Note: The particularly important details and music artist names are in bold text. Licensed music track names are in italics.
The year is 1973, five years after the events of the Mafia III, and 22 years since Vito Scaletta’s seen or heard from his old friend Joe Barbaro. The canon ending of Mafia III with this Mafia IV story is Vito taking over the city after Lincoln skipped town, however Cassandra and Burke are left alive and loyal to both Vito and Lincoln still. Burke was able to survive his liver cancer by getting a black market liver transplant in Mexico, like he did in his ending, except with Vito running the city. On Vito and Lincoln’s behalf, Burke and Cassandra agree to stay behind in New Bordeaux and keep the city locked down, incase Leo Galante and the Commission try anything.
The beginning cutscene is Vito answering his telephone after getting up in the morning in his new penthouse, on the top floor of the New Bordeaux casino he finished that was once Sal Marcano's, and grabbing a cup of coffee. It's Alma with some urgent news. Lincoln Clay came down to the cigar warehouse to visit her after 5 years of silence, and he has big news.
Joe is alive in Empire Bay and has been this entire time. However, as punishment for his actions, he's become Leo Galante's personal driver against his will and is forbidden from contacting Vito ever again, or else him and Vito will be killed. Alma then tells Vito to meet Lincoln at the airport to learn more, as he's already there awaiting Vito's arrival. When they're away from anyone who could listen in on their conversation, Lincoln tells Vito he has a friend named John Donovan he's going to introduce him to, hiding in the outskirts of Empire Bay, ready to help Vito and Lincoln with their new mission
Vito gets dressed in one of his signature trench coats with a suit and tie, ready to rain down hell on the Vinci crime family and their allies, and finally be reunited with his lifelong friend he previously thought was dead, Joe Barbaro.
Here is my idea for the kill list, all related to the Commission in Empire Bay and their allies.

• Leo Galante - Top target on the list, Vinci family consigliere who's in with the Commission and the man you thought put Joe in the ground for the past 22 years. Bury this wrinkly old cocksucker.
• Johnny Galante - Vinci family capo and younger relative of Leo's mentioned in Cassandra's ending, possibly Leo's cousin even. John Donovan knows that the two are close, and that Johnny's a valuable asset to Leo's organization. Kill him both to hurt Leo's earn and influence, and to hit him straight in the heart by taking away his family and everyone he loves
• Michele Galante Jr. - Another Vinci family capo, and Leo Galante’s youngest brother. Killing Leo’s little brother will both take away one of his most reliable allies, and leave him stricken with grief and enraged, and more prone to making mistakes.
• Nunzio Galante - Leo’s seasoned older brother by 3 years, and yet another Vinci family capo. He knows enough about smuggling that he worked out an ingenious plan for smuggling military grade weapons into the city. He pays off corrupt officials at Empire Bay International Airport, to allow guns to be loaded inside the walls and floors of planes, unknown to everyone onboard save for the palms the Galantes and Frank Vinci have greased to cooperate and keep quiet. The time has come to put this crafty old bastard in the ground.
• Don Frank Vinci - Frank Vinci is the boss of the Vinci crime family, the family Leo's been a consigliere of for decades, and a lifelong friend of his. Kill Frank, and Leo loses more ground than he could ever imagine, and will be forced to deal with both the loss of his boss, and the loss of his lifelong childhood friend.
• Don Ennio Salieri - Longtime close friend of both Frank Vinci and Leo Galante, Don of the Salieri crime family, and a third party Frank and Leo call in to crush Vito's uprising, when it becomes too big of an issue for Vinci alone to handle. Salieri was eventually able to grease enough palms while behind bars to have his life sentence overturned, and he got released from prison on good behavior in 1953, after he served 15 years of his sentence. He’s since relocated to his main operations to Empire Bay, having already had connections and men present there while he was in prison, backed by the Commission and the Vinci crime family. He's seasoned, but he’s nothing Mr. Scaletta can't handle. Give this tired old fuck the gangland ending he's had coming.
• Isaac - Isaac is the personal assistant to an influential loan shark named Bruno Levine, who handles the money of the Commission, including the Vinci crime family and the Salieri crime family. He does anything from serve his boss coffee, to count incoming and outgoing money for Bruno. Because of his duties, he's aware of Bruno's location at all times. You’ll need to get to Isaac to get information on his boss out of him, and dispose of him afterwards if you want to get to Bruno.
• Bruno Levine - Bruno is a Jewish-American loan shark who kicks up all of his earn to both Frank Vinci and Ennio Salieri, and the Commission in Empire Bay. Killing him kills a lot of earn for the Commission, and they loses a valuable asset. In addition to getting rid of him being practical, to add insult to injury, he gave your father that loan. It's about time to put this asshole out of business.
• Mr. Chu & Mr. Chu Jr. - This old man has been leading the Empire Bay Triads with an iron fist since before you were even born. The bastard has a son too, who eventually went on to become his underboss. The Empire Bay Triads became a close ally of the Vinci crime family, the Salieri crime family, and the Commission shortly after Vito killed Don Carlo Falcone in 1951, forming a lucrative partnership with the Commission. Mr. Chu and his eldest son are valuable assets for Leo Galante who give him extra reach. Melt their iron fists and show these two pricks just who they fucked with.
• Eddie Scarpa - This cocksucker used to be Carlo Falcone's underboss for as long as you could remember. After you whacked Falcone in the fall of 1951, he decided to throw in with Vinci to save his own skin. He took over the smuggling and dock union extortion that fat fuck Derek Pappalardo used to run. You know all too well how to deal with this sorry fuckin' rat.

I'm thinking Vito and Joe work with Lincoln Clay and John Donovan to split up Empire Bay and distribute territory to three other factions not unlike what Lincoln did with New Bordeaux. This time though, this is a much larger city in a much, much different part of the United States. The empire building mechanics would be a lot smoother, more robust, and streamlined compared to Mafia III. They would work similarly a more modernized version of how the hit city sandbox game Scarface: The World Is Yours handled it's empire building and management mechanics, minus the whole switching to other characters lower on the ladder to do your bidding. This would be ideal for a story rich organized crime game in my opinion. Here are my ideas for those factions, all close allies of the up and coming Scaletta crime family.
The Cuban mob led by Alma Diaz. Vito goes way back with Alma, and she does not hesitate to answer him and Lincoln's calls to save Joe's life and royally fuck both Leo Galante and the Vinci family.
Conti crime family, led by Enzo Conti. This Conti crime family formed sometime in late 1968, months after Lincoln helped Enzo flee New Bordeaux and drop off of Sal Marcano's radar. It turns out he fled north to Empire Bay and finally formed his own family, having more than enough years of experience in the underworld to handle the job. Lincoln's tight with him and manages to recruit him to Vito and Joe's cause.
The Yakuza, based out of Empire Bay's Japantown. Longtime sworn enemies of the Empire Bay Triads, with bad blood going back decades. They would greatly enjoy seeing Mr. Chu and his son's heads mounted on pikes, along with whacking everyone who's ever supported their organization. You don't know them well, and they're known to be very unpredictable and ruthless. Use these traits to your advantage when taking on the Commission of Empire Bay and their friends.
I should mention as expected, this entire 1973 section where you play as Vito is much shorter than Mafia III. Vito's takeover is shown much more quickly over time than Lincoln's, and there's time skips during it, to keep it short and sweet, and to show onscreen only what's important. There is also no option for your underbosses to betray you, as to reduce confusion and keep the story consistently the same each playthrough, like the first two Mafia games.
However, unlike Mafia III, after all of these tasks are completed and every single assassination target on Vito’s kill list is dealt with, the game does not end. In fact, it's not even anywhere near close to being over yet. Vito's 1973 section was merely the beginning act. It was really a lead up to an entirely new Mafia story, centering around a newcomer to the American mob. Fast forward two years following Vito’s rampage that led to him taking over Empire Bay and the Commission, in the year 1975 him and Joe now rule Empire Bay, with Vito as the Don of the Scaletta Crime Family, and Joe working as his loyal underboss. You play the rest of the game as a young up and coming soldato named Louis in his 20’s, who’s a rising star in Vito’s organization. Do right by Mr. Scaletta and Mr. Barbaro, understand kid?
My basic idea for the character and his backstory is that he's a young Italian-Canadian mobster from Toronto, Ontario, or whatever Mafia's equivalent of it could be called. Let's call him Louis DeSimone. His family hails from Tuscany in Italy and moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1939, shortly after World War II broke out in Europe. Louis DeSimone was born in July 1952 in Toronto, and was raised in Toronto's Little Italy. Being northern Italian and hailing from Tuscany, Louis has blond hair and green eyes, making him visually very distinct from past series protagonists, who were all dark haired brunets with brown eyes. Louis fled south to Empire Bay when the feds started cracking down on his old family and put his boss in prison, and he ended up finding a new home with the Scaletta crime family. The first few missions playing as Louis DeSimone involve shooting your away out of an arrest by a Toronto Police Service SWAT team in Toronto in December 1974, seeing the rest of the members of your old crime family either get arrested or shot in front of you as you make your escape. You spend the next two missions fleeing Ontario through Quebec and upstate New York, before finally arriving in Empire Bay in early 1975, late January to be exact. Winter is in full force with snow everywhere, Louis' arrival to Empire Bay for the first time in his life mirroring Vito's return to Empire Bay in 1945 30 years earlier, except under far different much more dire circumstances. Louis' older brother and his father, both capos in his old crime family in Toronto, are shown to be arrested by the TPS SWAT team in his first mission, the same one that attempted to gun him down when he resisted arrested. Louis knows someone had to have ratted out his old crime family, and he wants to find out who someday. The thing is though, he doesn't just want to kill them. He wants to get out of them why they did it before he kills them. More than anything else, he just wants to find out why his crime family was betrayed and served up to the feds on a silver platter, having most of his biological family sent to prison in the process. He’s out to uncover the mystery of why his family fell apart, and he’s more than willing to help people like Don Vito Scaletta and his underboss Joe Barbaro to eventually get the answers he seeks. In the end, he’s not even after revenge primarily, more than that, he wants answers and information regarding the fare of his old crime family, and wants to know why his family fell apart. I came up with the idea for this character because I figured that playing as a fugitive from the law made sense for the mob life, and I'm surprised we haven't had a fugitive protagonist in the Mafia series yet.
In the 1975 chapters while playing as Louis, the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon’s resignation, and the official end to the Vietnam War are all discussed on the in-game radio during news segments. In the last 1979 chapter, the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan War is also the subject of a news segment on the radio.
The story eventually transitions into the 1980's as years pass, with the scenery, cars, and music changing accordingly, and historical events of the time discussed in the game. In the 1989 section of the game, the murder of the infamous former Sinclair Parish Sheriff Walter “Slim” Beaumont is mentioned on the in-game radio, as just over 21 years ago Slim and his corruption ring were the top headline of national news. the time the game ends, it's 1992, and significant historical events from the past few years at the time that are covered on the radio in-game include anything from the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, to the 1992 L.A. riots. The rise of the internet and home computers are briefly touched upon during news segments on the in-game radio during the early 1990's section of the story, but not greatly delved into given their relative infancy in that time period. During this entire 1975-1992 stretch of the story, Vito is no longer playable, and Don Scaletta takes a backseat in the story as a main supporting character, similar to Don Salieri throughout Mafia: Definitive Edition. You now play as the Italian-Canadian Scaletta family soldato Louis DeSimone, who is later promoted to being a capo in 1985. At the end of the game in 1992, Louis is promoted to Consigliere of the Scaletta crime family, and it’s revealed in the epilogue that he became the don of the family in 2006 at the age of 54, and his now released from prison older brother serving as his underboss, and and Enzo Conti’s grandson Giovanni Conti serving as consigliere, taking over from Louis’ previous position which before that belonged to his father and Enzo’s only son, Lorenzo Conti from 1973-1992. It is worth noting that unlike Don Salieri, Don Scaletta has much more integrity, and has more genuine loyalty for his men and his associates. If you've beaten Mafia 1 or Mafia: Definitive Edition, you'll know this is something Salieri lacked in the end. Over time, Louis also goes from having a strictly business relationship with Vito and Joe, to bonding with them and becoming a genuinely close friend and trusted member of the family, seeing Vito as something of a second father, and coming to see Joe as the fun uncle he never had. Another major character development theme is Louis DeSimone adapting and assimilating into Italian-American culture in his new home in the Northeastern US, it seeming like something new mixed with the familiar Italian-Canadian culture he was raised in back in Ontario just north of the border.
The game will include a number of hit music from the 70’s that played on the radio back then, such as Bobby Womack’s Across 110th Street and Tony Christie’s (Is This the Way to) Amarillo, The Grateful Dead's Casey Jones and at least a few songs by the then new American rock band Cheap Trick, as well as popular songs from the 1960’s people still listened to at the time, such as Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ Wooly Bully, King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man, Zager and Evans' In the Year 2525, The Zombies' Time of the Season, and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. When you progress through the game, especially after you switch to playing as Louis DeAngelo for the rest of the story, years change, and the music changes. Different songs start playing on the radio, such as Sylvester's You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Randy Crawford's Street Life, and The Village People's Y.M.C.A., Cheryl Lynn's Got to Be Real, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, and the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive start playing in the 1979 portion of the game. After you've completed the 1975 section of the game, Foghat's Slow Ride starts playing on the radio. Starting in the 1977 section of the game, Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me and Heart's Barracuda start playing on the radio. In the 1980's portion of the game, Thomas Dolby's songs Hyperactive! and She Blinded Me with Science, in addition to Night Ranger's Sister Christian also start playing on the radio. If Hangar 13 can afford the licenses, I also think a few Michael Jackson and Madonna songs should definitely be on the radio during the 1980's portion of the story, given the immense popularity and regular radio airtime those two had in that decade. If this ended up being possible, I imagine that Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Bad, and Billie Jean being on the radio in the 80's sections would be a must, Smooth Criminal especially because of how well it suits the series. Madonna's Lucky Star, Burning Up, Like a Virgin, and Borderline would also be perfect for the 80's portion of the game to me. Also mentioned by NPCs and civilians in the game are topical events of the time period, such as the release of the groundbreaking 1973 horror film The Exorcist at the end of Vito's playable portion of the game.
Other music of the 1980's segment when playing as Louis DeAngelo for the remainder of the game includes hits of the era such as Joe Jackson's Steppin' Out, The Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star, Corey Hart's Sunglasses at Night, Laura Branigan's Self Control and Gloria, The Weather Girls' It's Raining Men, A-ha’s Take On Me, Men at Work's Down Under, Kim Wilde's Kids in America, The Gap Band's You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon, Michael Sembello’s Maniac, Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock and We're Not Gonna Take It, Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive and Bad Medicine, Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible, Rick Astley’s Together Forever, Whenever You Need Somebody, and Never Gonna Give You Up, Cutting Crew’s [I Just] Died In Your Arms, Loverboy's Working for the Weekend, Dead or Alive's You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) and That's the Way (I Like It), Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now, Daryl Hall & John Oates' Maneater, Aneka's Japanese Boy, Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood, Girls, Girls, Girls and Kickstart My Heart, Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire, Huey Lewis And The News' Hip To Be Square, Bill Medley's (I've Had) The Time of My Life, The Police's Every Breath You Take, Whodini's Magic's Wand, Guns ‘N Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle and Paradise City, Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me, Regina's Baby Love, Nena's 99 Red Balloons, Earth, Wind, and Fire's Let's Groove and September, Billy Idol's Eyes Without a Face and White Wedding, Rick James’ Give It To Me Baby, Olivia Newton-John’s Physical, The S.O.S. Band’s Take Your Time (Do It Right), Kenny Loggins’ Highway to the Danger Zone, Wham!’s Everything She Wants, George Michael's Careless Whisper, Toto's Hold the Line and Africa, Blondie's Heart of Glass and Atomic, and Mai Tai's History.
**Note that not every single year and moment of the 17 year 1975-1992 section playing as Louis DeAngelo is playable or chronicled. My idea is it would be handled similarly to how the time skips in Mafia 1/Mafia: Definitive Edition were handled. Time skips of two or more years, or in this case, even longer such as 4 years sometimes, the game skipping from 1979 to 1983. This is to keep the game and story length ideal, and not risk it getting boring or repetitive, or going on for too long. Repetition was a big problem in Mafia III even if I still thought it was a superb game, so I think it'd be best to learn from that for the next big entry. The games story will skip ahead and show onscreen only what's significant, similar to the first Mafia game and it's remake, as well as certain aspects of Mafia II. Louis starts his section as a 22 year old fugitive soldato who got picked up by another crew south of the Canadian border, and in the epilogue of the game in 1992, is promoted to the consigliere of the Scaletta crime family at the age of 40, being set to take over the family once Vito and Joe become too old to run the day to day on a regular basis. Louis DeSimone is promoted to don of the Scaletta crime family following Vito and Joe being officially retired as of 2006. They’re both still involved and paid huge amounts of money by Louis out of respect, but keep a much lower profile by then since they have handpicked successors and aren’t worried about where the business is going.
The years chronicled in the main gameplay segments are as follows:
1973
1975
1977
1979
1983
1985
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
Much more of the rural areas and countryside outside of Empire Bay are included than what was available in Mafia II. The way rural environments are handled for this hypothetical Mafia IV is akin to how Mafia: Definitive Edition and Mafia III handled their rural environments outside the main cities, except much larger in scale, given the increased power of the current new consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. This region is based off of upstate New York and the surrounding areas across multiple states in the Northeastern US, and includes forests, fields, mountains, rivers, lakes, beaches, and small towns. Also included are other cities and towns, based off of other large cities in New York like Syracuse, Buffalo, and Rochester, where other story missions, business activities, and side missions take place, along with smaller notable places like Ithaca, Binghamton, and Utica. The entire states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio are also included, including places based off of all of their major cities and most of their notable towns in between. Large portions of Pennsylvania are included as well, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton. All of the province of Nova Scotia including the city of Halifax, and Large portions of the eastern half of the Canadian province of Ontario are included as well, including cities based off of Toronto, Ottawa, and Niagara Falls. There's even a small portion of Quebec included, including Montreal and the surrounding countryside of the province outside that city, including a few small towns in southern Quebec. The player must pass a quick border patrol check when crossing the US-Canada border in a car or other ground vehicle.
Wildlife is present in the game, mostly to add to the background, scenery, and immersion in rural environments on the map. These are all animals native to the Northeastern US, ranging from white tailed deer, coyotes, bobcats, Canada lynxes, rabbits, hares, groundhogs, gophers, beavers, raccoons, opossums, bats, chipmunks, red and gray squirrels, mice, and rats to more formidable and potentially dangerous animals that may sometimes attack the player, such as grey wolves, black bears, mountain lions, and moose. These last four animals are known to spawn in the mountainous regions, especially in New York, Ohio, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Ontario, including the rural regions based off of the Catskills and the Adirondack mountains. Dogs are present in the cities, towns, and settlements where humans live and keep them as pets, being walked and sometimes found in people's yards. Some are used as guard dogs by enemies and are aggressive towards the player on sight. Domestic cats are also present in the background of residential areas, and both Louis and Vito own them as pets throughout the game in their safe houses, as well as other onscreen characters we see the homes of throughout the game.
Aircraft make their first usable appearance in the Mafia series too, from airplanes to helicopters. Vito cannot use planes or helicopters in his playable 1973 portion of the game, as he does not know how to pilot, being a paratrooper in World War II who never actually flew any of the planes himself. Aircraft are unlocked to use when Louis DeSimone gets his pilot’s certificate offscreen in 1977, and at the end of a chapter set that year, Louis has to fly Vito in a helicopter to a penthouse in Downtown Empire Bay acting as a family safe house, equipped with a helipad. Louis frequently serves as a personal driver and pilot for both Vito and Joe afterwards, having done a lot in his time serving the family to earn their trust and respect.
Melee weapons also make a return from Mafia: Definitive Edition, with even more variety this time. In their respective sections of the game, Vito and Louis may use anything from baseball bats, pipes, shovels, brass knuckles, golf clubs, police batons, switchblades, kitchen knives, bowie knives, ice picks, 2x4s, claw hammers, crowbars, tire irons, chain links, machetes, meat cleavers, pickaxes, hatchets, sledgehammers, to fire axes. This amount of melee weapons is so no matter what environment the player finds themselves in during a mission or any other game activity, there is usually a weapon of some sort nearby. If the player has obtained piano wire, you may also strangle an enemy to death with it from behind as a stealth kill, this being a classic assassination method infamous for being used by the Italian Mafia. Rope can also be found and used for similar strangulation stealth kills, appearing in the gameplay environments where piano wire can’t be found. There is a wide variety of new guns and explosives to use in this concept for Mafia IV, going with the new weapons of the time the game takes place that criminals quickly got their hands on. This includes the SPAS-12 combat shotgun, the Beretta 92 pistol, the AK-74 assault rifle, the mini uzi, the MAC-10 submachine gun, both suppressed and unsuppressed variants, the Beretta 92 pistol, the Taurus raging bull revolver, Glock handguns, the TEC-9 machine pistol, illegally modified to be full auto, the Ruger Mini-14 full auto variant, and even Vietnam war era flamethrowers, which I think is only natural given that as of Mafia III, we already have RPGs and grenade launchers. Late in the game from the 1989 section and onwards, the Benelli M3 combat shotgun becomes available. The Milkor MGL grenade launcher becomes available beginning in the 1983 portion of the game. Attached grenade launchers are also available for the AK-47, AK-74, and M16 assault rifles. More advanced rocket launchers of the 1970’s and 1980’s are naturally included as well.
Free ride makes a return in Mafia IV, with the player having the options to change the weather, time period, and an option to play as Louis, Vito, Joe, Lincoln, or John Donovan. Naturally, a multitude of new free ride missions are available as well.
I previously posted a much earlier and less detailed draft of this on the old Mafia3 subreddit 3 years ago back in 2017 as an idea for a hypothetical Mafia 3 expansion where you play as Vito, but have since updated and revamped it to a possible Mafia IV plot, and fixed any plot holes I noticed and made it much more fleshed out and in depth, and focus on more than just Vito in the end. You may view my original here if you so desire, to compare. https://www.reddit.com/Mafia3/comments/6sldhp/spoiler_mafia_iii_vito_dlc_basic_plot_idea/
Feel free to give me constructive criticism on this, as I encourage this discourse and believe it is integral to growing and improving, to build upon or improve these ideas I've come up with, or say whether or not you think something like this should happen in the future. Thank you for reading!

Thank you to everyone who has followed this series or voted for it's creation. I'm glad you've enjoyed it and I'm always happy to spread the important history of the amusement industry, especially pertaining to the place that inspired me to go into the industry. For parts 1-4 scroll back in this sub or click my profile.
In 1989, Welland Securities, who owned the entire south-west side of the Hill, would develop the final portion of unused land on Clifton Hill. They would become HOCO (Harry Oakes Company) and gain ownership of almost all the attractions on land they leased out. This included Movieland, The Space Spiral Tower and the Cliffside Motel. The only attractions that would continue being leased were Ripley's and Circus World, meaning HOCO not only owned all the land on the South-West side of the hill, they now ran everything between Circus World and Ripley's, as well as the Fudge Factory (in its original spot) and an ice cream stand immediately down the hill from Circus World. They planned to keep everything that was on the hill but build on it.
Movieland was remodeled and the outside was given a more noticeable Egyptian theme to match the lobby. This meant large lion statues and Costello's talking pharaoh. The lobby was remodeled as well. Rather than a cameraman and a director filming Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, they would now be filming Costello's Indiana Jones figure, who lowered up and down on a rope above a fogging pit with a cobra rising out of it. Many of the early talkie-era stars in the hall immediately after the entrance (along with Elizabeth Taylor) were moved to 2 large display cases in the middle of the attraction with multiple figures, instead of each one having their own scene. In their original spot just inside the entrance an intentionally scary scene was created to match the popular Indiana Jones series. Many of the figures Costello had added since he became the museum's artist were slightly frightening, like a lunging alligator or a startling Joker scene with a machine gun sound effect. The museum had been expanded at the end, and a large horror section had been added, with many figures like the mummy being from the same mold as the House of Frankenstein/Castle Dracula mummys. Unlike when it would move to it's current location in 2005, the old location's chicken exit was placed before the horror section rather than the haunted house portion. In fact, there was no haunted house section, many of the figures that would end up in the haunted house section of the new location were simply scattered throughout the museum. Many of the figures in the horror section of the original museum were actually less scary and less animated than the Jurassic park scene or the alligator encountered earlier in the museum. To prevent unsuspecting parents who had no clue what kind of attraction this was dragging their children in and expecting static figures of washed-up movie stars, getting the living daylights scared out of them, then end ending up filing complaints with HOCO's customer service department, an intentionally scary scene was put at the beginning. This let people know what they were walking in to, an experience rather than a museum. Costello designed figures behind plexiglass such as a man upside down in a cocoon thrashing around, a skull that popped up from the floorboards in a scene full of snakes, a man on a bed of spikes that fell towards you, and a scene with spiders on fishing line "jumping" all over a rotting corpse.
The Cliffside Motel was amalgamated into a wing of the Quality Inn, and the driveway into it off the hill was removed as it was no longer necessary because it could be accessed from the Quality Inn parking lot. In the driveway's place was now a large empty space between Circus World and Movieland, with the Space Spiral Tower (with a relatively small footprint) stuck in the middle. HOCO called upon attraction design and layout firm White Hutchison Leisure Learning Group (WHLLG) to design an attraction around the Space Spiral that would use the final undeveloped land on Clifton Hill. And so WHLLG designed Dazzleland Family Fun Centre. Dazzleland was a courtyard of buildings arranged in roughly the same layout as the Great Canadian Midway (for reasons we'll get to later) that sits on the land now. The buildings around the outside of the courtyard were long and narrow, picture a courtyard of carnival game trailers but permanent, appealing buildings. These buildings included a Skee-ball building, a sports game building (basketball games, football toss etc.), a racing game building, a pinball building, a funnel cake shop, and the prize counter. In the back corner, roughly where the XD Theatre now is in the midway, was a larger building: an arcade housing video games and more pinball machines. In the middle of the courtyard was a small carousel, and a small building housing games that dispensed their own prizes (claw machines, prize egg games, etc.) and coin-op kiddie rides.
The Space Spiral was incorporated into Dazzleland, still being accessible directly off the hill. As mentioned in part 3, the tower was exactly where the Fudge Factory now is, as the circular store was once the loading area for the tower. At this time the snack bars beside the tower right on the hill were constructed: a pretzel/hotdog stand and an ice cream stand, both of which are still there. The Wendy's was built on top of Circus World, replacing the mini golf that had formerly been on the attraction's roof. Across the entrance to Dazzleland's courtyard from Wendy's was a Domino's Pizza, roughly where the photo booth just to your right is when entering the Great Canadian Midway now. Between the Space Spiral and the Dominos was a fortune teller machine built right into the wall: "Ask the Brain". The brain still lives on inside Movieland, except now he wants a loonie instead of a quarter. Just up the hill from the Space Spiral, on top of the hot dog and ice cream stand, a small sports bar was built. Very little is known about this sports bar, but obvious remnants of it still exists. The area of Boston Pizza closest to the hill (the back corner near the kitchen, the bar area, and the raised dining area) was the originally the sports bar. It featured a small coin-op bowling lane, arcade games, and food. The stairs in the Midway up to Boston Pizza beside Ghostblasters is the original stairs up from Dazzleland to the sports bar. Additionally, the Boston Pizza entrance closer to the hill (not the one with the big bowling pin, other one) was the main entrance to the sports bar. Little is known about the bar, including it's name. It may not have had one, simply being part of the Dazzleland complex. Many of the areas in Dazzleland didn't have a name, simply having signs heralding "Arcade", "Sports Games", "Skeeball" rather than naming the areas like the "Game Factory", "Sports Zone" or "Strike! Rock 'n Bowl" like in the Midway. For this reason, the bar may have been nameless, simply being part of the Dazzleland complex, but it's unlikely a dining establishment geared at adult nightlife wouldn't have a name.
Because the mini golf on Circus World's roof had been operated by the Cliffside Motel operators, HOCO acquired all the assets from it when they stopped leasing the land out. When the aforementioned Wendy's was built, the mini golf was moved just up the hill from the sports bar. It's entrance was right on the hill, but the course wrapped around the sports bar and ran back behind Dazzleland, between the back of Dazzleland and the parking lot of the Quality Inn. It would now be dinosaur themed and heavily landscaped. WHLLG designed the course and HOCO contracted Costello to build all the fiberglass dinosaurs. It's unknown what it's original name was, but in the early 90s, with the smash hit of Jurassic Park, it was renamed Dinosaur Park and given a similar logo. Up until the 2018 remodel, Boston Pizza had a patio. This patio was the exact location of the entrance to the mini golf, and the reason the restaurant's building curved in such a bizarre way surrounding the patio was originally to accommodate the course. Underneath the sports bar and mini golf and was an underground building accessible from a back corner of Dazzleland's courtyard. This area housed all of Dazzleland's miscellaneous ticket redemption games and 2 shooting galleries. The low-ceiling area of the Midway called the "Game Factory" is this original building. The Bonanaza Company shooting gallery is still there albeit heavily remodeled, but Blasteroids, an early project by arcade game company Lazer-Tron, was removed in 2016. Interestingly, the chase lights along the back wall of the Game Factory are Dazzleland holdovers. Between the shooting gallery and where what's left of the racing games now are is a bank of maintenance doors. If you get lucky and see them open, you'll see a stairs that was originally an entrance to Dazzleland from further up the street, beside Dinosaur Park. This now lets out somewhere in Boston Pizza's arcade (although I haven't been able to figure out where) and is used by staff to get from "a" to "b" faster.
Dazzleland has been the hardest to dig up information on in my research on Clifton Hill. Although I now know what was in each of the buildings around the outside of this "courtyard", I haven't been able to find which one was where. The only things I've confirmed is where the video game building was, what was in the building in the middle, and confirmed that the Game Factory was originally part of Dazzleland. The rest is beyond me and my memories of it have long faded. If anyone worked here or visited it frequently and has any answers, they would be greatly appreciated. Additionally there was a small pool near the front with a Costello dragon figure in it that spit water out it's mouth. I've heard conflicting reports that this was just a fountain, and others saying it was a small bumper boat or RC boat attraction, but my guess is it was just a fountain as it seems like a pretty small pool. The same year, fiberglass dragon waterslides were added to the Quality Inn pool. Although bearing striking resemblance to Costello's dinosaurs and Dazzleland dragon, at least one more of each of the dragon slides exist, all the way down in Texas. It was originally thought this Texas waterpark bought them off HOCO when Quality Inn closed, but one of the Quality Inn dragons appeared on an episode of shipping wars going to Kansas and the other was recently found abandoned on a private residential property in Niagara, proving they are in fact not the ones at the Texas waterpark. This is evidence they may have been mass produced.
By the time Dazzleland opened in 1989, it was the 8th arcade on the hill (after Circus World, Q-Balls Billiards Pub in Quality Inn, the arcade in Ripley's, the arcade in the Foxhead, the arcade in Castle Dracula, Funland in the basement of the House of Frankenstein, and an arcade that had recently opened in the Pilgrim Motel in their gift shop.) These were just the large-scale, dedicated arcades right on the hill. Many others could be found nearby in Maple Leaf Village, the Skylon, the Seagram, Pyramid Place and the Imperial Hotel as well as many mini golf courses and family fun centres along Lundy's Ln. and the QEW. Also, virtually every gift shop on Clifton Hill and Victoria Ave. had a game or 2.
The mix of arcades, haunted houses, fast food, nightlife and stores selling t-shirts and posters had started a well-known rock culture in Niagara Falls among Southern Ontario youth. The epicenter of this was "Rock World", a rock-themed gift shop that had opened in 1983 on Centre St. (the street Clifton Hill becomes just above Victoria Ave.) They would later add a second story and build Rock Legends Wax Museum above it, with all the figures sculpted by the store's owner Pasquale Rammuno. In 1996, Maple Leaf Village was replaced by Casino Niagara, and many of the attractions found new homes on Victoria Ave., including Screamers and Nightmares. The Elvis Museum, Antique Auto Museum, 50s diner nightclub, and arcade all moved to Pyramid Place adjacent to the IMAX pyramid. Screamers prospered on Victoria Ave., and 2 "sequel attractions" were built in the early 2000s: Creatures of the Night on Victoria Ave. and Horror Manothe Zombie Zoo Nightclub on Centre St. Another attraction, Alien Encounter, would open at the corner of Victoria Ave. and Clifton Hill beside the Criminals Hall of Fame. This slightly thematically darker "north of the hill" area with the Screamers chain, the Criminals Hall of Fame, Rock Legends, Nightmares and Alien Encounter became a "main strip" all in it's own.
As mentioned before, since the cabin courts were all town down in the early 50s, nothing had been torn down on Clifton Hill. The only exception was the Houdini Hall of Fame that burnt to ash in 1996. Some of Houdini's Last Words were claiming that anything revealing his secrets would perish in flame, and even though the fire completely leveled the museum, the plywood and fiberglass paneled House of Frankenstein only separated from it by a 2-foot wide alley was completely untouched, leading a lot of Houdini's fans to believe he was conducting some kind of post-mortem practical joke. The metal objects like handcuffs and the water tank could be saved, and were bought by David Copperfield. Ripley's Moving Theatre was built in it's place. Over the 30 years from Tussaud's opening in 1959 to Dazzleland in 1989, Clifton Hill had expanded and filled up the land. However that didn't mean it was time to tear things down. Things were simply moved around or remodeled to keep them fresh, not out of an unwillingness to change, but because these things had become ingrained in the landscape. Examples of this were Tussaud's moving to its current home in the old building of a restaurant that had since moved on Victoria Ave., rather than the attraction shutting down, or the Adventure Dome Theatre oepneing in part of the Honeymoon City's gift shop. In Tussaud's old place was built the MGM walkthrough/store, Pink Panther ride and 4D Ride in 2002. The beer garden beside it was replaced with the WWE building and the Piledriver ride, but the beer area was moved to between the 2 attractions. In 2004 the Foxhead's arcade was expanded and re-themed into the Marvel Superheros Adventure City.
Another great example of re-freshing an existing attraction was Dazzleland. A simple realization was made, more games = more money and higher guest enjoyment. The outdoor courtyard style with it's room for walkways between the buildings was re-designed, and HOCO again called upon WHLLG. WHLLG designed not only a remodel of Dazzleland, but an incredible 5-step plan that would have made Clifton Hill financially on par with a major theme park. Steps 1-3 came to fruition. Step 1 was remodeling Dazzleland into the Great Canadian Midway in 2002. The level, concrete foundation Dazzleland was built on was kept as the foundation of the Midway, hence why it has the same layout. The former video game building at the back became the FX Ride Theatre (now XD Theatre/Wild West Coaster) in the Midway. The funnel cake shop was kept where it was in Dazzleland except now it was in the Midway, between the FX Ride and the Prize Counter. The area housing Dazzleland's ticket redemption games became the Game Factory. The middle building housing the claw games and kiddie rides was demolished, as it was no longer needed because the Midway was fully indoors and there was now a massive space to put games. The sports bar was expanded and became Boston Pizza, so Dinosaur Park was moved to in front of the Comfort Inn. Under the expanded Boston Pizza, Sally Corp. was hired to build the interactive Ghostblasters dark ride. All of Dazzleland's old games made the transition into the Midway, however very few are still around.
With the Midway making serious buck, HOCO went ahead with phase 2 of WHLLG's plan. Movieland was moved to Circus World's former location in 2005, and Circus World's owners moved the attraction to what was then the popular Victoria Ave. area. In Movieland's old home, Cosmic Golf, a blacklight golf was temporarily set up. 2 years later in 2007, the golf moved to it's permanent home in the basement becoming Galaxy Golf and the gift shop that had been formerly in the basement was moved upstairs. Movieland retained all the figures and sets they had at the time of the move, moving them all into the new space. All the scary elements were put in the new "House of Horrors", a small optional haunted house at the end of the attraction.
Phase 3 involved beginning to demolish the only thing that WHLLG's 5 phase plan would have torn down: Quality Inn. In it's place an amusement park would have been built, anchored by Canada's largest ferris wheel. The wheel would be phase 3 and the amusement park phase 4. Though both WHLLG and HOCO recognized the historical value of the hotel, it had reasons to go. The hotel may have been full of your usual hazardous mid-century building materials (however Comfort Inn built by the same firm the same year was found to have no hazardous materials when it was torn down in 2015, so who knows) but the main issue was elevators and the amount of space it took up. Comfort Inn only had 2 wings, one on each side of the lobby, and only 2 elevators would have needed to be installed. This wasn't legally necessary, as no law states that buildings of age absolutely have to be 100% accessible, it was more something HOCO wanted to do. Quality Inn had multiple wings that weren't accessible from one another, so an elevator would need to be installed in each wing. In addition to the elevator issue, Comfort Inn was chosen as the hotel to keep because the building was integrated with Kelsey's, Rumors Nightclub, Ripley's, and Dinosaur Park, all of which wouldn't have been touched in WHLLG's 5 phase plan. Finally, Comfort Inn's land wasn't big enough for an amusement park whereas Quality Inn's was. 2 things would justify the demolition of Quality Inn. One, it's sister hotel, Comfort Inn, would have been kept. The other reason justifying the demolition would be phase 5: a skyscraper hotel and indoooutdoor waterpark in the field between Clifton Hill and the Skylon Tower. The dragon figures from Quality Inn's pool were kept in HOCO's storage for a time for this waterpark. The final vision can be seen here.
Phase 3 would go ahead in 2006, with the lobby, Golden Griddle and Q-Balls Billiard pub of Quality Inn being torn down and the Skywheel built in it's place. For the last year Quality Inn was open, you would need to register at Comfort Inn's lobby. The same year, the Space Spiral was torn down, as 2 observation attractions wouldn't be needed on the hill. However, a new spiral tower would have been constructed during phase 4 in the theme park. The reason the tower would be demolished rather than moved was because a tower manufactured by the same company in Wildwood, NJ, had begun to sway a few years earlier, resulting in it needing to be removed entirely for safety reasons. Phase 4 was set to go ahead in 2010, so in 2009 the remainder of Quality Inn was demolished. It seemed as though everything would fall into place, and with the exception of Quality Inn making it's sacrifice, everything on Clifton Hill that had been there for 20-60 years would be there forever, just greatly expanded on.
Unfortunately, this came at a turning point for Clifton Hill, when the recession was in full swing and tourism had declined since 9/11. Changing technology and interests, but no real nostalgia trend yet, created a perfect storm, and the idea was scrapped. Especially now that there would be no amusement park, a lot of area attractions closed. HOCO now needed to find a new design company to completely re-design the project. The problem was, Quality Inn was already torn down to make way for the amusement park. HOCO reluctantly found a new design company who had no projects under their belt yet, IDS. HOCO was hopeful the Canadian company could help give them a similar vision to their previous 5 stage plan, that would help them re-use many of the already implemented stages and despite scrapping the amusement park, would simply scale down and redesign the hotel. This was done in hopes that the city would be much more likely to approve just another high rise hotel than an amusement park as well. IDS' new plan was much different than what HOCO was looking for. It featured tearing down Ripley's, Comfort Inn, Kelsey's, and Rumours Nightclub and building a Titanic Museum shaped like the boat. It also featured building a large mall within the hotel rather than a waterpark and relocating and expanding Dinosaur Park into Dinosaur Adventure Golf on Quality Inn's old land. While HOCO thankfully chose not to go ahead with the mall and Titanic Museum, they would build Dinosaur Adventure Golf and work with IDS to make a more feasible plan that better suited Clifton Hill.
The new plan featured Dinosaur Adventure Golf and Strike! Rock 'n Bowl as phase 1. It also included removing a lot of the thematic brand identity elements WHLLG had implemented to coincide with their final amusement park vision and replacing Galaxy Golf with Wizard's Golf as phase 2. Phase 3 would feature tearing down Comfort Inn (that never got it's elevators due to it no longer being planned to be kept), building Niagara Speedway in it's place, and removing Rumors Nightclub to accommodate the new Kelsey's bathrooms and Zombie Attack. Phase 4 would feature remodelling Wendy's, Boston Pizza and Kelsey's. Phase 5 would feature a mall (no hotel) in the field between Dinosaur Adventure Golf and the Skylon, but this final phase will likely never come to fruition.
Multiple attractions have closed since the late 2000's, such as the entire Screamers chain, Circus World, The Criminals Hall of Fame, Funland Arcade and Alien Encounter. The Hilltop Motel became the current home of the Upside Down House, and the Pilgrim Motel became Captain Jack's. Ironically, the only part of the building that's not part of the entertainment centre is a Mini Mart at the back that was the original arcade in the Pilgrim. Virtually everything in the Falls. Ave. complex other than Rainforest Cafe and the 4D theatre is gone. Marvel Superheroes Adventure City lost its license after Disney bought Marvel, and it simply became Adventure City. The Hulk Mini Golf became jungle themed, Spider-Man references were (poorly) removed from the dark ride, and X-men referenced were (also poorly) removed from the bumper cars. References to Marvel can still be found in the arcade, such as Spider-Man's face on a tree that was only covered up a few years ago. The WWE Store, after being abandoned since 2012, was turned into the Niagara Brewery Beer Store in 2016, fitting considering the land's history as a beer garden. Planet Hollywood on Falls Ave. closed around 2014, and is still abandoned. The MGM walkthrough was abandoned for over 10 years before becoming a barbecue restaurant in 2019.
The changes in the Falls Ave. complex are an example of good change, replacing abandoned attractions with ones that if anything are closer to what used to be there, such as Adventure City becoming an unthemed arcade again or the Beer Store being where the Beer Garden once was. Another example of this good change would be the long abandoned (and burnt) Adventure Dome that had briefly held a Lego attraction being turned into the Amazing Big Top Mirror and Lazer Maze in 2017. However a perfect example of negative change is the Rock Legends Wax Museum being forced out of business because a YouTube video of the museum was flagged for copyrighted music by YouTube's algorithms. This lead Sony Music to investigate the museum and shut it down last year if it wouldn't pay ridiculous licensing fees, which it couldn't afford.
Another example is IDS' redevelopment plan. HOCO is now locked in a contract with them, even though they obviously have very different ideas on the direction of Clifton Hill. Phase 1 was implemented in 2011, with Boston Pizza expanding their arcade to include Strike! Rock 'n Bowl and Dinosaur Park moving to where Quality Inn was and being renamed Dinosaur Adventure Golf. All of Costello's original dinosaurs (with the exception of the original Pterodactyl) would "migrate" to the new location where they would be joined by dozens of new mass-produced dinosaurs. Interestingly, foundations were built back in 2011 for the original 2 Brontosaurs to appear as if they were coming out of the ponds, but they wouldn't show up until 2019 when they were brought back out of storage to be installed, only to lay on the ground for a few months before going back into storage. Although it didn't use new hand-made figures, this attraction was a change that fits the spirit of Clifton Hill and was a good replacement for the empty plot of land that had once housed Quality Inn, even if an amusement park would have been better. The same cannot be said about the rest of IDS' plan. Many thematic elements installed throughout the hill by WHLLG (especially in Movieland and the Midway) were removed in phase 2 in 2013 simply to fit with IDS's image better, costing HOCO a lot of money. Phase 3 went ahead in 2015, and the 60 year old Comfort Inn was demolished, along with the old HOCO offices in it that if you remember from part 1, was the original nearly 200 year old stable building for the Zimmerman estate. Niagara Speedway was built in it's place, and if you look at the prices to drive it, then watch how many people do, you realize just how much they're making off it. Rumors Nightclub, originally the Queen's Door Nightclub in 1956, was gutted and turned into Zombie Attack and the new Kelsey's bathrooms, as the old ones had been in the Comfort Inn building. Phase 4 in 2018 extensively remodeled Wendy's as well as Boston Pizza, removing the patio.
Ghostblasters is now the final untouched WHLLG era attraction on the land. This is made even more troubling by the fact the signs for it were just removed and replaced with temporary ones, as I said in the post that started the entire discussion on whether or not I should do this series. If the attraction does go, we can only hope that a new interactive dark ride utilizing artistry, dimensional scenes and props much like Ghostblasters does is built, however that likely won't be the case. Triotech is the lead designer of ride through shooting games, that feature a dark ride car that travels through a hallway with screens on each side of it rather than real props. Triotech has dealt with HOCO before, building both the Wild West Coaster and Zombie Attack, so all signs point to one of these attractions replacing Ghostblasters if it closes.
There is still hope that Clifton Hill can retain it's spirit, but it stands at a crossroads. The House of Frankenstein for example, while retaining many original scenes, has had many removed and replaced with nothing, and many areas of the museum taken out entirely. Castle Dracula on the other hand hasn't updated a thing, but hasn't cared for the original scenes either, leaving them to fall into disrepair and only having 7 or 8 of the original 70 still lit, and none of them still functional. There are 2 directions Clifton Hill can go. With many attractions like the ones on HOCO's side being demolished to make way for whatever is trendy and lucrative, and many hanging on by a thread like Castle Dracula or Ghostblasters, the Hill is in real danger of becoming an endlessly overturning and developing area. However, with money recently being poured back into attractions like the Haunted House, Ripley's, and Guinness and attractions being redeveloped like the Falls Ave. complex or the Big Top Mirror maze, there is hope. If people, including the companies that own them, can recognise the historical value of attractions like Castle Dracula, The House of Frankenstien, Movieland, Tussaud's, etc., this can be promoted and the recent nostalgia boom can create large profits if this is played up. Additionally, future developments can still be more in the vein of what WHLLG envisioned for Clifton Hill, or what the Burlands recently did with the well done Big Top Mirror Maze. This is both profitable and economically sensible, as repeat customers that make memories and come to the area for generations with occasional new updates/re-themings (like what Clifton Hill did from the 50s-2010s), is far more profitable than a constantly turning over wave of new developments that cost millions to build that changes with each generation.
Thank you to everyone who has followed this series. Sorry for the length of this, but I promised this would be the last installment, so it has to be longer. If you have any information pertaining to Dazzleland or anything you know that I didn't cover in this series, let me know. Additionally, if you would like me to dig up photos on anything that I mentioned in the series, let me know, as unless it's the Dazzleland dragon, I probably have a photo of it. I will likely post many of them here anyway in time. Thanks again.

If you haven't had time to listen to seven hours of podcast interviews, or you didn't retain everything you heard, here are some key points. I didn't think to do this until just now, so I'll be posting it as a work in progress and updating it throughout the afternoon. That way more people will have a chance to read up before the premiere.
Karishma Patel, 37, Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, Houston, TX -First generation Indian-American Her mom was as a legal assistant, and got her a filing job at her law firm when she was 14. "I didn't have other options. I was basically told I was going to be a lawyer and I didn't disagree."She has watched every season and regularly listens to RHAP. She sits close to the TV to study the inflections on people's faces when something is said to them, so that she can think about what that means. But, her parents and husband don't share her enthusiasm for the show. Asked if it's her dark pleasure she says, "It is completely bright. It is a beautiful pleasure of mine, but it is mine and mine only. I haven't been able to find people to share it with." -Doing the show has caused her conflict. "Not only is it not expected, it's not allowed. It's kind of like being a disobedient Indian girl. You're not supposed to be doing this. What you're supposed to be doing is having babies. But I don't care. I'm a risk taker. I'm here to prove to myself that I don't need to listen to anybody else. I don't need permission from anybody else. This is my journey and I'm going to take it. I hope that people watching out there can see that an Indian woman's value does not come from doing what she's told." -She doesn't currently have children, and she says she has some decisions to make as she enters a crossroads and the next stage of her life. -Her law firm told her they'll replace her if they're able to find someone, and she can have her job back if they don't. "I didn't flinch." -Her strategy is to be non-threatening and play a social game. She doesn't look 37, and she wants to use that youthfulness to be disarming. She wants to build relationships other people believe in. She defines success by other people vouching for her loyalty when they go off and have private conversations with one another. "That means I got 'em, because it's actually the other way around." Asked if she wants to find someone she can trust, "I'm not going to be capable of it. I'm too skeptical for that. I overthink things, so I'm not going to be able to trust somebody the way I want to be trusted... If I do, that's the end of my game."
My take: Oh my God. Poor Karishma. Her story hurts my heart. She reminds me so much of myself in her isolation, her defiance and her deep feelings. I worry that her fear of trusting people could get in the way of her forming genuine bonds. But, there's nothing she can do. Society has made her the way she is. I hope she gets a lot of screen time so she can be a star of her favorite show.
Missy Byrd, 24, Military Veteran/App Developer, Tacoma, Washington -Originally from Georgia. Her family was 'decently poor.' She played basketball for the Air Force Academy because she thought it was her ticket out. -She had a brain tumor. She stopped menstruating for a year and two quarters. "I'm not dating anyone but I have breast milk. I'm a literal cow... I would look down and my shirt would be wet, and I thought, 'Dang you're clumsy. I knew you were clumsy, but you're clumsier today than you were yesterday. But it was - it was - uhh - milk." She had crying fits. She developed a stutter and couldn't look at people. Doctors told her she was just stressed. When her dad died she couldn't process emotions normally. She was about to go to the French version of the Air Force Academy, École de l'air, after graduation but because of her mental instability she was removed from school. The military shipped her to the same Air Force base as Sandra (Fort Lewis.) "I don't want to be there. Super sad. Check into the post office - fuck this. Check into the dorms - hate that." The doctor there found the tumor. She got an MRI and all weekend she believed she might have cancer. Over the next year and a half she eliminated the tumor and the symptoms using vitamins. She enlisted and worked logistics. -She made a list of the things she wanted to do now that she was going to live. "The first thing was go see Beyonce. Beyonce costs way too much money for a normal person to go see, but if you've just almost had a near death experience you go see Beyonce, bro!" She was feet away. She drove across the country. She tried weed. -She had an idea for an app, but didn't even have the computer literacy to use social media. She found a veteran's association and asked if she could intern. "They said, 'No, you should build this out yourself. We want to work for you.' I said, 'No, the fuck you don't. Okay, lemme call my grandma.'" She wrote a grant proposal and won a $1,500 office space in the center of Seattle. "Just to do whatever I want. It was like a laboratory for a child. I had Play-Dough up there. I had a white board... Just mind blowing shit when I could have been dead." -She'd seen every episode of Survivor at least three times. She started watching because her Air Force Academy basketball team was getting decimated, and she related to Foa Foa getting decimated in Survivor: Samoa. She added the show to her list. Josh suggests, "The bugs are eating you because they want some of that magic." -She isn't going to tell people her story until she's in the Final 3. "That's that Final 3 magic." She doesn't want to overly rely on strategy. She doesn't want to win individual challenges. She to build a social game and find ways to relate to everyone.
My take: She's so full of exuberance. There's not a negative bone in her body right now. She's too young and her life experience is too necessarily limited to talk around three years of her life. If she shares her story, the beauty of her perspective will cause everyone to fall in love with her and want her to do well. If she doesn't, people will sense that she's hiding a lot. I think she'll figure that out and course correct within the first day. Since she was at the same Air Force base as Sandra and she was a massive fan, does that suggest she knows her?
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Ronnie Bardah, 35, Professional Poker Player, Henderson, Nevada-Born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts, 20 minutes south of Boston. They were the only Israeli family in town. 50% of the people in Brockton were from Cape Verde, and he considers himself an "honorary Cape Verdian." A couple of his friends were shot and killed at a young age. -He was a good kid and had a good heart, but he was always hustling. In Junior High he was flipping Oatmeal Cakes and Fudge Rounds for a profit. Slinging baseball cards. Both his parents gambled. They were always at the dog tracks or Mohegan Sun. He had his friend make him a fake ID and got stuck with the name Alaja Jones. He went by Al and started playing the casinos. Quit his job at Sears Automotive to play poker full time.-He played Atlantic City, Vegas, then internationally. He had his first big score in 2010 when he took 24th place in the main event for $320,000. Got to keep $150,000 after taxes. "Poker's a hard way to make an easy living. Lots of people try. We risk every day. You have to get to a point when you can manage your bankroll and I've never gone broke in the 16 years I've played." -In one of the most viewed poker hands of all time, he was bluffed out of a million dollar pot by a supermodel on a poker TV show filmed in Monaco. "She made a sick play. She had no idea what she was doing but all the stars were aligned."-He watched Borneo when it aired and got back into it when fellow poker player Anna Khait was on. He calls Jean-Robert, "kinda a lazy guy...He's really good at befriending multi-millionaires." "Anna Khait... is probably the least poker player out of all of us. She played for a couple years." "And then Garrett - He's a very, very smart, smart kid... Self-made millionaire. One of the very, very few." -He only drank water for 7.5 days and lost 25 pounds for his health and to get an idea of the conditions of the show. He thinks he'll thrive in the survival situation. "People like being around me. I like to fucking bust balls and joke." He thinks old school alliances are a good plan, but you have to adapt. He says that like in poker, Survivor players can have every advantage, but they have to really smell it. -He wants Vince out. "There's an Asian Zeke in there. What value does he bring besides ruining people and getting in people's heads? He's a liability in challenges. He looks like a little corn puff. We gotta get him outta here. Sorry to sound so mean but it's the truth."
My take: Ruuuuude. He has no way of knowing how other people on the cast are talking in their interviews, and may assume the trash talk is standard. If he were playing on some seasons it would be. But, in this particular season it sets him apart in an unflattering way, and it seems a part of the tough persona he's built up to escape a scary situation growing up and enter a fantasy career. We'll see whether his tribe thinks he's a straight talking character or a jerk.
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Tom Laidlaw, Former NHL Player, Brampton, Ontario, Canada -He was with the New York Rangers for 7 years and the LA Kings for 4. Now he has his own podcast, True Grit Life (truegritlife.com). Does it with a friend, Kevin Allen, who writes for USA Today. Does motivational speaking. -Growing up on a dairy farm outside Toronto there was a pond to water the cows. It froze over in the winters and he'd play hockey because there wasn't much else to do. Went to Northern Michigan University - four year hockey captain, ranked #1 team in the country. Drafted as a 20 year old. "My buddy had a horse farm. We were cleaning horse shit out of the stalls. There were no cell phones back then. This is 1978. My father got a call at our farm house from the New York Rangers at the draft. Back then nobody went to the draft - it was just teams. They said I'd been drafted in the sixth round. He calls the farm house where I'm working. They bring me up. He says, 'Son, you've been drafted by the Rangers.' I said, 'Great. What do I do now?' He says, 'Finish cleaning the shit out of the stalls.'" -When he played intimidation and fighting was strategy. There were guys tougher than him, but he could fight and he could also play. Problem was, he fought a guy once, and from then on the guy wanted to fight him over and over. -Jerry Bruckheimer, big hockey fan, called the NHL and wanted to get some players on the Amazing Race. Tom had kept himself in shape, he had his passport. They ended up asking him about Survivor. He'd watched it before but not for a while. He wasn't so sure he wanted to play a game where you hurt other people, but friends helped him get his head around it. He was very impressed by Christian's toughness in the endurance challenge. To prepare for the show he studied how he reacted to different situations, how to control his heart heart, etc. He wants the mental challenge.
My take: Tom really ticked me off when he spoiled a couple of outcomes of this season. That's a betrayal of the producers, his cast and the viewers. But, if that hadn't happened I would like him. He's an easy-going, charming guy. His life experiences are a bit different than anyone else who's been on the show, which is what you want.
Vince Moua, 27, Admissions Counselor, Merced, CA -His family is Hmong. His parents lived in Vietnam in the destruction left by the war - dead bodies, guns, people who wanted to kill them. They went to refugee camps in Thailand. Then his dad became a Montana farm hand. He met Vince's mom in the US, but she came from the same place. -Vince is from small town Merced, California - the 209. Few people he knew went anywhere but the UC system and community college. He went to Stanford, one of only 7-10 Hmong. He realized the significance someone can bring to people from the same community. He tried to be pre-med but realized "no, not today." The issues of access he cared about came well before people got to the hospital. He ended up going with education. His mom was a teacher, "But when I was growing up she said, 'Yo, if you become a teacher Imma disown yo ass.' To all of us. But, that's always kinda been my jam." -He lived in South Korea for five years. He taught English in a town. Then in Seoul ahed worked with low and middle income students who wanted to study outside of Korea. -He's a Survivor superfan, who even mentions on his Tinder account that he plans to be on Survivor. His parents were worried about him doing TV because he's not out as gay to his extended family. He comes from a clan where his dad is the "top dog" and Vince is "the next top dog." In the Asian American/Pacific Islander community when you come out, it's your family who faces - in a sense - dishonor. For a long time he distanced himself from his family, hoping they'd all be less hurt if they found out and disowned him. He always tried to find friends who would be there for him should his parents not be. A year ago his mom asked him rhetorically if he was gay. "I was try'n to go around it. I was like, 'Gurl, you don't wanna know! Yo ass keeps asking!' But she kept asking, asking. So finally I told her 'Yeah, I am!' and she was crying. My dad was like, 'Oh, my son!'" But, Vince is fine with who he is and wants to show kids like him that "let's hope that it gets better." Now his parents just want him to win. -He'd like to play an old school strategy but "I'm not afraid to cut a bitch." With the tribe he's going to be Homeboy Vince from the 209, but when he talks to the camera he's going to tell people "Don't underestimate your narratives." This past year with Crazy Rich Asians, he wants people to know that there are some Crazy Hood Ass Asians.
My take: What a character. Vince has a clear point of view - Hmong, blue collar, gay - which is unique to him in Survivor lore. Even though double minorities have sometimes had trouble fitting in socially on Survivor I think somehow he's going to pull it off. As unlikely as this sounds I could even see him being a Cochran-esque winner.
Aaron Meredith, 36, Personal Trainer, Warwick, Rhode Island -He's very keyed up at Ponderosa. Rambling so fast it sounds like you're listening to 1.5x. He's read four books so far - Relentless by Tim Grover, Can't Hurt Me by Dave Goggins, Iron Cowboy by James Lawrence, Harry Potter. -He was an engineer at a building insulation plant. He was miserable, too antsy sitting at a desk. Couldn't focus. So, he drove up and down the East Coast popping kettle corn - from Maine to Florida - traveling with carnies. Bartended for a while. He'd played college football and baseball, lifted since high school, and he and his friends wanted to get "huge and jacked and ripped." The owner of the gym suggested he become a personal trainer. He ended up working mostly with middle aged women and it taught him empathy. Now he owns two women's-only fitness studios. He puts supportive women around one another and offers them the positivity to seek self-growth. -He's also a party boat emcee. Lights, DJ, bar, drinks. He's an extremely social person. -He'd first applied at 23 - 6 or 7 times over the years. He was in the mix for Cook Islands and David vs. Goliath. -He's been married 7 years and has a 5 year old son. His son is a huge fan of Survivor. Libby Vincek is his favorite player. Kara Kay was his next favorite. Aaron is already sure Molly will be his son's favorite. "He has a type. He He likes the attractive blondes. He says, 'I like them because they have a nice face.' I like mommy because she has a nice face too." The boy was very concerned about his dad going on the show. He said, "Dad, I don't want anyone to laugh at you and make fun of you." Aaron said he wanted to win. His son said, "But you might not win." When they watch the show he'll always ask, "Do they like him? Do they like her?" If Aaron is portrayed in a negative light he'll have to sit down with his son and talk. He doesn't want to play a deceitful game, but he will, because he doesn't care how he's portrayed.
My take: His story about his son is one of my favorites from all these interviews. I hope he gets to work with Molly. His adrenaline is too high. I hope he calms down a lot when the game starts. But, someone so social and sweet hearted who can win challenges and take themselves to the end has got to be a contender to win.
Chelsea Walker, 27, Digital Content Editor, Los Angeles, CA -Chelsea just took the cast photo and they put her in the third spot from the bottom, a good omen because a weird number of winners have been in that position. "Your girl's number three. I got this!" -She's a Jersey girl. She went to the University of Maryland. "I didn't do Survivor: Maryland or anything." She studied Broadcast Journalism. She knew the generic emails for NBC Universal and emailed random people until someone replied. Now she's been in LA a year. She did coverage of award shows. Now she works at IMDB, where she helps Kevin Smith with his show. She just interviewed people at SXSW. -She's been watching Survivor since she was 8. She's cried in every interview because this means so much to her. She's trying to explain that at the point she starts crying again. "It's been such a dream of mine and To be told no year after year after year - these past six years have been a total mindfuck. I've basically been called every single year. I've been to finals three times. Survivor is my one true love, but the one year they didn't call me I got really pissed off so I tried out for Big Brother. I ended up becoming the alternate and got my key being filmed and all of that crap. But I don't like that show anyway." -In September 2017 she was at a WeHo bar for her friend's birthday when, "Oh shit that's Jeff Probst." Her girlfriends all know she's obsessed, so she pulled the waiter over and asked what that guy was drinking. So, Chelsea sent another one over. "I told my friends, 'Take my credit card. Split the bill, because I can't come back after I do this. As soon as the waiter drops off the drink I'm like, 'Jeff, this one's on me. You can buy me the next one at finals.' And I just walked out of the restaurant... That was a big move!" They didn't call her again that year, but Jeff still remembered when they talked this year. -She's been working out at four different gyms - weights, pilates, yoga. Push ups. Memorized puzzles. Reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, which she keeps in.a Bible sleeve so people will think she's religious. She also carries Harry Potter because she would trust someone who read HP. She wants to keep it cool. Make one on one connections. Eventually find idols - and not tell anyone she has one - and make calculated moves. "I don't want to be a Jacob. No offense."
My take: Hearing this girl cry from joy because she's so happy to be on the show makes me emotional. She's a real go getter. I wish I were that damn fearless. Truly, I wish I were more like her. I hope her pure zest for life comes across on TV and she doesn't get stuck with a purple edit just because of her age and gender. I also hope no one decides to get threatened by her as a competitive girl and vote her off premerge. I think she'll go far. Hope so.
Dean Kowalski, 28, Account Executive, New York, New York -Referring to himself in the third person, "Dean is 28 years old. As we mentioned, he lives in New York and he prides himself on being a well rounded person when it comes to interests, abilities, personalities... If I'm listening to Drake and Lil Wayne, I gotta go home and cry to This Is Us.. I can play basketball but also think about our place in the universe." He likes to tag basketball courts with a peace symbol with a ball on it which he makes using a stencil. -He structures most of his interview with Josh around an Outwit, Outplay, Outlast format, explaining why he excels at each. -He grew up in an affluent suburb. His dream was to play in the NBA. He was 5"9 3/4, so he set his eyes on college basketball as a realistic alternative. In order to get looks from colleges he went to a school 30 minutes away - top five in the country, Nike would fly them around for games and give them free Jordan sneakers. He was one of only 4 white guys in the whole school and the only one on the team. He played with Kyrie Irving, the #1 overall draft pick. "My friend said you look like the Make a Wish Kid who just wants to be on the team for a day." He played at Colombia University, where he was co-captain his senior year despite averaging two minutes a game. He became a teacher, then did sales for a tech startup in New York. He now sells ads for Google. -He's a fan, but far from a superfan. He started watching Brenda's season. (He thinks it was Nicaragua, but it was actually Carmoan.) He works with a superfan who freaked out when they had a meeting at H&R Block with Carolyn Rivera and they went out to Bourbon Street with her. He kept watching for five years and thought he could do well. He hates when people are all talk, so he sent in a tape. For the video he interviewed random strangers on the street, who had never met him or seen the show, and asked them, "Why am I going to win it?" A barber, a construction worker. He's going to tell people he's in marketing, not sales - people have sales.
My take: I'm just not that into him.
Elaine Stott, 41, Factory Worker, Rockholds, NY -When Josh asks her not to touch the table she asks him, "You seen that Bart Simpson commercial, right? Don't touch my Butterfinger? I'm already hungry thinking about it." -"I had a pretty rough way to go growing up." Her single dad raised her and her three brothers. She was the youngest. "I was raised like one of the boys. Know what I mean? Daddy didn't know how to raise no little girl." He worked 16-17 hour days. The kids raised themselves. "When little children make their own decisions, they make poor ones." She was a hellion. -She's originally from Woodbine, Kentucky, Nick Wilson's hometown. Her god sister went to school with him and she knows him through the grapevine. "We rode on different sides of the track. 20 years ago he coulda been my lawyer, because I was on the other side of the law. I'm not bad. I've just done some things." Public intoxication several times. "I come from a dry county. It's like Footloose. We cross the state line to get a beer and when you come back you're in trouble." She stole a newspaper stand once and had to do community service. "I was a little bit mean." -She went to live with her grandpa and cleaned her act up, by which she means that she started smoking a little weed and playing sports - basketball, softball, track. She played softball and judo in college. "I couldn't do nothing real technical. We had Brazilians on the team who could do flying arm bars. But if I got these claws on you and got ya on the ground I'd waller you to death." In casting she put this guy Will in an armbar. She was gonna choke him but didn't know if she should. -When she graduated, her girlfriend was a college Freshman so she went to all the same parties and ballgames for four years. Then she realized she needed a job. Now she drives a Ford truck for a factory. She's been there 15 years. She works 12 hours, 7 days a week. -Growing up her mom "was always in my life in some sense. She'd never miss a birthday. She'd be homeless, but she'd still call." Elaine and her brothers bought her cars, and places to live, and got her jobs. "In a sense I've been mourning the loss of my mom my whole life." Once Elaine was homeless herself and there was snow on the ground. It was cold, and her teacher took her in. Gave her Christmas presents. Made her go to prom. Survivor was a thing they shared, and the teacher was gonna be Elaine's loved one. But within a one year period the woman lost her daughter, her husband, her dog and then had a stroke. Now "she walks like Frankenstein" and can't go. Elaine got Probst to talk to her, and she can't wait to watch. In October Elaine's biological mom went into a coma. She was on life support, but Elaine wouldn't unplug her. Her mom came out of it and seemed to be doing a lot better only to die very suddenly of a heart attack. -Her girlfriend and her girlfriend's two sons are gonna be watching. The 18 year old doesn't know because he can't keep a secret. The 13 year old helped her lose 20 pounds doing crossfit to come out here. She wants the money, but she really wants "some of that soul searching, that life adventure, that life changing - some of that. You know what I mean? Gimme some of that soup! Lemme eat some of that up! I want this show to build me up, because I feel like it can. I sure hope to hell it don't tear me down."
My take: About 12 sobbing emojis in a row. She's my favorite. If she gets voted out premerge I'm going to go into mourning. And how can you not sort of expect that? I am going to be so upset if they just dismiss her because she's older and looks out of shape and sounds country. If that happens, I want another Second Chance season next year.
Elizabeth Biesel, 26, Olympic swimmer, South Kingstown, Rhode Island -Josh says that Elizabeth was outright identified by one of the other contestants because they'd been watching YouTube videos about how to be a better swimmer. Others guessed she was an Olympian based on her rings tattoo. -She's from the Ocean State. They lived a block away from the beach, so they wanted her to take swimming lessons. She was a rambunctious child and swimming was the only way they could calm her energy. She started breaking records when she was 7 or 8. When she was 13 she made her first national team. At 15 she went to the Olympics. She got good early. Women peak around 22-23, and she ended her career at 24. You couldn't make much money doing it. She swam one of the longer, more grueling races, and her body said "no more." She listened to her body and retired. Some athletes lose their love for swimming because they're embittered by losing by 1/100th of a second, or they leave injured. She left on a good note. Still, if she could swim competitively for the rest of her life, she would. Now she doesn't know who she is or what she's going to do with the rest of her life. Every hour of the day used to have a purpose. Now her days are wide open. She can't keep eating 5,000 calories a day. "It's sort of like I'm mourning the death of Elizabeth Biesel the swimmer." -She was a Survivor fan as a kid because Richard Hatch was from Rhode Island. In her area "Every single household that had a television set was watching Survivor." When they asked her if she'd do the show, she felt pure joy. She said absolutely right away. She's excited about the competition of Survivor. No heated Olympic pools. You're stripped down to your core. She's amazed by the scope of the production apparatus. She's not a schemer. She wants to be a challenge beast - not the best woman but the best overall. She'd love to have a Wendell and Dom relationship with another woman. But, she wants to avoid the drama as long as she can.
My take: Could Chelsea be Wendell to her Dom? She's so wholesome. She's just so "Olympics." I love her and everything she represents. I'd love to see her rocket through the swimming competitions, lapping everyone else. Go Elizabeth.

Hi guys - before we move forward with the weekly things to do post, we wanted to provide some clarity on why a new account is creating this post and provide the community with some information about who we are and how this came about. We’ll keep this intro brief for the sake of getting to what you actually came here for, finding cool things to do this week! We are 4 childhood friends (and are all Redditors as well), who grew up living and hanging out in Toronto. We realized every time we hung out we ended up at the same places because it was far too cumbersome to find anything else, and even though we wanted to explore new things, it just felt easier to go somewhere familiar. We decided we’d try our hand at creating something that makes discovering new things to do easy, and over the last few years and countless of hours later, we created the ExploreTO app. We really admired the daily things to do posts, and also aspired to contribute to the Reddit community in a way that is aligned with our passion project. Our focus on event research has been increasing over the last several months and when we saw that the mods have started doing the posts, we reached out to see if there was a way we can contribute. We are very delighted that the mods gave us the opportunity to create these weekly posts on a trial basis, and we hope you enjoy them! We also wanted to get ahead of some questions that you may be wondering about:
How will this affect me as a user who frequently uses these posts?
It won’t. We wanted to be transparent in this post because we know the passing of the torch may be confusing. We hope to maintain a great and consistent experience with these posts and improve it further over time based on feedback from the community.
We don’t want these posts to turn into anything but what they have always been: a community generated post that captures the best things happening in Toronto.
So what’s in it for you?
To be frank, these posts take quite a bit of time a week to compile, especially if you aren’t already doing it for another purpose (we are, for our app). We thought it might be mutually beneficial to the community for us to generate these posts as we’re already doing a lot of event research. The community will get a weekly things to do thread that is continuously updated & improved, and we will get exposure for our app. We will never be impartial to events that “benefit us”, this will not only be true in the Reddit threads we post, but also in the app itself. We see our job as finding the best things to do based on the merit of the events themselves. We will never post affiliate or sponsored links on Reddit, however, if the community believes we’re doing a good job, we would be happily welcome anyone to check out our app.
Closing thoughts
Just like the app was created as a passion project, these posts will only be a continuation of said project. We have no clue how far the app will go and we’ve already spent thousands of hours working on it with nothing earned but the joy of a few positive reviews on the app store. We will however, ask you – the community, for one thing: if you enjoy these posts or derive some benefit from them, occasionally, please let us know. Between our day jobs and our evening passion project that is this app, we’re running on fumes and positive reinforcement. This is the first and last time we will add this intro on the post. We will link to it in the next few so that anyone who may have missed it can still access it. If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask. Hope you enjoy this week's post!
​
Monday Jan 21
Burdock Piano Fest 2019 @ Burdock | 7PM | Free
Do or Die Open Mic @ The Corner Comedy Club | 8PM | $5
DesignTO Talks: Tiffany Pratt @ Relative Space | 6PM | Free
Tuesday Jan 22
Raptors vs. Sacramento Kings @ Scotiabank Arena | 7PM | $63+
DesignTO Talks: Uncovering Canadian Design @ EQ3 | 6:30PM | Free
The Office Toronto Trivia! @ Dublin Calling | 8PM
Free Coding Workshop @ HackerYou | 6:15PM | Free
Art Battle Toronto @ Great Hall Toronto | 7:30PM | $10+
Tinder Tales: Drunk Dating @ Gladstone Hotel | 8PM | $12
Free Bollywood Dance Classes @ Sony Centre | 6-7PM | Free
Wednesday Jan 23
Leafs vs. Washington Capitals | @ Scotiabank Arena | 7:30PM | Tickets Available
Work/Life Exhibition @ Umbra Store | 6PM | Free
Star Wars: A New Hope Concert @ Roy Thompson | 7:30 PM, Wed-Sat | $56+
Miso Making Workshop @ Skippa | 6PM | $50
Off The Rails @ Comedy Bar | 9:30PM | $7
Thursday Jan 24
Free Skate Rental Thursdays @ The Bentway Skate Trail | 5-9PM | Free
Above & Beyond @ Rebel | 10PM | $76+
DesignTO Tours: Deloitte @ 22 Adelaide St W | 1:30PM | Free
DesignTO: The Future of Work @ 180 John St | 4PM | $30
Arts & Minds: Sculpting Our Stories @ Aga Khan Museum | 6:30PM | Free
Friday Jan 25
Winterlicious @ Various locations | Starts today - on until Feb 7
Friday Night Live: DinoNite @ ROM | 7PM | $19
Winter 2019 Opening Party @ Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery | 8PM | Free
Kung Fu Fridays @ TIFF | Starts today! On until April 12th
Airship Distillery District Bachata Party @ KizzMe | 8PM | $18
Saturday Jan 26
DJ Skate Nights @ Harbourfront | 8PM | Free
Winter Craft Beer Festival @ Roundhouse Park | 11AM | $25
Après Skate Saturdays /w free Kahlua, Coffee, Hot Chocolate @ The Bentway Skate Trail | 5PM | Free
Daft Punk Party @ Sneaky Dee's | 10PM | $5
Panic: 80's & 90's Video Dance Party @ Remix Lounge | 10PM | $10
Clams Casino @ Velvet Underground | 10PM | $26
Angela Zhang Live @ Sony Centre | 7PM | $156+
Pathways to Sustainability Conference @ MaRS | 8:30AM | $34
Sunday Jan 27
Mick Jenkins @ Mod Theatre | 8PM | $29
Winner Everywhere Tour [k-pop] @ Sony Centre | 8PM | $88+
Church Street Comedy @ Pegasus | 8PM | Free
Vision Boarding + Intention Setting Workshop @ Lululemon Queen W | 1PM | $30
​
Ongoing Events
Winterlicious @ Various locations | Starts Friday - on until Feb 7th
Festival of Lights @ Distillery District | on until March 3rd
DesignTO Festival @ Various locations | on until Jan 27th
Winter Light Exhibition @ Ontario Place | on until Mar 17th
Happy Place Toronto @ Harbourfront | on until Jan 27th
Light Therapy @ MOCA | on until Feb 10th
Black History Month @ Various locations | Starts Friday - on until Feb 28th
Contemporary Art Exhibit, Pay what you can @ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) | On Until Feb 13
ROM, free admission for post-secondary students @ The ROM | Every Tues
Gardiner Museum, free admission for post-secondary students @ Gardiner Museum | Every Tues
Aga Khan Museum, free admission @ Agha Khan Museum | Every Wed
Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), free admission @ Art Gallery of Ontario | Every Wed
Bata Shoe Museum, pay what you can @ Bata Shoe Museum | Every Thurs
Gardiner Museum, half price @ Gardiner Museum | Every Fri
​
Winter Fun Ideas
Skating | Map listing of all of Toronto's rinks
Indoor Activities | A list of fun indoor things to do
Winter Hiking | Top trails suited for winter hiking
Spa Escape | 10 ideas for spa escapes
​
We also post on Instgram, so if you'd like additional things to do ideas, you can check us out @exploreTOapp

Hey everyone, I'm a Canadian who's done a couple festivals in Canada (VELD and Osheaga), but I always wanted to go to a camping festival and Coachella worked out amazingly with my school schedule this year. I got most of April off, so I bought 2 W2 passes at the general sale and found a buddy who was interested in doing a road trip. I'm a huge fan of climbing and surfing, and I love California but there's a lot of places I haven't been, so I wanted to work in some of that given how much free time I had. Anyway, here's the details of our trip, hoping it may inspire some future Coachella road trippers!
PRE-TRIP:

1. Bought 2x W2 passes + Shuttle Pass (unwanted) and car camping on General Sale day ($1200 US total). Wanted W1 and actually had a shot at them but my credit card was maxed out.
   
2. Bought flights on SWOOP from Hamilton Ontario (near Toronto) to Vegas - $250 round trip.
   
3. Reserved a rental SUV in Vegas for 2 weeks. (Considered a JUCY but eventually decided tents and an SUV would be more flexible and cheaper).
   
4. Did some general research on the places I wanted to go, had a rough idea of an itinerary but no bookings.
   

Sunday April 14-VEGAS:

• Parked at Hamilton Airport ($65 CAD for 1 wk + $15/day for each additional day).
• Direct flight Hamilton to Vegas 9:30pm. Packed everything in 1 backpack per person, didn't pay carry-on or checked fee.
• booked a room at Luxor hotel that same day on Priceline (came to $80 US total for 2 queen beds).
• Booked campsites at Zion for next 2 days ($20 + $50)
• Walked around Vegas till 2am drinking beers, checking out casinos (I had never been).

Monday April 15-ZION:

• Picked up Venture 2P camping rental pack from Basecamp Outdoor Gear in Vegas. Upgraded to 3-season sleeping bags. Came with stove, sleeping pads, 2P tent, camp table, 2 camp chairs, knife, headlights, lantern. $325 for 2 weeks.
• Grocery run at Walmart, got pasta, meat and sauce, chili, water, etc.
• Arrived in Zion, did a sunset hike of Watchman trail, set up camp and cooked dinner.

Tues April 16-ZION:

• Bought America the Beautiful 1-yr all-included National Park pass (covers a whole vehicle). - $80 USD
• Hiked Zion: Angel's landing was amazing, very cool classic hike with scary cliff drops. The Narrows hike, another classic, was closed (typical in April). Ranger said we had hiked most of the open trails in Zion.
• Opted to give up our $20 site and instead drive to Page AZ to check out other parks. Easily booked a campsite, $25.

Wed April 17-Antelope Canyon/Grand Canyon:

• Went on Antelope Canyon tour. $60 US, run by Navajo locals. Short, photography-based tour. Had to either book ahead or show up early for cancellations.
• Drove to Indio, beautiful drive and stopped at the Grand Canyon on the way.
• Stayed at Indio motel (booked day-of, $100 US for 2 beds). Owner held onto our camp knife and tent pegs for the weekend!
• got In-N-Out burger - was amazing

Thurs April 18-SO-CAL:

• Debated going early for Coachella camping spot, but instead spent the day getting supplies at Walmart (Got info from another camper to get a Canopy - this was key) and in Orange county/LA. Checked out Newport Beach.
• Pulled into car camping at 10pm, short lines. Spot was pretty far away in 1017 st S, but it really didn't bother us too much. Neighbours were all friendly, most of them stayed around camp for most of the festival though.
• Checked out silent disco and went to bed.

Fri April 19-COACHELLA:

• Woke up late, made breakfast, got ready and headed to festival for 2pm. Blown away by how amazing the grounds were. Antarctic was also dope. Saw about 15-20 acts, just exploring the grounds. Went back to camp 1x in evening, then went back to the festival until 1am, then slept.

Sat April 20th-Coachella:

• Entered fest at about 3pm, regrouped at camp in evening, then went back and stayed till 1am again. Slept

Sun April 21st-Coachella:

• Lined up for Sunday Service at 7am. Stayed till finish
• Went to camp, headed to the grounds at 3:30pm, stayed until midnight. Went to turn-down tent for a couple hours, grabbed food, had beers with neighbours and slept around 2-3am.

Mon April 22nd-Joshua Tree:

• Tore down camp and ready to go by 10am - needed a jumpstart though (dude did it for free because we only had canadian version of AAA!)
• Grocery run at Wal-Mart
• drove to Joshua Tree, rented climbing shoes ($10 each), and tried to rent a crash pad but the place was closed.
• Cooked dinner in the Boy Scout parking lot, then hiked out to backcountry camp (you have to self-register)-FREE.
• ran into a dude hiking who was gonna go bouldering the next day so we planned to meet up in the morning.
• Stars in J-Tree are amazing. We threw "Underwater" by Rüfüs du Sol on repeat to relive Antarctic, and right at the final second we saw a gigantic shooting star!

Tues April 23rd-Joshua Tree:

• Caught sunrise in J-tree from our campsite, then tore down camp and met up with the guys to go bouldering. Bouldered till 3pm, then returned our shoes and did the Mt Ryan hike at sunset.
• Drove to Santa Barbara for a halfway stop on our way to big sur. 4-5hr drive, motel cost $100 for 2 beds.

Wed April 24 - Surfing/Big Sur

• Got up late, drove to Pismo beach (such a nice surf town) and rented some boards and wetsuits for the half-day-$25 USD each. Waves were good for beginners to fool around on. Packed up around 4pm and drove towards Big Sur, Highway 1.
• Saw the elephant seals at the southern tip of Big Sur
• Saw evening and sunset along Big Sur - truly the most amazing drive I've ever done.
• Got dinner in Monterey and then drove to Yosemite in the dark. Got to the park entrance at 2AM and slept in the car.

Thurs April 25 - Yosemite

• Woke up at 5am to drive to Camp 4 and get spots in this famous campground where rock climbing was born. We were 12th in line for 59 spots, and cost is $6/person per night. (*NOTE: this first-come first-serve system is getting shut down forever in May - you will have to enter an overnight online lottery).
• We set up camp (6 people share a site - our site-mates were really friendly and we met lots of great people in Camp 4).
• We hiked Upper Yosemite Falls which starts right at Camp 4. Took all day as we decided to try to get to El Capitan during a trail closure (many trails were closed due to snow). We didn't succeed but it was fun.

Fri April 26 - Yosemite

• We rented shoes and boulder mats in Yosemite and went bouldering until 3pm. There are great boulders right near Camp 4.
• At 3:30pm we did the Mist Trail hike, which brings you to Vernal falls and Nevada falls. It's beautiful and a lot easier than Upper Falls.

Sat April 27 - San Francisco

• Caught sunrise over the Dawn Wall of El Capitan. This was an amazing sight to me.
• Tore down camp and headed out before 11am. Drove to San Francisco (5 hours), crossed the Golden Gate in.
• Got a cheap motel in San Francisco ($110/night for 2 beds). Used the Ford GoBikes ($10/24h) and did a bike tour of Japantown, Chinatown, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Mission District, Coit Tower and Telegraph hill, Haight-Ashbury, and Presidio/Palace of Fine Arts. Got home at about 3am, exhausted.

Sun April 28th

• Woke up at 7am for the long drive back to Vegas. Stopped at the google campus in Mountain View to ride the GBikes around.
• Got to Vegas at 5pm, returned our camping gear and ate some great Mexican food.
• Flew back to Hamilton on a 10:30pm flight.

Overall we had an AMAZING coachella, saw some breathtaking views, got a taste of California climbing and surfing, did some amazing drives, and met awesome people. We spent a lot of time outdoors and we felt super relaxed by the end of the trip. I think overall we did well saving money, and had a good mix of planning and spontaneity.
WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY:

• Plan only 1 day in Zion and book campsite in advance - too many closures in April. Maybe spend some time in another park (Death Valley, Mojave, etc)
  
• Spend less time on Friday getting supplies and more time in So-Cal (check out LA Observatory, LA Proper or San Diego)
  
• Try to do less campsite re-groups for coachella, and just stay once I enter the grounds. Maybe go a little later in the day to stay out later. Try and find a big group there to party with early on. Bring more Mio Sports (1/person/day would be safe) for electrolyte hydration :P
  
• Try not to let our battery die on Monday - think I left a door open, oops
  
• Get to J-Tree a little earlier for a boulder mat (3:30 or so)
  
• See the eucalyptus forest in Pismo Beach!
  
• Bring my own climbing shoes, maybe other climbing gear too.
  

I definitely travel very fast and I was lucky to have a travel buddy who was able to keep up. But if you want to see some amazing parts of california and have some free time around coachella, I hope this gives you some ideas! Drop any questions below, and let me know if you think it would be good to crosspost this anywhere.
Thanks!
PS: We got so much good coachella info from this Sub. Not sure how it would have gone without everyone's help. Thank you!

I purchased the discounted tickets last year and was unable to go to any of the events. (Don't ask me how lol)
Anyways, I've got two appleseed project tickets I bought at half price, it's yours for $20 for each, or $30 for both. It seems the only week left this year is tomorrow and Sunday at Piru, with 12 spots open at the current time of this posting. If you want them, let me know. Hopefully you were looking for something to do this weekend.
I am like 99% sure you'll need the letter I have to get in so it would have to be a local purchase. I'm near Hawaiian Gardens Casino and will be heading to Ontario later tonight if you're near there and want to meet up to grab them from me.

Recreational cannabis is not legal yet, but many Canadians are taking advantage of it to make a fortune. At least 77 of them have accumulated millions of dollars in just a few months thanks to their investments in the industry, according to data compiled by our Investigation Bureau.
"I knew the pot was a good investment, but no one in the community thought it would pay so much," says Chuck Rifici, head of the Cannabis Wheaton investment fund and former chief financial officer of the Liberal Party of Canada. (PLC).
At 43, the one who is described as the "pot godfather" in Canada sits on a personal fortune that he himself estimates to "more than 100 million", including $ 47.7 million in potato producer shares , according to public financial documents.
He owns a Ferrari 458 red and a Tesla S.
It all started with a first investment of $ 70 in shares in his company Tweed, a pot producer (now Canopy Growth). "I thought I was rich when I made my first $ 500,000," jokes the Ottawa businessman.
Mr. Rifici said today that he continues to work only "for pleasure". "It's a lot less stressful."
Big risks
On the other side of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Sébastien St-Louis, 34, has a fortune of $ 15.4 million. His company founded in 2013, Hydropothecary, is valued at $ 660 million on the stock market.
The path to get there was not easy. "I almost went broke at least four times. My credit card was used up to $ 30,000.
Stories like that of Rifici and Saint-Louis, who have become millionaires before even a single gram of recreational pot is sold legally, are in the dozens of industries.
Establishing the list of Millionaire Canadians in the pot helps to make the following observations:
The vast majority, 58% (45 out of 77), are from Ontario. Only 4 come from Quebec (5%). Out of 77 millionaires, there are only three women. Wealth is extremely concentrated Speculative bubble ?
The stock market value of pot companies exploded last year as a result of Trudeau government announcements on the upcoming legalization in 2018.
New Brunswicker Denis Arsenault bought a medical cannabis producer in 2014 for $ 1.7 million. Its acquisition, the company Organigram, is worth half a billion dollars today. "It was like going to the casino when I invested in it, at first," he laughs.
Although Canadians are still divided over the legalization of cannabis and the banks are very reluctant to invest in this industry, investors are now jostling to the gates to the point where there is fear of a speculative bubble.
According to several experts, the current frenzy is similar to the tech bubble in the late 1990s, because they are extremely volatile.
"There are companies that are not in cannabis, just saying that they are interested in the industry and boom, their shares are tripling," says portfolio management analyst Ken Lester, president of Lester Asset Management.

• With the collaboration of Marie-Christine Trottier and Andrea Valeria

They roll on gold thanks to their investments in the pot
THE GODFATHER OF THE POT
PHOTO ANNABELLE BLAIS Chuck Rifici has inherited the nickname "godfather" of the pot industry. And for good reason, this 43-year-old Franco-Ontarian estimates his fortune to more than $ 100 million (including at least $ 47.7 million in shares of pot producers, according to public financial documents).
He has two characteristics common to many millionaires in this industry: he is an entrepreneur and he has political connections, particularly with the Liberal Party of Canada (PLC).
In 2013, Mr. Rifici co-founded Tweed, now Canopy Growth, Canada's largest pot company.
Since 2017, he has been CEO of Cannabis Wheaton, an investment firm in pot companies, including producers or manufacturers of accessories. Wheaton has about fifteen partnerships, a huge spider web.
Two ex of the PLC
In parallel, the businessman was also CFO of the PLC from 2011 to 2016.
"Being treasurer of the PLC, it gives credibility when you meet investors for pot," he says. Wheaton's vice president of external affairs, Sarah Bain, was also vice president of communications for the LPC from 2010 to 2013.
Mr. Rifici even believes that the controversy provoked by this situation has helped him to talk about his businesses. "All press is good press," he says.
But this has exacerbated tensions between him and his partner Bruce Linton and Rifici left Tweed in 2014 (see other text).
He is now investing mainly in accessories such as vape. "I believe the future of this industry will be in these value-added products," he says. It's important to have a distribution and production network, but in a Starbuck coffee, it's not the coffee bean that pays the most, "he says.
THE SOCIALIST IN JAGUAR
PIERRE-PAUL POULIN PICTURES Wearing a three-piece suit and cell phone in hand, Bruce Linton, CEO of Canopy Growth, is the image of the successful businessman.
"Because I sell cannabis, people always expect to see a guy in a faded T-shirt," he jokes.
Mr. Linton now heads one of the largest cannabis producers in Canada. He first founded Tweed in 2013 (then joined Canopy Growth) with Chuck Rifici, former CFO of the Liberal Party of Canada.
When asked why there are so many Liberals in the industry, he replies, "I do not know why there are a lot of Liberals in the industry. I'm not. You know what I am? I am a socialist who likes to ride in Jaguar. "
And he has the means to pay for luxury cars. On paper, Mr. Linton's fortune is valued at more than $ 67 million.
Potty drink
In five years, Canopy Growth has acquired 13 cannabis production sites in eight Canadian provinces, including two in Quebec. The company has also developed partnerships to export or cultivate with Australia, Brazil, Germany, Jamaica, Denmark and Chile.
Bruce Linton does not want to stop there. He has a clear vision for the future: to sell a cannabis drink. Canopy has signed an agreement this fall with Constellation, which sells Corona beers.
Linton is already following in the footsteps of Seagram distiller Bronfman family, who made a fortune with alcohol at the end of the prohibition.
"I want to provide a bottle-like format with 12-13% that produces effects after 7 minutes," he says. This is the socially accepted way to be impaired. "
NOT YET MILLIONAIRES, BUT ALMOST
MARTIN ALARIE PHOTO Quebecker Philippe Depault is not yet a millionaire of the pot, but he is about to succeed.
The 26-year-old entrepreneur (left) and his partner Alexandre Lalancette, 23 years old (right) have just sold their cannabis accessories business, Maïtri, for $ 550,000 in addition to an amount of up to 1.2 M $ to be paid to the performance.
Pretty surprising when we know that Maïtri made his first sale in July 2017 only.
Mr. Depault was a cyclist with the Canadian team dreaming of the Olympics until fibromyalgia changed his life in 2013.
No medicine was able to relieve him, except cannabis. He then gave himself the mission to fight against the stigmatization of consumers.
Soon more Quebeckers?
The chemical engineering student started by blogging in the summer of 2016. Then in March 2017, he joined Mr. Lalancette to create neatly designed cannabis accessories with Quebec materials.
"Cannabis is still associated with stoners ," he says. But around me, almost everyone uses cannabis, either once a day or once a year. They are engineers, doctors, lawyers. It was to this clientele that he wanted to address himself. An investor has injected from $ 30,000 to $ 100,000, says Mr. Depault. And in July, the company was about to open a round of financing when Hiku, which owns the DOJA pot producer, made an offer to buy. The agreement was concluded in February.
Mr. Depault hopes to see more Quebeckers in the industry. "We start to feel the wave. "
A QUEBECER WHO SEES BIG
PHOTO ANNABELLE BLAIS When Sébastien St-Louis was younger, his idol was not a hockey player, but Alain Bouchard, the founder of Couche-Tard.
"It's the biggest company in terms of sales in Canada and it [Mr. Bouchard] started with only one store in Quebec. I recognize myself a lot in this story, "he says.
The 34-year-old is describing himself as an entrepreneur who seized the business opportunity of medical cannabis in 2013.
His firm, Hydropothecary, based in Gatineau, is the first licensed pot producer in Quebec. Recently, the company won an agreement to supply 22,000 kg to the Quebec Cannabis Company, the SAQ subsidiary that will market the substance.
With a market capitalization of $ 660,000 million for Hydropothecary, Sébastien St-Louis is sitting on a fortune of more than $ 15.4 million.
But this son of teacher parents has not changed his lifestyle so much, except that he travels more.
"I drove in Grand Am for 12 years. I changed to a 2012 Acura, he says. A Ferrari is not my style. "
Thanks to the family
It must be said that the path of the producer was fraught with difficulties and that the bankruptcy was avoided more than once.
At 16, he already had his own 3D simulation company and he was investing in real estate. With a master's degree in finance from the Université du Québec à Montréal, he later worked at the Business Development Bank of Canada.
In June 2013, at age 29, his friend Maxime Cyr, who worked for Health Canada, told him that the federal government would allow private producers to sell medical cannabis. Sébastien St-Louis had never seen a pot plant before, but he smelled the potential.
He embarked on the project his brother-in-law Adam Miron, a political enthusiast who became involved with the Liberal Party of Canada until 2009.
Unable to get finance from the banks, the two men appealed to friends and family for a first round of private funding in 2013. "With $ 10,000, we could put $ 1.5 million," he said. His parents even mortgaged their home to invest $ 100,000.
"If it did not work, I went bankrupt and lost my house, but there was no longer a couch of friends I could have slept on because I would have lost money to all those I knew, "he says.
Light appeared at the end of the tunnel when Health Canada authorized the company to sell medical pot in 2015.
Big names on the board
In 2016, he approached large families in Quebec looking for partners. Vincent Chiara, a Montreal businessman close to the Saputo family, has agreed to invest several millions in the adventure. He currently sits on the Board and his fortune in the company is valued at $ 25.5 million.
Sébastien St-Louis is also very proud to say that Nathalie Bourque, who serves on Couche-Tard's Board of Directors, has joined Hydropothecary's board since the fall. The convenience store chain has already announced that it wants to sell marijuana.
The boss of Hydropothecary believes that in the near future, there will remain only two or three companies that will be multinational cannabis. "I intend to be a leader from our platform in Quebec," he says.
MUSIC AND POT FOR THE TRAGICALLY HIP
PHOTO COURTESY DAVID BASTEDO Music and cannabis have always been closely linked. Newstrike understands it. For almost a year now, the company that markets Up Cannabis, a pot producer in Ontario, has developed a partnership with The Tragically Hip.
The Canadian rock band is a shareholder in the company and is involved in important marketing decisions.
Their managers, Bernie Breen and Patrick Sambrook, also sit on the company's advisory board. Up Cannabis can, for example, use the band's songs to promote its products or to name its pot varieties.
It is worth $ 20.9 million
"We've approached them because they can help us create a brand and they represent Canada," says Jay Wilgar, CEO of Newstrike.
The latter made a fortune with a wind energy start-up he founded in the early 2000s and sold it to the French multinational GDF Suez in 2010.
In 2013, he launched into cannabis by investing 1.5 million with a partner. Mr. Wilgar is worth about $ 20.9 million today. The Hips' fortune in the business is at least $ 2.2 million
"We did not expect such a large and fast growth in the last year, it's amazing," he says.
The strategy of Up Cannabis is to address Mr. Mrs. Everybody, like the Hips. The company will focus on the recreational and has no medical patient.
MORE PROFITABLE THAN CUCUMBERS
PHOTO COURTESY APHRIA For John Cervini, growing cannabis was a natural extension of his vegetable growing career in Ontario.
"I am the fourth generation of farmers. For 23 years, I ran the family business with my brother, "he says. The company was growing well, but John preferred to leave because the two brothers had different visions.
His friend Cole Cacciavillani, an industrial engineer in agriculture, told him about cannabis in August 2013. The company, Aphria, is one of six producers who signed an agreement to supply Quebec with cannabis through the subsidiary of the SAQ.
"As a farmer, we knew we had a good base for marijuana," says Cervini. It is our specialty to grow plants, we have experience in logistics and large-scale supply, "he says.
He seems to have won his bet. The best-performing stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2017 was Aphria, which rose 271%. The fortune of the two founders today stands at more than $ 200 million.
Thanks to Google translation http://www.journaldequebec.com/2018/03/03/au-moins-77-canadiens-millionnaires-grace-au-cannabis

Okay this may seem like a dumb idea but hear me out.
IndyCar racing is the most growing form of auto-racing in the United States. Its on a pace to eclipse NASCAR in a few years and maybe Hartford can come in to help.
The IndyCar Open Wheel races consist of the most challenging form of racing. From short ovals such as St. Louis and Phoenix. Long ovals such as of course the Indianapolis 500 and Pocono 500, road courses such as Birmingham and Watkins Glen. And finally there is street courses. There are currently four street courses in IndyCar. Saint Petersburg, Florida, Long Beach, California, Detorit Belle Isle Michigan, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There was supposed to be a fifth track, in Boston. Boston shot it down because of mismanagement from the racing promoters and a bunch of NIMBY guys blocking it saying it was on damp soil (But Boston is on damp landfill?) and canceled the race. The overall plan with IndyCar is to have 5-5-5-5 to have a 20 race schedule in North America. A fifth needs to be filled in, why not Hartford?
Well to other cities such as Detroit, and Toronto. The races are considered landmarks of urban revival in those cities. Hartford and the whole state of Connecticut was hit hard. This could possibly be the chance to get the state the money needs. Not casinos. Last year, I drove 6 hours to get to Watkins Glen since I couldnt see the race 75 minutes from my house. I wanted to go and it was a blast. With IndyCar, you can have access to the cars and drivers. On race day, the drivers are virtually accessible by anyone. The race was great and would probably do the same again. In Long Beach and Toronto, the crowds was in excess of 100,000 on race day and over 30,000 on qualifying day. Thats incredible. Now say cost general admission $5 on Friday and Saturday each, and have about say 25,000 come in. Thats about 250,000 in sales on tickets alone. This dosent count the hotels and vendors avalible. Plus many places downtown like Black Bear Saloon can get huge business from this event. There is also some feeder series with this. So if you charge $25-30 on general admission and there is about 80,000 there. There is a profit of another 2.4 Million there plus vendors. What can draw in people is names like Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe, both competed on Dancing with the Stars. Tony Kanaan competed on American Ninja Warrior, add in Will Power and Conor Daly, they all were on Family Feud. Also with rising talents such as Josef Newgarden, and Alexander Rossi. That alone can draw in names from casuals who would check the event out. Also a big draw is that this event isnt a NASCAR race, and that can draw the casuals out to this event and not have to deal with those people.
People from New Haven, New York, Albany, Boston, Providence, Manchester, and even further would go. Even people who go out of the way to see the races. When I went in Watkins Glen, there was people there I met from California and Oregon who went to see the race.
Also what some tracks do is have concerts for the fans. At COTA in Austin, Texas. They had stars in the past like Taylor Swift do a concert there. This year its Justin Timberlake. Im sure if Connecticut's favorite Billy Joel would do a show in the Bushnell, thousands would show up and make it even more viable. Add that to the sale of the ticket, it can be worth alot.
So here is the track proposal.
The track start and finish line and pit road is on Columbus Ave across the street from the Connecticut Convention Center. The CCC will also be host as the garage/paddock for the teams and it can be accessible by the fans as well for a small fee. The cars would turn onto Sheldon Ave and onto Elm Street and Pulaski Circle going around it causing a very fast corner. Then it would wrap around the Jewell Street area and pass by the Arch in the Bushnell where it would probably be the place to take photos of the cars near the arch. Then it would turn right onto High Street and take another turn at Church Street and would pass under the XL Center bridge and straight into the G. Fox building where it would take another right onto Main Street. Then it would wrap around the Connecticut State Building and down the hill and it would turn back onto Columbus Ave.
Another pic of the track
As for seating. Its Hartford, there is so many empty lots, there is plenty of spots for grandstands.
There is alot more I have in mind like traffic flows or the race and how to move the lightposts and fix the mini curb onto the Circle but its late at night. Just an idea. Any other questions?
In the end, this might not be what saves Hartford and Connecticut but its worth a fighting shot.
Also here is a fun tidbit - The second ever Auto Racing championship race took place in next door West Hartford at the Charter Oak Park back in 1905. Connecticut is the only state not from that original list to have a race.
EDIT - that's just a number I made up for profit. I have no idea exactly but with vendors as well as the sanctioning fee. There could be a few dollars there or not.

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European Fire Ants... So Many Fire Ants...	GTADude12345	0
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After my last post about Regulus and bringing up the Nov 14th date spoken about in the Trackdown - End of the World Episode again, I started doing some more digging. It's important you read that post before you can understand this one. You can find it here.
​
The name of the asteroid that occulted the star Regulus for 14 seconds on March 20, 2014 was called 163 Erigone.
​
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/163_Erigone

163 Erigone is an asteroid from the asteroid belt and the namesake of the Erigone family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements and properties. It was discovered by French astronomer Henri Joseph Perrotin on April 26, 1876, and named after one of the two Erigones in Greek mythology.
Erigone is a relatively large and dark asteroid with an estimated size of 73 km. Based upon its spectrum, it is classified as a C-type asteroid, which indicates that it probably has a carbonaceous composition.
2014 occultation of Regulus
In the early morning hours of March 20, 2014, Erigone occulted the first-magnitude star Regulus as first predicted by A. Vitagliano in 2004. This would have been a rare case of an occultation of a very bright star visible from a highly populated area, since the shadow path moved across New York state and Ontario, including all five boroughs of New York City. Observers in the shadow path would have seen the star wink out for as long as 14 seconds.
However, heavy clouds and rain blocked the view for most if not all people on the shadow path. The website of the International Occultation Timing Association does not list any successful observations at all.
Two single chord Asteroid Occultation events have been observed, in 2013 and 2014

​
The fact that no one actually witnessed it is REALLY interesting and must play some sort of dynamic to all of this.
​
The name Erigone seems to refer to 2 different Greek goddesses
​
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erigone_(daughter_of_Icarius))

Icarius was cordial towards Dionysus, who gave his shepherds wine. They became intoxicated and killed Icarius, thinking he had poisoned them. His daughter, Erigone, and her dog, Maera, found his body. Erigone hanged herself over her father's grave. Dionysus was angry and punished Athens by making all of the city's maidens commit suicide in the same way. Erigone was placed in the stars as the constellation Virgo.
According to Ovid, Dionysus "deceived Erigone with false grapes", that is, assumed the shape of a grape cluster to approach and seduce her.

​
Dionysus was the god of winemaking. He was responsible for the growth of the vines.
​

John 15
"I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

​
Sounds like this one is associated with an Antichrist like Figure pretending to be Jesus since wine represents his blood.
​
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erigone_(daughter_of_Aegisthus))

Erigone would have been slain by Orestes along with her brother Aletes if not for the intervention of Artemis, who rescued her and made her a priestess in Attica. In some stories, she hangs herself after the child is born, though this may be a confusion with Erigone, daughter of Icarius. Also, after Hermione died, she is said to have married Orestes and gave birth to Penthilus. Or it is said she sued Orestes to murder of her parents.

​
Orestes murdered his own mother then went crazy. Satan/Yahweh have other gods related to them where they are rejected by their mothers or don't have one, which is why they are narcissists who hate women and why we he kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Mother Nature) and curses women to be subservient to men (read more about this idea here). Revelation speaks of the Red Dragon trying to kill a newborn baby and the woman who birthed him. She then goes somewhere in the wilderness, where God held a place for her until its time. God in this story apparently, is Artemis or Diana. She's not dead, she's just hiding until Orestes (humanity) attones for what he did. This stuff correlates to so much more, I might have to make another post just about this.
​
I came across this date (11/14) towards the beginning of my journey and I never went back looking into it because it felt like a dead end besides a couple of VERY key significances. Nov 14th is both the day the "Great Comet" is discovered in 1680 and the day that Einstein presented his Quantum Theory of Light in 1908. Looking at this list now, I see WAY more correlations with this to the point it's getting ridiculous. And it seems this date is a sort of pendulum point in time because we have instances of people winning their freedoms, overtaking governments and rulers being killed and we have instances of enslavement, attacks and new kings getting crowned. I wonder which way Earth is going to go in this timeline. Also important to note 11/14 = 1 + 4 = 5 = 11/5 = 1 + 1 + 5 = 7
​
"Remember, Remember the 5th of November"
​

Transitions and Abuses of Power

​

1380 King Charles VI of France crowned at age 12
1698 Spanish king Carlos appoints grandson prince Jozef Ferdinand as heir
1863 Nathan Bedford Forrest is assigned to command of West Tennessee
1881 Charles J. Guiteau put on trial for the assassination of US President Garfield
1881 Leon Gambetta forms French government
1907 The Third Duma (Parliament) meets in Russia; following Tsar Nicholas II's limiting of the franchise, a conservative majority holds sway and suppresses the radical elements
1908 Liberal candidate Jose Miguel Gomez wins national elections for president in Cuba
1915 Tomáš Masaryk demands independence for Czechoslovakia
1918 Republic of Czechoslovakia created with Tomáš Masaryk as its 1st president
1919 Red Army captures Omsk, Siberia
1920 The Russian Bolshevik army occupies Sebastopol, ending anti-communist attempts to regain the government of Russia
1921 The Communist Party of Spain is founded
1922 German Reichs Chancellor Joseph Wirth's term ends
1935 FDR proclaims Philippine Islands a free commonwealth
1935 Nazis deprive German Jews of their citizenship
1942 Last Vichy-French troops in Algeria surrender
1945 Java: Sutan Sjahrir appointed as forming government
1952 Greek General Alexander Papagos wins elections
1954 Egyptian President Naguib resigns, state of emergency declared
1956 Hungarian revolt put down by Soviet invasion
1957 The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested
1965 US government sends 90,000 soldiers to Vietnam
1966 Muhammad Ali TKOs Cleveland Williams in 3 for heavyweight title
1971 Enthronment of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria
1980 Guinee-Bissau Premier Vieira fires President Luis Cabral
1984 Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
2001 War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters takeover the capital Kabul
2017 Armed forces drive through streets of Harare, Zimbabwe a day after military says its prepared to step in after removal of vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa

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1959 "Girls against the Boys" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 16 performances

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This seems to imply we'll be at union with both the masculine and the feminine. But all of these events seem to be polar opposites so who knows. It almost seems like women are going to take over and we're trading places. Like Dumuzid and Inanna. If this is the coming of the True Antichrist, then it won't be good and balance will not be achieved through them.
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Disasters and Attacks

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1775 -15] Floods ravage Dutch coast provinces
1927 World's largest gas tank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, explodes; 28 die
1938 Dutch DC3 crashes at Schiphol, 6 die
1939 Oil refinery fire kills 500 & destroys Lagunillas, Venezuela
1940 During WW II, German planes destroy most of Coventry, England
1941 British aircraft carrier Ark Royal sank in Mediterranean, having been torpedoed by a German submarine the day before
1941 Governr-General Wouters of Dutch Antilles refuses Jews refuge
1942 -Nov 15th) Japanese/US sea battle at Savo-Island in Guadalcanal
1946 Dutch Dakota flight to Schiphol crashes, kills 11
1959 Kilauea's most spectacular eruption (in Hawaii)
1960 2 passenger trains collided at high-speed killing 110 (Czech)
1960 Riot due to school integration in New Orleans
1970 Marshall U football team wiped out in DC-9 air crash at Kenova, West Virginia, killing 75
1980 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 Volcano Nevado del Ruiz Colombia erupts, 1000s killed
1990 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
1990 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1990 Philippines hit by typhoon, 110 die
2016 7.8 earthquake cuts off town of Kaikoura, New Zealand, raising sea bed by 4m, and killing 2 people

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Currency Issues

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1931 Ottawa Mint Act is proclaimed in Britain
2002 Argentina defaults on an $805 million World Bank payment.
2008 Italy plunges into recession, its first since the start of 2005, after GDP contracts a steeper-than-expected 0.5% in the third quarter
2008 Hong Kong becomes the second Asian economy to tip into recession, its exports hit by weakening global demand
2008 Eurozone officially slips into recession for the first time since its creation in 1999, pushed down by recessions in Germany and Italy
2008 Elizabeth Warren is appointed to chair a Congressional Oversight Panel for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
2009 The National Statistical Service of Greece states that the country has been in recession since the beginning of the year
2012 A series of protests against austerity measures occur across Europe including Spain, Portugal, and Greece

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TV Shows/Movies/Plays/Books

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1851 "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville first published by Harper and Brothers in the US
1883 "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson is first published as a book by Cassell & Co.
1894 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Golden Pince-Nez" (BG)
1905 David Belasco's "Girl of Golden West" premieres in NYC
1908 Oscar Strauss' musical "Der tapfere Soldat" premieres in Vienna
1945 H Lindsay and R Crouse's "State of the Union" premieres in NYC

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"The play's events... allude to Wendell Willkie, the utility company head who became the surprise Republican candidate for president in 1940. 'This is a play about a businessman who is a dark-horse candidate.'
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1952 First regular UK singles chart published by the New Musical Express
1960 Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind" reaches #1

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I said Georgia, GeorgiaA song of you (a song of you)Comes as sweet and clearAs moonlight through the pine
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1964 "Fade Out-Fade In" closes at Mark Hellinger NYC after 199 performances

The show spoofs some of the great film stars of the era, such as Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Governor is based on MGM honcho Louis B. Mayer, known for his roving eye for pretty starlets and deep-seated nepotism.
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1964 "Folies Bergere" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 191 performances
1964 "Oliver!" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 774 performances

A workhouse in Dunstable, England is visited by the wealthy governors who fund it. While a sumptuous banquet is held for them, the barefoot orphan boys who work there are being served their daily gruel. They dream of enjoying the same "Food, Glorious Food" as their masters. While eating, some boys draw straws to see who will ask for more to eat, and the job falls to a boy named Oliver Twist. He goes up to Bumble and Widow Corney, who run the workhouse and serve the gruel, and asks for more. Enraged, Bumble takes Oliver to the governors to see what to do with him ("Oliver!"). A decision is made to have Oliver sold into service. Bumble parades Oliver through the snow, trying to sell him to the highest bidder ("Boy for Sale"). Oliver is sold to an undertaker named Mr. Sowerberry, who intends to use him as a mourner for children's funeral

1965 "Baker Street" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 313 performances
1965 George Abbott Theater (Adelphi, 54 St) at 152 W 54th NYC, demolished
1968 U.S. premiere of film version of Morris L. West's best seller "The Shoes of the Fisherman"
1973 "Good Evening" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 438 performances
1976 "Network", directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch and William Holden, premieres in Los Angeles and New York City (Finch - Academy Awards Best Actor 1977)

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This one warrants reading the entire plot as it fits too perfectly. Even ending with the assassination of the main character.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(1976_film))
Network is a 1976 American satirical film written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, about a fictional television network, UBS, and its struggle with poor ratings

1981 "Raise!" 11th studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1982) Event of interestEvent of Interest
1987 "La Cage aux Folles" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 1761 performances

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La cage aux folles literally means "the cage of mad women". However, folles is also a slang term for effeminate homosexuals (queens).
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1991 Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video premieres on FOX TV
1993 "Kentucky Cycle" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 34 performances
1993 "Twilight of the Golds" closes at Booth Theater NYC after 29 performances
1993 Puerto Rico votes against becoming the 51st US state
1996 "Chicago" opens at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC
1997 Disney's "Lion King" sets Broadway record of $2,700,000 daily sale
2000 Geddy Lee releases his first solo album, “My Favourite Headache”
2002 Film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is released, based on the second book by J. K. Rowling
2006 "Casino Royale", 21st James Bond film premieres in London, starring Daniel Craig for the 1st time and Eva Green, premieres in London
2012 "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2", based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, directed by Bill Condon, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, is released

As ridiculous as this sounds, this might be the most relevant of all. I can't fit it all here, so just go here and read about the plot.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga:_Breaking_Dawn_%E2%80%93_Part_2#Plot
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Her daughters name literally means "born again". Someone gets told they don't live in the world they think they do. Her child get persecuted and they gather "witnesses" to testify for her. The 2 witnesses in Revelation? The correlations here are crazy. Especially with the idea I've heard that everything man exalts, God hates and vice versa. So Pagan and witches seem to be implying something here.
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2016 "Moana" animated Disney film directed by Ron Clements and John Musker with voices by Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson premieres in Los Angeles

On the Polynesian island of Motunui, the inhabitants worship the goddess Te Fiti, who brought life to the ocean, using a pounamu stone as her heart and the source of her power. Maui, the shapeshifting demigod and master of sailing, steals the heart to give humanity the power of creation. However, Te Fiti disintegrates, and Maui is attacked by Te Kā, a volcanic demon, losing both his magical giant fishhook and the heart to the depths.
A millennium later, Moana, daughter of Motunui's chief Tui, is chosen by the ocean to return the heart to Te Fiti. However, Tui arrives and takes Moana away, causing her to lose the heart.
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Space & Exploration Related

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1524 Francisco Pizarro begins his 1st great expedition, near Colombia
1792 Captain George Vancouver is first Englishman to enter San Francisco Bay

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Something to do with Pope Francis? Either Jesuit takeover of America or destruction of the Catholic church would be my guess.
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1910 1st airplane flight from deck of a ship, Norfolk, Virginia

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Another first involving flying vehicles
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1922 BBC begins daily radio broadcasts from the 2LO transmitter at Marconi House

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Implying contact
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1923 Kentaro Suzuki completes his ascent of Mount Iizuna.

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1969 Apollo 12 (Conrad/Gordon/Bean) launched for 2nd manned Moon landing

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We just announced we're sending people back to the moon
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1981 2nd Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 2-returns to Earth

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The 2nd space shuttle, Lady Liberty, RETURNS to Earth
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1983 First cruise missile placed at Greenham Common, England

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Those missiles were guided by light
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1984 Astronauts aboard "Discovery" pluck a 2nd satellite from orbit

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More references to a 2nd moon or "satellite". With "Discovery" plucking one from orbit.
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1984 NASA launches NATO-3D

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Implying this 3D world was "launched" or created?
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1994 Space shuttle STS-66 (Atlantis 13), lands

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Atlantis? 13 is the mother again.
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2012 CFBDSIR 2149-0403 is discovered, the closest rogue planet to earth (100 light-years away)

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This is a giant indicator.
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Scandals

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1550 Pope Julius III proclaims new seat on Council of Trente

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Apparently he was fucking his "adopted nephew" which was a big scandal for the Catholic Church
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1943 J Postma, C Schalker, D Goulooze arrested for leading illegal CPN

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CPN scams involve social security numbers and escaping bad credit.
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1991 American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103

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Russia downed a flight and I don't think anyone has indicted them yet
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1986 SEC imposes a record $100 million penalty against Ivan Boesky

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Fined for insider stock trading, the highest fine ever at the time for a single person.
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2002 The United States House of Representatives votes not to create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks

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Now this is VERY interesting. Trump has repeatedly said he would expose 9/11 and I've had this theory for a while that he would use this information to end the investigation and take complete power.
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1976 War criminal Pieter Menten captured 1 day after fleeing

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He was a Nazi. A Dutch writer was involved in his capture. I'm noticing a lot of references to the Dutch. Apparently they were very complicit in atrocities of Nazi Germany and they had the highest percentage of Jewish deaths in Western Europe, 75% of them died. A lot of Nazi's actually hid out in these areas to avoid capture. The Little Baron Trump books say he changed his name to a Dutch name. Trump himself lied and said his father was Swedish. I think it's pretty obvious what this means.
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Miscellaneous

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1666 Samuel Pepys reports on 1st blood transfusion (between dogs)

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Almost seems like an illusion to genetic manipulation. The Greeks called the city where they worshiped the Egyptian god of the Underworld Anubis, the "city of the dog". Jesus referred to a Canaanite woman as a dog once. Trump also called Omarosa a "dog". Keeping with my theory that almost 100% of the negative things Trump says about a person are projection, which means he's really talking about himself, this is very interesting. Especially with his love for Black and Gold color schemes on his "Towers" which is very Egyptian. Ramses II also had red hair. Which means he was an Edomite. Ramses II is mentioned specifically on Cleopatra's Needle, one of which is a mile away from the black inverted obelisk that is Trump Tower. Ramses II sounds an AWFUL lot like Trump. Loved to build monuments to himself and over exaggerated his accomplishments. He is very revered though and thought of as a great Pharaoh, according to what was written about him at least.
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1675 Pope Clemens X declares Gorcumse martyrs divine

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They were 19 Catholics who were killed for being Catholics
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1832 First streetcar (horse-drawn) (John Mason) debuts in NYC; fare 12 cents rode on 4th Avenue between Prince and 14th Sts

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The Mars Rover was literally just driven around NYC
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1896 Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation

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Implying a new power or power source is coming?
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1967 The Congress of Colombia in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as "Day of the Colombian Woman"

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Columbia was originally a name for the goddess of America, which is essentially Lady Liberty. If the Messiah really is coming, this is implying it's a woman.
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1969 2nd Vietnam Moratorium Day in US

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This was a sit in to protest the Vietnam war
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1972 Dow Jones closes above 1,000 for 1st time (1003.16)

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This seems to be a good thing
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1973 Canada begins production of Olympic coins

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The Olympics was the celebration of the Triumph over the first gods, the Titans. Although its just a sham to fool the people into thinking they are free now when the old gods just changed shape into new ones. Like the Phoenix being reborn.
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1975 Spain, Morocco and Mauretania sign accord about Spanish Sahara

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Spain gave up land due to pressure from the UN
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1976 "Don't Step on My Olive Branch" closes at Playhouse NYC after 16 performances

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This is a play about Israel. Olive branches represent peace
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1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat repeats willingness to visit Israel to Walter Cronkite

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Interesting. Egypt is a metaphor in the Bible for a place of struggle as well as being a real place.
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1981 Old Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park repaired and working again

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Apparently this is just one of 2 different ones. The other one called Murphy which is on the west side of the GOLDEN GATE Park.
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1982 Polish Solidarity chairman Lech Wałęsa freed

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Just gonna have to read about this one for yourselves, it's very relevant.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa
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1990 Michael Heseltine contests Margaret Thatcher's leadership of the British Conservative Party

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A challenge to the conservative party
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1991 Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile

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13 is associated with the mother principal of the soul. She's been in exile, represented by getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden.
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2001 OPEC announces that it intends to cut its crude oil output quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day effective, but only if non-OPEC producers cut their output by 500,000 barrels per day as well

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Oil shortage coming?
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2007 the last direct-current distribution by Con Edison was shut down.

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Is this indicating the power will be cut off or is it a metaphor for humanity itself?
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Children's Day is celebrated on the 14th of November in India as a tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru, who was born on November 14, 1889. Jawaharlal Nehru, who was fondly called Chacha Nehru or simply Chachaji, was known for his love for children. On this day, chocolates and gifts are often distributed among children, while schools organize different events such as debates, and music and dance performances. It is also a common practice to distribute gifts like clothes, toys and books to orphan children on this day.