tragic kingdom

Waiting in Line to Die: Death at Disneyland

Fucking hilarious (and informative!) article, found, of course, via the comments section of a wonderful AV Club article ostensibly about the Universal Studios fire but more about how awesome animatronics are. Anyway, an excerpt:

Equally hazardous to park visitors is the PeopleMover. Hurtling through the sterile corporate future of Tomorrowland at a speed of two miles per hour, it is plainly a menace to the life and limb of every guest. In August of 1967, less than two months after its opening Rick Yama, a 15-year old boy from Hawthorne, innocently attempted to change cars as the PeopleMover passed through a tunnel. Unfortunately, he slipped and, as the papers reported, was "found wedged between two cars with his head and the upper part of his body crushed".

Also, the author is apparently the editor of something called "Murder Is Fun" - I don't know what it is, but that's a philosophy I can get behind.