My visit to Orlando was yer typical tourist experience, hopping from the hermetically sealed bubble of Disneyworld to the equally otherworldly bubble of a Worldcon. All I recall of the city is a 'scape of strip malls, billboards, and endless cheap hotels.

Cool Fact: A few years back, someone noticed that the skyline depicted on some Orlando-inscriped postcards . . . wasn't Orlando. The place was so indistinct they had to swipe someone else's identity.

Just stay within the landscaped berms of the Magic Kingdom, Cory, and you'll be OK.

Judith, that's a gem of a description. You painted such a vivid picture that I have no desire to see the place myself. Thanks!

the deal with orlando: mix some bible belt self-righteousness with an entirely ahistorical simulacrum of a town. throw in some tacky tshirts. add humidity, sunburned gawking tourists and (cover your eyes, cory) an incessantly squeaky mouse. oh, yeah, and alligators.

seriously though. it's everything you imagine the south to be in bad parodies - racist, anti-semitic, anti-intellectual - while lacking any sort of southern charm or sense of actual place that you can find elsewhere in the south.

Now what *is* the deal with Orlando? Another friend went there and he hated it so much he didn't even want to tell me why, because he said he didn't want to think about the place ever again. I have no idea what's so bad about it. Please clue me in!

orlando's a scary, scary place. alligators or no alligators.

You're going to Orlando? Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

Actually, you should consider shooting down "the Bee Line" to Cocoa Beach. Cape Canaveral has a lot of interesting space age history to see. If you're REALLY lucky you can see a launch! Of couse, the odds of that are kinda low.