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When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point--mine wouldn't be.
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Walt Disney Company
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For it is my opinion that we enclose and celebrate the freaks of our nation and our civilization. Yellowstone National Park is no more representative of America than is Disneyland.
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John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley: In Search of America)
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Yellowstone National Park is no more representative of America than is Disneyland.
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John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley: In Search of America)
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The life's work of Walt Disney and Ray Kroc had come full-circle, uniting in perfect synergy. McDonald's began to sell its hamburgers and french fries at Disney's theme parks. The ethos of McDonaldland and of Disneyland, never far apart, have finally become one. Now you can buy a Happy Meal at the Happiest Place on Earth.
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Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal)
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So sell the Hummer, buy a Dodge, and move into a trailer. (Wulf)
Oh, yeah, right. Remember when I traded the Hummer for an Alpha Romeo last year? You burned the car and bought me a new Hummer and threatened to lock me in my room with a hooker if I ever did it again. And as for the perks…Have you bothered to look around this place? We have a heated indoor pool, a theater with surround sound, two cooks, three maids, and a pool guy I get to boss around, not to mention all kinds of other fun toys. I’m not about to leave Disneyland. It’s the only good part in this arrangement. I mean, hell, if my life has to suck there’s no way I’m going to live in the Mini-Winni. Which knowing you, you’d make me park out front anyway with armed guards standing watch in case I get a hangnail. (Chris)
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Kiss of the Night (Dark-Hunter, #4))
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We leave a Disney park reassured. We have opened our eyes to the world of the possible. We have experienced the better world. And by the way, we have fun while we were being entertained, and "reassured.
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Marty Sklar
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Just watch Snow White. Just visit Disneyland or Walt Disney World in Florida—he was laying the plans for the Florida park while he was on his death bed. People kept telling him his dreams were impossible. Walt knew better. He had wished upon a star.
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Pat Williams (How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life)
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The natural world existed for her, as it did for most of the Global North, only as another theme park, a Disneyland. One of the luxuries of modernity was never having to consider how the asphalt from a parking lot could crush soil, disrupt a delicate system, banish a pocket of insects, birds, or small mammals to ruin. Or that this parking lot was merely a microcosm of something far larger and darker: a war on the living biosphere.
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Stephen Markley (Ohio)
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It wasn’t a party that a Republican could understand--the marijuana smoke sweet on the air, the occasional cocaine sniffle, cold Mexican beer, good food, great conversation, and laughter--but a Parisian deconstructionist scholar might find it about as civilized as America gets. Or at least the one I met, who was visiting at UTEP, maintained. Somewhere along the way, he claimed, Americans had forgotten how to have a good time. In the name of good health, good taste, and political correctness from both sides of the spectrum, we were being taught how to behave. America was becoming a theme park, not as in entertainment, but as in a fascist Disneyland.
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James Crumley (The Mexican Tree Duck (C.W. Sughrue, #2))
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According to Zagat Disneyland Insider's Guide (2010), the Candy Palace is the fifth most popular store in the entire resort, and the third most popular in the park. Perhaps one reason is the shop's intoxicating candy scent; it vents onto Main Street, an elixir of vanilla and molten chocolate that entices Guests to enter the premises and then entices then to remain. pouring over the bins, shelves, and racks of traditional and unique candies.
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Leslie Le Mon (The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014 - Disneyland: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Place on Earth)
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What I really wanted was to go to Disneyland. There were multiple kids in my grade with annual passes, I remember thinking they were the richest kids in the world, practically royalty. Now I’m with actual royalty. Funny how life works. Standing outside the gates to the Magic Kingdom, with an actual god damn prince by my side, a prince who outshines any of the ones in the park, a prince who would have his own kingdom, his own country, one day. A prince who… Is smoking a joint?
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Karina Halle (The Swedish Prince (Nordic Royals, #1))
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When we'd gone to Disneyland, the tree house had been my favorite thing in the whole park. If only I'd had no parents watching my every move, if only I'd been a happy, carefree orphan, I'd have hidden under the player piano until everything closed, and then taken up residence there
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Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves)
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Disney's theme parks function like the suburban mall, offering middle-class families an escape from crime, pollution, immigrants, the homeless, transportation problems, and work. Managed exoticism, safety, the packaged tour, and the fantasy of consumption cancel out diversity, innovation, imagination, and the uncharted excursion.
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Henry A. Giroux (The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence)
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Far from representing a benign cultural force, Disney's theme parks offer prepackaged, sanitized versions of America's past, place a strong emphasis on the virtues of the individual as an essentially consuming subject, trans- form the work of production into the production of play, and ignore the exclusionary dynamics of class and race that permeate Disney culture.
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Henry A. Giroux (The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence)
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The Oreo cookie invented, the Titanic sinks, Spanish flu, Prohibition, women granted the right to vote, Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic, penicillin invented, stock market crashes, the Depression, Amelia Earhart, the atom is split, Prohibition ends, Golden Gate Bridge is built, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the Korean War, Disneyland, Rosa Parks, Laika the dog is shot into space, hula hoops, birth control pill invented, Bay of Pigs, Marilyn Monroe dies, JFK killed, MLK has a dream, Vietnam War, Star Trek, MLK killed, RFK killed, Woodstock, the Beatles (George, Ringo, John, and Paul) break up, Watergate, the Vietnam War ends, Nixon resigns, Earth Day, Fiddler on the Roof, Olga Korbut, Patty Hearst, Transcendental Meditation, the ERA, The Six Million Dollar Man.
"Bloody hell," I said when she was done.
"I know. It must be a lot to take in."
"It's unfathomable. A Brit named his son Ringo Starr?"
She looked pleasantly surprised: she'd thought I had no sense of humor.
"Well, I think his real name was Richard Starkey.
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Melanie Gideon (Valley of the Moon)
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The virtuality of war is not, then, a metaphor. It is the literal passage from reality into fiction, or rather the immediate metamorphosis of the real into fiction. The real is now merely the asymptotic horizon of the Virtual.
And it isn't just the reality of the real that's at issue in all this, but the reality of cinema. It's a little like Disneyland: the theme parks are now merely an alibi - masking the fact that the whole context of life has been disneyfied.
It's the same with the cinema: the films produced today are merely the visible allegory of the cinematic form that has taken over everything - social and political life, the landscape, war, etc. - the form of life totally scripted for the screen. This is no doubt why cinema is disappearing: because it has passed into reality. Reality is disappearing at the hands of the cinema and cinema is disappearing at the hands of reality. A lethal transfusion in which each loses its specificity.
If we view history as a film - which it has become in spite of us - then the truth of information consists in the postsynchronization, dubbing and sub-titling of the film of history.
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Jean Baudrillard (The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact (Talking Images))
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Well this wasn’t Vegas, and this wasn’t Disneyland, this was ‘Erotica- The Theme Park – featuring Femdom World, Slave World, Bondage World, Spanking World – and so much more!’ -according to the brochure Jillian and Rebecca handed me with great fanfare the next day.
-This is a beautiful brochure, I said – very-
-Glossy , said Rebecca.
-Right, I studied it some more – so is this…I mean – legal? I mean, is it for real?
-O yes, they said.
-Well. Wow, I guess.
-Wow is right, they said.
Jillian had been on some trip with one of her many very rich and very ugly men friends, and they had shown her the place. (no she didn’t say to what extent she was ’shown’ the place. She was very tight lipped about it, -wanted everything to be a surprise, she said)
To be aware of Erotica-The Theme Park, and its Hotel Ecstasy you need money, connections, and more. In fact you need at least a 100 ft yacht to dock at its private Marina.
And no I can’t tell you where it is, otherwise they will revoke my membership pass and kill my first born. But let’s say - it’s on an island, with warm water ,pure white sand beaches, it’s for the very rich, and it’s not far , by private helicopter from certain well known islands in let’s say, the Caribbean.
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Germaine Gibson (Theme Park Erotica)
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Certainly no corporation in the world is better than Nick-believe then the Walt Disney Company, which had built this town of celebration in large part as a way to sell off nearly 5000 acres deemed unsuitable for yet another addition to its nearby theme parks. The company is made attractions, Disneyland and what Disney World or marvels of escapism.
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Douglas Frantz (Celebration, U.S.A.: Living in Disney's Brave New Town)
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The original Tom Sawyer Island was perhaps the most deeply personal expression of Walt's own boyhood dreams to be found anywhere in Disneyland. Tom Sawyer Island is the playground Walt wished he could have had as a boy. It's the only attractraction in the Park that Walt himself drew up with his own hands, in his barn on Carolwood Drive.
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Jim Denney (Walt's Disneyland: It's Still There If You Know Where to Look)
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Today, the Main Street Opera House, the first building ever constructed at Disneyland, houses the park bench where Walt first dreamed of Disneyland.
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Jeffrey Barnes (The Wisdom of Walt: Leadership Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland): Success Strategies for Everyone (from Walt Disney and Disneyland))
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Know that it is okay for your passion to be highly personal. People, including his wife and brother, thought Walt was crazy for wanting to build an amusement park.
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Jeffrey Barnes (The Wisdom of Walt: Leadership Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland): Success Strategies for Everyone (from Walt Disney and Disneyland))
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When we'd gone to Disneyland, the tree house had been my favorite thing in the whole park. If only I'd had no parents watching my every move, if only I'd been a happy, carefree orphan, I'd have hidden under the player piano until everything closed, and then taken up residence there.
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Karen Joy Fowler
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There is a sizeable colony of feral cats in and around Disneyland, although park-goers do not usually see them due to their nocturnal nature. The grounds crews leave them alone, primarily because (and how ironic is this?) they help keep the rodent population in check.
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David Hoffman
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it is impossible to “safety proof” a national park, and those parks are often more akin to Jurassic Park than to Disneyland.
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Lee H. Whittlesey (Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park)
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To me, this one brief moment proved to be my most meaningful memory at the park because it symbolized what we mean to people: We are not a cure for cancer, we are not going to save the world, but if we can make people that happy for a few hours or for a day, then we are doing something worthwhile.
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Jack Lindquist (In Service To The Mouse: My Unexpected Journey to Becoming Disneyland's First President)
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Lots To Do In Line" will help you and your child experience the Disneyland theme park queues actively,turning the wait into a game.
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Meredith Lyn Pierce
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Disney, meanwhile, had been toying with the idea of basing a theme park at its Burbank movie studio even before it built Disneyland. Imagineers even proposed an entertainment-centered pavilion for EPCOT Center. Eisner suggested expanding the idea into a separate movie studio park. Beating Universal to the punch shouldn’t be difficult, since Disney World had ample land and, thanks to Reedy Creek, was guaranteed an expedited approval and construction process.
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David Koenig (Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World)
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The young Lucas may have been ambivalent about movies, but there was one entertainment, in fact one place, he was very passionate about. “I loved Disneyland,” Lucas said—and so, it seemed, did George Lucas Sr., who flew the entire family to southern California to be there for the park’s opening day in July 1955.81
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Brian Jay Jones (George Lucas: A Life)
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The DCA Tower of Terror is a powerful visual landmark that looms over the park day and night. It's not just the tallest building at Disneyland Resort; it's the tallest building in Anaheim.
Amtrak travelers know they're approaching the Anaheim train station when they see the Tower of Terror looming in the distance.
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Leslie Le Mon (The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014 - DCA: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Place on Earth)
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The other big kicker is that Disneyland tickets are usually cheaper than Disney World tickets, so if a guest doesn’t realize that one ticket can’t be used interchangeably at both parks, OF COURSE they’ll buy the cheaper one. I’d buy the cheaper one, too, if I thought it could work in both Orlando and Anaheim.
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Annie Salisbury (Would You Like Magic with That?: Working at Walt Disney World Guest Relations)
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Parents: don't be ashamed if your child wants to be a Disneyland Custodian. They know more than most cast members at the park, and get plenty of exercise. It is a good way to learn to talk with people, too, from all over the world. I think one can get many things out of Custodial as one applies oneself and works hard.
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Ken Pellman (Cleaning the Kingdom: Insider Tales of Keeping Walt's Dream Spotless)
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There is a boat ride at Epcot across the World Showcase Lagoon and some could argue this is an attraction. However, there is a boat ride from the International Gateway at Epcot that goes all the way to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The ride consists of stops at Epcot, Disney’s Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Club, Swan and Dolphin Hotel, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s a lovely cruise that connects the two theme parks. Most folks who are not staying in the resorts have no idea this 30-minute ride even exists. It is a fun way to see the different parts of the resort and it gives everyone an idea of how close Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios really is (if you don’t have to drive.) For those adventurous types, there is a walkway too and along the way you could check out the interesting architecture of the buildings.
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Jodi Jill (Disney Freebies: 35 Freebies to Grab on Your Disneyland and Disney World Vacation)
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Few investors have the disposition to say, “I’m actually fine if I lose 20% of my money.” This is doubly true for new investors who have never experienced a 20% decline. But if you view volatility as a fee, things look different. Disneyland tickets cost $100. But you get an awesome day with your kids you’ll never forget. Last year more than 18 million people thought that fee was worth paying. Few felt the $100 was a punishment or a fine. The worthwhile tradeoff of fees is obvious when it’s clear you’re paying one. Same with investing, where volatility is almost always a fee, not a fine. Market returns are never free and never will be. They demand you pay a price, like any other product. You’re not forced to pay this fee, just like you’re not forced to go to Disneyland. You can go to the local county fair where tickets might be $10, or stay home for free. You might still have a good time. But you’ll usually get what you pay for. Same with markets. The volatility/uncertainty fee—the price of returns—is the cost of admission to get returns greater than low-fee parks like cash and bonds. The trick is convincing yourself that the market’s fee is worth it. That’s the only way to properly deal with volatility and uncertainty—not just putting up with it, but realizing that it’s an admission fee worth paying. There’s no guarantee that it will be. Sometimes it rains at Disneyland. But if you view the admission fee as a fine, you’ll never enjoy the magic. Find the price, then pay it.
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Morgan Housel (The Psychology of Money)
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I wondered how I would have felt about Disney’s other line back when I worked there, before the notion of VIP treatment existed at the park. I couldn’t decide. Part of me thought I would have been perfectly fine with it, appreciating the pay-for-value proposition that now seemed to infiltrate every part of Disneyland. But I mostly felt that my eighteen-year-old self would have been shocked. Equality seemed a core tenet of the happiest place on Earth. Would Walt have approved? I wondered. Is the VIP experience consistent with the values that Disneyland was created to exemplify and promote? Would I even come to Disneyland if I had to wait in line? What is my daughter learning each time we skip a line?
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Christopher Varelas (How Money Became Dangerous: The Inside Story of Our Turbulent Relationship with Modern Finance)
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Your first step to success is to do exactly what Walt did. Nothing. Take a Saturday and sit. Take a Sunday to think. Take a weekend to DREAM. I believe every successful person needs a park bench—that personal place where we can plan, set goals, and allow our imaginations to run wild. Your park bench is any place where you can begin to envision a bigger and better tomorrow.
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Jeffrey A. Barnes (The Wisdom of Walt: Leadership Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland): Success Strategies for Everyone (from Walt Disney and Disneyland))
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I’ll just pretend this is a ride at Disneyland. Dragonland? Xren-land? Sure to be a hit when I get back to Earth and found an amusement park company. There will be dragon rides and bumper dragons and a haunted lair and a Ferris dragon and tilt-a-dragons. And dragonfireworks every night. Free treatment at the burn ward next door.
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Calista Skye (Caveman Alien’s Fate (Caveman Aliens, #14))
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I think about one of the oldest attractions in Fantasyland at Disneyland: Peter Pan’s Flight. It has been part of the park since opening day in the 1950s. Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up, shouts, “Come on, everybody! Here we go!” You hop on a pirate ship, Tinker Bell sprinkles pixie dust, and you fly off to Neverland, avoiding the snapping crocodiles below. That’s how I feel. Peter Pan, at the eleventh hour, is becoming a man. And here we go.
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John Stamos (If You Would Have Told Me)
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Zucca sprayed luminol in the Jet Inn’s parking lot, the entire building would glow like a float in Disneyland’s Electrical Parade.
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Rachel Howzell Hall (Land of Shadows (Detective Elouise Norton, #1))
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College student Dave MacPherson was the very first guest to enter Disneyland. He didn't ride a single attraction that time because he had to get back to school. However, he was awarded a life-long ticket to Disneyland with up to three guests. The ticket was later extended to include Disney parks around the world.
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Scott Matthews (1100 Crazy Fun & Random Facts You Won’t Believe - The Knowledge Encyclopedia To Win Trivia)
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every successful person needs a park bench—
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Jeffrey A. Barnes (The Wisdom of Walt: Leadership Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland): Success Strategies for Everyone (from Walt Disney and Disneyland))