Celebrating July Fourth with Captain America

 by Ray Keating

Commentary

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 3, 2024

 

Since I was a kid, I’ve been a big Captain America fan. Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, not only tapped into patriotic little Ray, but, as I’ve written before, Captain America comic books planted in me a love of reading. That, of course, led to my own efforts as a writer.

So, here are some of my favorite quotes from Captain America for July Fourth, Independence Day…

 

“Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world – ‘No, you move.’” 

- Captain America, 

from Amazing Spider- Man #537 by J. Michael Straczynski

 

“As long as freedom may be threatened – Captain America must follow his destiny – wherever that may lead!”

- Captain America

from Captain America #100 by Stan Lee

 

“I will not tolerate – I will not allow – any talk of the necessity of necessary evil. I have spent my life on that line and every time I’ve seen someone cross it, death and horror and shame was what followed. So I refuse to entertain it.”

- Captain America,

from New Avengers (Vol. 3) #2 by Jonathan Hickman

 

“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.”

- Captain America

from The Avengers movie

 

“The price of freedom is high, it always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not.” 

- Captain America

from Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie

 

“I fought your kind every day of that war, Zemo! You mocked democracy and said that free men were weak! Well feel this grip, Zemo — it's the grip of a man who loves liberty! Look into the eyes of your foe, and know that he will die for his freedom! The world must never again mistake compassion for weakness! And while I live — it had better not!”

- Captain America, 

from Avengers #6 by Stan Lee

 

Thanks to all of the comic book artists and writers who worked on Cap in his stand alone book and part of the Avengers, and got me interested in Captain America, including Cap’s creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. God bless, America!

 

__________

 

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, the Alliance of Saint Michael novels, and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.

 

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

 

The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more.

 

Never miss any new book by Ray Keating by joining the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship with Ray Keating at

https://www.patreon.com/pastorstephengrantfellowship.

 

Various books by Ray Keating…

 

• The Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries. There are 19 books in the series now.

 

• The Alliance of Saint Michael novels – Cathedral and Subversion – are at Amazon. 

 

• Order The Weekly Economist III: Another 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist, The Weekly Economist II: 52 More Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist, and The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist at Amazon.com.

 

• Signed editions of Ray’s books are at www.raykeatingbooksandmore.com. 

 

Also, check out Ray’s podcasts – the Daily Dose of Disney, Free Enterprise in Three Minutes, and the PRESS CLUB C Podcast.

Bonsai at EPCOT Continues to Intrigue

 by Beth Keating

Theme Park Life

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 2, 2024

 

For many, many years, our youngest son has been intrigued by bonsai trees.  Maybe it was the steady diet of Japanese anime and Pokémon as a small child that influenced his fascination with the miniature works of art.  It surely wasn’t a love of gardening, because he had no use for poking around the vegetable garden with me, pulling weeds or deadheading flowers.  But every year at the EPCOT festivals, he would peruse the marketplace booths at length, deciding which tiny tree he wanted to bring home.  

Alas, no amount of begging was going to help.  Back then we were flying home, and there was no way of getting those little treasures onto a plane.

Fast forward to today, and the little boy fascinated by bonsai trees is now grown up, and doesn’t need my permission to buy things anymore, nor is he flying home on a plane.  On a recent shopping trip at the Mitsukoshi Department Store in the Japan pavilion, he came across a kit that allows you to grow your own bonsai tree from seeds.  Did he buy it?  Yes, yes, he did.  And there is now a small gardening dish on our windowsill with a hopefully soon-to-emerge miniature tree that needs daily tending. 

The kit was $15.95, and came with the seeds, special bonsai potting soil, a cute little growing container to start your seeds, pebbles, and an instruction booklet. The set comes in your choice of Black Pine, Red Maple, Dwarf Juniper, or Miniature Elm.  Sonny boy selected the Miniature Elm.  The kit comes with multiple seeds, which, down the road a bit, will be sorted out once they reach a certain size to allow the extra seeds to be transplanted into their own pots, with the healthiest single sprout remaining in its original pot to begin its horticultural journey.

Bonsai, for those whose talents don’t bend toward gardening and nature, is an ancient Japanese art that cultivates trees with enormous patience and care, training the tree into miniature forms that not only mimic their full grown cousins, but also reflect Japanese concepts, such as balance and harmony.  Because it takes so long to grow these specimens, the trees are often prized possessions that are passed down from generation to generation in a family.  These are slow-growing plants that take time to reach their final forms, and enormous fortitude to painstakingly train the tiny leaves and needles over the decades!

If you aren’t visually familiar with bonsai, the Japan Pavilion is filled with stellar examples of the artform during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival each year, thanks to the Bonsai Societies of Florida.  Several dozen small trees are displayed throughout the Japan Pavilion, both along the waterfront, and along the koi ponds on the terraced area.  Next to each plant is a small sign, crediting the patient gardener who cultivated and presented the specific tree, and listing the type of cultivar, the age of the plant, and how long the plant had been “in training.”  (Many trees were in the 20 year old range or more!)

It requires much serenity to grow these delicate masterpieces, and if you are looking for some serenity yourself in the midst of a crowded festival day, the Japan pavilion offers a chance for a little peace and quiet.  At the risk of giving away one of our favorite hideaways, there are shaded tables at the top of the Japan terraces, and you’ll be looking out over the ponds while you rest up.  Along the way, you’ll pass these amazing bonsai creations, but only during the Flower & Garden Festival. They are, after all, on loan for a limited time.

Here are just a few of the gifted gardeners who brought their trees to this year’s Flower & Garden festival, and what they were working with:

• Reggie Perdue, with an Informal Upright style Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), tree in training 20 years. 

 

• Joshua Brown, with a Hollow Trunk style Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia), tree in training 20 years. 

 

• John King, with an Informal Upright style Dwarf Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria ‘Schilling’s Dwarf’), tree in training 18 years. 

 

• Robert Kempinski, with a Raft style Headache Tree (Premna obtusifolia), tree in training 16 years. 

 

• Mike Blom, with a Cascade style Brazilian Rain Tree (Pithecellobium tortum), tree in training 11 years; and a Slant style Water Jasmine (Wrightia religiosa), tree in training 10 years.

 

• Jesus A. Brito, with a Slant style Bottlebrush Tree (Callistemon), tree in training 7 years. 

 

Kudos to these gardeners, and thanks for sharing your skill with the guests of the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival.  Just hope my son’s bonsai seeds can go that distance!  Wish him sunny days, and much perseverance.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner.  A PDF version is available here.  And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

Pizza is Back!

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 1, 2024

 

My family thinks it’s ridiculous that every time I pass the Italy pavilion at EPCOT, I check to see if the pizza window at Pizza al Taglio, next to Via Napoli, is open.

“Why,” you may ask, “with all the upscale and unique foods in EPCOT, are you looking for a paper plate of pizza-window pizza?”

Because the thick squares of pizza there remind me of the Sicilian-style pan pizzas back home in New York, and I haven’t yet found adequate substitute pizza here in Florida to replace my old favorites.  Pizza Ponte in Disney Springs comes the closest, but it’s a little far to go when I just want a slice for lunch!

Pizza al Taglio isn’t open often.  In fact, I’ve never actually seen it open during any of the festivals.  I suppose that with the plethora of food booths ringing the World Showcase, it just doesn’t pay for Disney to open the window while all the other goodies and seasonal specialties are available.

  
But this summer, with a nearly three month downtime between festivals, the pizza window has been open twice while I’ve been at EPCOT!  So regardless of what else we are eating for the trip, I’ve acquired a square for myself, even if the rest of the family is rolling their eyes at me.

For those of you who have been to Via Napoli before, the Pizza al Taglio portions are not the same artisanal pizza slices coming out of Via Napoli’s sculpted giant wood-burning pizza ovens (named after the 3 active volcanoes in Italy—Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli), despite the proximity to sharing a wall.  Via Napoli has fancy (but very delicious!) pies, with prosciutto, cantaloupe and lots of other toppings available to jazz them up.  Via Napoli imports their flour from Southern Italy, and sources their water for the dough from a spring with similar components to that of Italy's Campania region.  On the other hand, the Pizza al Taglio slices are just your average, utilitarian, feed-the-family quick slices, ridiculously simple, but tasty all the same.

So, here’s the very short food review: Pizza al Taglio serves both pepperoni slices ($9.00) and Margherita slices  ($8.50).  You can also grab some Tiramisu ($8.00), or some wine or beer to accompany your slice.  The square slice itself is pretty large, covering the whole plate, and the dough is not heavily sauced.  The tomato-based sauce is not a particularly sweet sauce, but neither is it overtly acidic.  There’s a perfect amount of melty cheese capped on top, thick and stretchy. The bottom of the slice is lightly crisped, but the inner dough is light, pillowy, and about an inch thick.  Air bubbles along the crust sides remind me of Friday night pizza night back home!  The pepperoni slices also had the really good pepperoni on them - you know the kind – the pepperoni that curls up around the edges and forms a little cup to catch the oils and bring lots of spicy flavor to the pizza.

Alas, I know that the days of grabbing a slice from this window are limited, and that once the festivals return, the Italy pavilion won’t need this grab-and-go anymore – at least until the high-traffic holiday weeks when the crowds swell a little more. When that happens, I’ll go back to checking for an open window.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner.  A PDF version is available here.  And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast.