a job? Disney will need to hire 5,000 works for Disney's California Adventure according to an Orange County Register article.
• Pinocchio's 60th anniversary was honored with the release of a special edition video, available at Amazon.com, that includes "making of" footage. Pinocchio also becomes the first Disney classic animated feature to be released on DVD, also available at Amazon.com. The DVD will only be available for 60 days.
• An attraction that is near and dear to my heart has undergone a major rehab at Tokyo Disneyland. The official Tokyo Disneyland website has details on their new Tiki Room.
• In Walt Disney World, the Food and Wine Festival has began. Visit the Food and Wine Festival section of Disney.com for more information on this popular event that runs through November 21st.
• Walt Disney World has announced an update to the Tomorrowland Speedway. More details are available in a press release available on LaughingPlace.com.
• Ain't it Cool News, last week, published reviews of the next two major releases from Walt Disney Pictures, Toy Story 2 and Fantasia 2000. But beware of spoilers.
• Disney announced some of their video and DVD releases for the year 2000. Read the story on LaughingPlace.com along with information on McDonald's toy tie-ins!
• One of our readers was kind enough to send us a link to a very interesting file from National Public Radio. It's an announcement of the death of Van France and includes a reading from one of his works that teaches cast members how to smile. I think it'll bring a smile to your face. The link is http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/19991025.atc.05.ram (this is a RealAudio file). If you missed the news of Van France's death a little over two weeks ago, you can read more here or read Rick West's Van France memories.

The following plug was in last week's Editor's Report, but I thought it was important enough to mention again.

As mentioned above, we'll have a feature this week on Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean rehab. This week we'll also continue our coverage of Walt Disney World's Millennium Celebration with a feature on Tapestry of Nations and the Millennium edition of Illuminations. As always, don't forget to visit this week's trivia contest, this week featuring Disney villains, bad guys and scary things. And I think many of you will enjoy this week's online poll which asks the question "What Disneyland attraction do you miss the most"?

And don't forget, Christmas starts at Disneyland on Friday, November 5th! We'll have more on this next week.

-- Doobie Moseley (November 1, 1999)