I am just back from Orlando where I attended the National Council of Teachers of English Conference at one of the Disney properties. The endless refrain there was “Have a magical day!” said with such cheeriness that I felt I was trapped in some sugar-coated dream. I loathe manufactured fun, thus when I called the other night asking about a lap pool on the property, I was cringing when they told me there was none, but there was a pool with a large slide located near the themed dig site. Lucky for me, I have zip sense of direction, and thus I found a different pool that did not have these over-the-top amenities; rather I was happy with lines for laps on the bottom, which I always thought of as one of the prerequisites for “a lap pool.

Did you see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet? If not, we won’t give anything away, but we will say one thing: Amazing!