Chris Merritt (the Imagineer who was the art director on the restoration of the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-thru dioramas) generously allowed me to post a scan of this beautiful map of Nature's Wonderland that he made.

Chris said that this was done strictly for fun after being inspired by Sam McKim's souvenir maps of Disneyland, and wow, what amazing results!

A lavishly well done article all about Walt Disney and Disneyland. This article is from the August 1963 Edition of National Geographic.

This article is HUGE, 50 pages! Including a three page fold out map of the park. And on the reverse side a nice three page panorama shot of the Rivers of America.

GDP takes a look at the legend that was the Hatbox Ghost. As with many of the fun and famous characters of the Mansion, the Hatbox Ghost was originally conceptualized by Marc Davis.

In this article, Samland starts to detail one of the 15 core design patterns that create beautiful spaces. The focus is on levels of scale and he uses Cinderella Castle to illustrate his point.

Headed to D23 (or just want to be?) -- download the full, official schedule of events here.

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Pod takes a close look at last week's shocking announcement that the Walt Disney Company is acquiring Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. The show looks at exactly why the purchase is such a big deal, what it means for Disney's movies and theme parks, and what it says about Disney's corporate direction under Bob Iger as CEO. (Total runtime - 47:22). More at - http://www.aaronwallaceonline.com

Devoting some time to the female characters that Disney got right - the ones who are good role models, and have something to offer beyond pretty dresses and falling asleep at whim.

Following the interview with Don Peri from last week, I conducted a short interview with Harriet Burns' daughter, Pam Burns-Clair, co-author of the upcoming book, Walt Disney’s First Lady of Imagineering, Harriet Burns.