Thursday and a Bit of Quiet.

Hello Troops,
It's very quiet at my desk. The only thing I hear is the rhythmic metallic sound of a tether ball clasp striking its pole in the breeze outside. I've got to be careful not to get use to this. I may get to like it and then where would we be? Normally I've got people circling around me like vultures over fresh road kill. Their squawking is accompanied by the various sounds of three simulators in full operation: explosions, red alerts, music and the voices of 25 children and a dozen staff or so perfectly blended together.

I've answered my emails and taken a few phone calls. I'll be leaving the Center and the Imaginarium in a few minutes, trek down There and Back Again Lane to the station and in a wink be back to the Land of Here and Now.

On my ride to the Imaginarium this morning (notice how empty the public transport is. Not many people are needed when the Space Center isn't operating) I saw Nannie Peeples Ray. Nannie lives at 23 1/2 Littlepuddle Lane in Wonderland. Nannie is the Secretary of Sweet Dreams in the Department of Visions and Hallucinations. She looked exhausted so I didn't disturb her.

Normally Nannie works the Western Hemisphere, but her counter part, Velora Umlauft (eastern hemisphere sweet dreams) called in sick. Nannie took Velora's last two shifts in addition to her own, leaving her exhausted and at times irritable. This irritability manifested itself by a shortage of sweet dreams world wide. Hopefully Velora will be at her desk this evening so Nannie can go home and get some sleep.

Snape was more 'hip' than anyone thought.

How much would someone have to give you to walk very slowly through this,
arms to your side?

Now if the environmentalist would use this as their "Call to Action" I'm sure the response would be overwhelming.

A new logo for the London Olympics of 2012.

A new take on the traditional Duct Tape. Fantastic imaginations at work.

As they say, "There is always another way to skin a cat." I don't know why they say that, or perhaps it is something only said in South Dakota where I come from - where it is always best not to ask about the meat in your taco.

Halley's Comet swings by the Earth once every 75 years.

Farmer Nash is fed up with missing and disfigured cows and crop circles.

And Aren't we all?

Have a Great Day!
I'll see you in the trenches in less than one week.

Mr. W.

One Week to the School Year Season!

Hello Troops,
The countdown is running. The Space Education Center reopens its doors in seven days for the 2011/2012 school year. Every day I stop by the Center to answer emails and phone calls. The Magellan is still in disarray. The school's custodian will reopen the school on Friday so we can get the upgrades finished and the ships ready for opening. I'm confident our maintenance team will have everything in tip top shape.


Maximilian Fredick Ding is the Imaginarium's Keeper of the Gears and Cogs. Maximilian uses this slow time of the year (while the Space Center is closed) to clean and polish the gears, sprockets and cogs that keep the Imaginarium's machinery running.

"You've no idea how reliant this institution is on the work I do," Maximilian said during his interview for this article. "Without properly functioning thing a mabobs," Maximilian pointed to the walls of gears, cogs and sockets behind him, "everything would grind to a halt. Then where would we be? Yes, answer that one." Maximilian spoke with pride.

The interview went longer than expected. Maximilian paused between each sentence to exercise his pipe.

I pointed to a large gear. "What does this one do?"

"That one runs the timing mechanism in the Whatsa Macallit. A very delicate machine."

"What does it do?" I asked.

Maximilian took a puff from his pipe, thought for a moment and adjusted his red coat. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the workings of our machines. What you can and can't know is up to those that live and work on the top floors." He pointed to the elevator and then upwards. I thanked him for his time. "Yes sir," he answered with a tip of his hat. He left me with the lingering smell of pipe tobacco.

Reading is important to anyone who takes imagination seriously. Wonderland's shops do everything they can to support and encourage reading. They profit because reading increases knowledge, imagination, and the overall sense of wonder and that leads to profits.







The Kendalwoods hope to capture that extra business between 6:00 and 7:00 A.M.

What many people in the world think of Americans. It's funny because we know there is some truth to it.


This will help you if you ever need to find me in a grocery store. I'll be the one camped in this lane. Look for the guy with the electric shopping cart, 44 ounce Gut Buster, machine gun and American Flag. Please keep all open flames away from my oxygen tank.


There is the long way to get to Jupiter (NASA's way) and the short way (the power of imagination).

A warning as you get ready to take math this year.

A sad commentary on modern times.

I'll check in again tomorrow.

Mr. Williamson

Space Center News and a Reported Escape.

URGENT BULLETIN

Two well known Disney characters successfully escaped the Disney Compound in the early hours of the morning through a crudely built tunnel. The tunnel's entrance was found under one of Frontier Land's latrines. The photo above shows the two desperate escapees outside the compound's western wall, moving toward a main road.

"How they got through the electrical fence and mine field confuses me," said one Disney security officer.

Our sources at Disney tell us that Mr. and Mrs. Mouse repeatedly applied for exit visas to visit the second happiest place on Earth in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Each application was denied without explanation. Our sources also tell us that a raid at the Mouse home this morning turned up an illegal wireless computing device.

"Late at night they were visiting a site call 'The Troubadour'," our confidential source told us. "The Troubadour is an online propaganda tool maintained by the Space Education Center. The sight is on our banned list. We also found an illegal duplicating machine and hundreds of copies of articles taken from The Troubadour. They were going to distributed them through the compound."

A warrant for their arrest has been issued. Police are on the lookout at all bus and train stations and at all major airports throughout southern California.

"It has come as a shock to all of us," said one of the Mouse family's handlers (guards). "They were always so happy and friendly, and to think of them as traitors - unthinkable!"

A substantial reward is being offered for the successful capture and return of Mr. and Mrs. Mouse - alive if possible.

Hello Troops,
We've been given strict instructions not, I repeat NOT, to enter the school for any reason barring national defense and the urgent need for the school's nuclear fallout shelter. The orders come from Central School's Office of Physical Facilities and Refuse Management (The custodians). Central's floors are being waxed this week. The only people allowed in the building, except those doing the waxing, are those with the special power of levitation. We mortals who clump along on our own two feet are barred.

This happens once a year just before the school year starts. Yes, its a bit of an inconvenience but imagine the inconvenience the Space Center is on the school's custodians, with hundreds of people in the building all summer long in camps and private missions. Roger (our custodian) has been very patient with us. Besides, no school in the district can match the shine, gloss and shimmer of Central's floors. Our custodians do a great job.

Construction on the Magellan's new brig stopped last night at 10:3o P.M. Kyle, Jon and Nate reported in by telephone. We had a bad connection but I believe they said the job was nearly finished. And there was much rejoicing in the land.

We open one week tomorrow with a day full of private missions. Talk about jumping right into the deep end. I'm hoping our staff and volunteers will be ready. I envision crowds of people waiting hungryly by the school's front door next Wednesday just waiting for them to open to let them in. It will be worse than the day after Thanksgiving in front of your local WalMart.

And now, a few items from The Imaginarium.







You never know what someone will imagine with a little help from the good folks here at the Imaginarium in Wonderland.



Parent's visiting this shop have suddenly become more mindful of where their children are and what they're doing.



Mildred Scopes spent the morning wandering through Wonderland's shops looking for something modern to wear for the opening of the Space Education Center's School Year Season. She believes it is time to change her age old look.

"I've noticed most of the staff and volunteers at the Space Center are rather young." She said before crossing the road to the Peter Pan Boutique where they guarantee to take years off your appearance through the careful application of appropriate clothing, make up and plaster (they charge by the year). "Except of course for the Director. I hear he is a real old dinosaur, a throw back to the Neanderthal. They say he walks around the place with his knuckles dragging along the floor."





Every street in Utah should have one of these signs to warn us about the "Slow" kids unable to reason correctly. Some of the kids in my neighborhood are as thick as mud. They ride their bikes, three wheelers, scooters and skateboards right down the center of the street. They dare the motorists to a duel. Let it be known that the Battlestar will not be diverted from its course by a gang of hooligans out to prove their misguided invincibility!



OK Troops. Time to stop. I've got to get up real early tomorrow morning, drive to a gas station just outside of Nephi and meet a certain couple who managed to hitch a ride from Southern California to Utah.

I'm trusting you with this information.

Mr. W.