Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

I’ve now been to four Disney parks: Disney Land (California), Disney World Magic Kingdom (Florida), Disney World Epcot Center (Florida), and Disney World Animal Kingdom (Florida). I went to Disney Land when I was younger, though I have some memories of various attractions (the Matterhorn, Swiss Family Robinson House, the Haunted House, and the nightmarish It’s a Small World). Debi and I went to Epcot a few years ago.  Last  weekend I went to the other two while some of Debi’s family was visiting.

If you’ve ever discussed Disney with me, you’ll know that I’m not a fan. I have a lot of reasons why, but here are some of the main ones.

1. Disney aggressively protects its copyrights.  In and of itself, protecting copyrights isn’t a terrible thing.  People deserve to make money off their creative works, for a reasonable amount of time.  However, the way Disney has done it is disturbing.  Disney takes public domain works, like The Little Mermaid (written over 100 years ago, ergo, public domain), turns them into copyrighted works like their 1989 film, then aggressively litigates against anyone who mentions the fairytale, despite it technically being a public domain story.  In other words, Disney makes its money off of stealing stories and ideas from the public domain, turning them into corporate property, and fighting anyone who tries to use them.  Additionally, Disney has aggressively fought copyright expiration, leading the charge for the Copyright Term Extension Act, which has extended the length of copyright in the US well beyond what it should be for all practical purposes.  In short, Disney has abused, ruined, and bastardized copyright law in the US.
2. Driving into Disney, you pass through an arch that reads, “Where Dreams Come True.”  If your dream is a completely commercialized, over-priced, jam-packed-with-people theme park, then I could see that being the case.  But I don’t think that is the dream most people have when they go to Disney.  I think the dream they have is that it is “The Happiest Place on Earth.”  Observing people there seems to suggest that isn’t true either – I saw a lot of kids crying (though I also some kids who seemed to really be enjoying themselves).  What really gets me about the whole “Dreams Come True” thing, is that some people actually seem to think Disney means it.  One girl I saw in the Animal Kingdom typified this.  She must have been 11 to 13 years old and was dressed in a fairy princess outfit, walking around with her parents who were probably in their 50s.  I saw a lot of little girls who were dressed as princesses, but most of them were 5 to 6 years old and their parents hadn’t told them yet that it was just a fantasy and not reality.  But when I saw an 11-13 year-old girl still imagining that she was, in fact, a princess, I saw evil.  Unless you happen to be born into a royal family in one of the ridiculous monarchical dynasties that still exist around the world today, you’re not a princess.  Get over it.
3. So, the fact that some people really believe Disney makes dreams come true bothers me.  But what bothers me even more is that Disney takes fantastical ideas and commercializes them.  It’s all about making money.  In short, Disney monetizes fantasy.  Certainly people who create fantasy realms deserve credit for doing so.  But the level of commercialization at Disney is over-the-top.  There is nothing Disney won’t sell you – they even sell seats in their parades, if you pay enough!  In fact, Disney hires scientists to study children and teenagers to figure out how to sell them stuff.  The most amazing part about all of this is that kids think they are engaging their imagination even though Disney does all the imagining and really has an ulterior motive: convince them to buy stuff.  Parents are then roped into the Disney commercial world by their Disney-obsessed kids, and 99% of the people who fall prey to Disney have no idea that Disney executives are only interested in maximizing revenues through pseudo-fantasy, not in actually making anyone’s dreams come true.  It’s quite genius, actually.
4. Another reason I really, really dislike Disney is because they put on a facade of multiculturalism and being welcoming, but it’s lip service to tolerance.  Case in point: It’s A Small World.  The superficial idea behind this very creepy ride is that it introduces people on the ride to various world cultures and then suggests we can all live together.  That sounds nice, but how are the various cultures identified?  Through stereotypes.  For instance, France is typified by a bunch of women doing the CanCan (and not, say, Laicite or the French Revolution).  Holland is represented by blonde-haired people wearing wood shoes (and not, say, for it’s remarkable engineering feats).  Various African nations are represented as being undeveloped and tribal (and not for being the birthplace of humans).  Latin American countries are represented as relatively undeveloped as well.  In short, every world culture is boiled down to one or two stereotypes that do nothing to help people really come to understand other cultures.  While I can’t say with any certainty that It’s A Small World has never led someone to become less ethnocentric, I’m guessing all it has ever really done is reinforce stereotypes.  And, of course, Epcot is basically just the same stereotypes writ large.  If Disney really wanted to reduce prejudice and ethnocentrism, you wouldn’t look at scary little dolls singing some unintelligible song in weirdly high voices but would sit down and have coffee or a drink with someone from another country.  Actual contact with people who are not like you on an even footing is probably the single best way to reduce prejudice.  So, rather than pay lip service to multiculturalism, why not actually do something to reduce prejudice?
5. My last issue is more of an annoyance than a major problem.  If you’ve been to Disney you may remember that employees wave at you all the time.  What is up with that?  I’m wondering if Disney did some research at some point that found that people feel more welcome if someone waves to them.  It actually had the opposite effect on me: it creeped me out.  The fact that random strangers waved to you, usually with no smile and only as a perfunctory part of their job, made me feel uncomfortable.  Maybe waving is a bit too intimate for me; I don’t typically wave at every random stranger.  And maybe that’s the idea – it makes you feel like everyone knows you and cares about you.  But they don’t.  And since I know that they don’t, it creeped me out.  Add to that fact that some of the stuff you see at Disney is creepy in other ways, and you have to wonder why people think it is such an amazing place.  Perhaps it’s just me, but I could imagine that, if hell existed, it would be something akin to going through It’s A Small World for eternity.  These freakish little animated dolls bother me at some fundamental level:
   

   the creepy dolls from It's A Small World

   If you simply change the context, can’t you imagine a horror movie that includes these dolls coming to life and tearing people to shreds?  Or maybe they are secretly possessed by evil spirits – that would make a great independent film: It’s A Small World… And Then You Die!   Yeah, Disney is creepy at some weird level (at least it is to me).

In short, Disney is everything that is wrong with corporate America.  It steals from individuals and the public domain, but gives nothing back to the public domain.  It monetizes fantasy.  It pays lip service to tolerance, but in fact reinforces and even sells stereotypes.  And it uses social psychology to try to deceive people into feeling welcome when the real intent is simply to take their money.  Yep, Disney is a pernicious evil.

But this post isn’t quite over.  I have yet to introduce the irony: I’m going back, at least two more times in the next two months.  Why, you ask?  And yes, you should ask that considering what I just wrote.  Well, Disney had a special offer when we bought our tickets for Florida residents – 4 days at any of the 4 parks for $99.00, which is less than you’d pay to go for just 2 days.  Since we were going for 2 days, we figured we should buy the 4 day pass.  And now that we have the passes, I can’t help but think that I should maximize their value to me.  So, I’m going to go back and do some more ethnographic research on Disney.  Maybe I’ll ask some of the employees why they wave all the time.  Maybe I’ll shoot one of the dolls in It’s A Small World for being so creepy.  Maybe I won’t stare during the parade and repeatedly utter under my breath during it “This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen; how could anyone find it interesting.”  Or maybe I’ll just go, try not to be a sociologist, and enjoy myself.

There is another smaller bit of irony.  I enjoyed going to Disney last weekend.  What?!?  Really, what?!?  After that lengthy, mean diatribe you’re telling me you enjoyed it?  Yes, I did.  But not for the reason you think.  I enjoyed it because I got to spend time with my family.  Being at Disney wasn’t the important factor (though I did enjoy the Everest ride in the Animal Kingdom); being with family was.  Would I go back if my extended family wanted to?  Absolutely!  Family comes first!  Family even comes before sociological analysis of the most perniciously evil place on earth – Disney.

I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but in the last few months a new pain management clinic was opened in the strip mall behind our house called Tampa Bay Wellness Centre. For two and a half years, we’ve had no problems with the strip mall that is just over our fence. But in the last few months, that has changed.

On January 31st, a Saturday, Debi and I woke up to the sounds of chainsaws. I didn’t immediately realize from where the sound was coming, but soon realized that someone was cutting down all of the trees on the other side of our fence by the strip mall. No one had approached us about doing this. What’s more, the previous owner of the house who put in our fence, didn’t actually put the fence on our property line, but instead put the fence about 2 to 3 feet away from our property line because he didn’t want to cut down those trees. Ergo, the trees they were cutting down were actually at least partially our trees, on our property. I went out, stuck my head over the fence, and got the attention of the woman who was cutting down the trees. I mentioned to her that the trees were on my property, which immediately gave her pause. She was hired to cut them down and was told that they were on the property of the owner of the strip mall. She immediately went to talk to the person who had hired her to let him know that this was sketchy. He and another business owner then came around to my place where I was out talking with my neighbor, to apologize and try to smooth things over. A little late – the trees were already cut down!

Over the last month, with the trees gone, we’ve had several instances where people have been walking around in the alley behind the strip mall at 11:00 pm talking loudly or yelling. I went out there a couple of weeks ago after a guy had been talking loudly for over an hour at 11:00 pm and popped my head over our fence. I don’t know who he was, but he didn’t wait around – he dropped his phone and ran.

One other time over the past week there have been people talking loudly in the alley at night. But last night, at 11:00 pm, it was really getting on my nerves. Then a car alarm went off, waking up Toren. I’d had enough. I went into our backyard to see what was going on, but by that time no one was back there, despite there still being 6 or 7 cars in the alley. So I decided I’d walk around to the front of the strip mall to see what was going on.

I’m probably too naive to realize that this was very risky, but I was pissed. As I walked around the corner to the strip mall and started to head down the sidewalk, I started noticing a group of people hanging out in front of the Tampa Bay Wellness Centre. As I got closer, I realized these people were not really the kind of people I’d want to run into late at night – they were wearing tattered clothing, looked unkempt, looked to be in relatively poor health, had various scars, and looked, well, mean. Having no experience with drug dealers, I can’t say for certain that’s what they looked like, but that was the initial impression I received – white, scummy, drug dealers. There were about 6 or 7 of them standing in front of the Tampa Bay Wellness Centre. When I got to the door of this “clinic”, I started to ask the people sitting around outside if it was open, but then one of them opened the door and walked in, so I followed him. Inside, at 11:00pm on a Friday night, there were at least another 15 to 20 people sitting around a makeshift clinic, watching TV. They looked just like the people outside.

Cut into one wall was a window where I assumed the staff were. I waited while the guy who entered before me asked if he was up yet. Then it was my turn. In the little, unfinished, and really scary looking office, there were three people I could see – a young woman, a young man, and Gloria, a middle-aged woman. I started right in on them, complaining about the noise and wanting to know what was going on. Gloria was the one who piped up and denied that it was them, claiming that they didn’t let anyone back in the alley. BS! I mentioned the car alarm and told them I have an 8-month old son. She apologized, then said that they were going to be leaving in a week. When I asked why, the young man said, “Does it matter? You don’t want us to leave?” To which I responded, “No, you leaving would be great, but it just looks funny for you to set up shop for a month or two then leave.” Anyway, I ended up getting the card of the Doctor who supposedly runs the clinic and Gloria’s name, then warned her that I would start phoning in noise complaints to the police every time I heard them from now on. At this, one of the patrons said, “If you have a problem with this place, you can go talk to the police officer who is watching it from his cruiser in the parking lot over.” I told him I just might.

I walked out to glares from some of the patrons, then headed back the way I came. I did notice as I walked that there was a Tampa Police cruiser in the parking lot opposite the clinic as the patron said, so I went over to the cruiser to see what was going on. I think he was a bit wary at first, but when I introduced myself and explained what I was doing, he relaxed and we started to chat. He was, in fact, observing this “clinic” because the police are fairly confident that what is happening is that the doctor is simply writing whatever patients walk in prescriptions for narcotics and painkillers. My neighbor and I had guessed this was what was happening, but to hear the police confirm that it was the suspicion was surprising, especially because the officer said there was nothing they could do at this point. That annoyed me because the local police recently busted a bunch of people in the Tampa area doing just this. As we talked, the officer was amazed to hear that I had gone into the clinic. He was also amazed that it was open at 11:00pm on a Friday night. He kept saying, “I don’t know of any doctor’s offices that are open that late at night.” Anyway, the officer was nice and did confirm that I could call in noise complaints after 11:00 whenever they occurred. So, I’ll be doing that.

But I also decided to look into things a bit more this morning. Here’s what my internet sleuthing has discovered:

Ronald J. Heromin

Ronald J. Heromin is the doctor who is running the Tampa Bay Wellness Centre. He is licensed in Florida. However, he was been disciplined by the Florida Board of Medicine, on April 4, 2009, for beginning to operate on a patient’s wrong leg. (You can see a copy of the discipline decision here as well.) Unfortunately that only ended in a $5,000 fine. Dr. Heromin has also recently filed for bankruptcy with close to $150,000 in debt. This sounds like the perfect recipe for a doctor to start slumming it, doling out prescriptions for narcotics. I, of course, cannot say that Dr. Heromin is doing that, but his clinic is certainly sketchy. The clientèle were sketchy. And staying open late at night on a Friday doling out prescriptions in a clinic that, from my quick purview, doesn’t even have a room to see patients seems really, really sketchy. So, I don’t know what Dr. Heromin is doing, but it’s not above reproach.

Because I don’t want to keep the card I took that night any longer, I’m posting all of the information it included here:

Tampa Bay Wellness Centre
Office of Ronald J. Heromin, M.D.
1943 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607
Phone: (813) 374-8950
Fax: (813) 374-8949

Ettinberg Properties, LLC & Haim Goldenberg

The owner of the strip mall where Tampa Bay Wellness Centre is located is Haim Goldenberg, the registered agent of Ettinberg Properties, LLC. Here’s the property tax information on the property, which says it is worth $1.4 million. And here’s the corporate information on Ettinberg Properties, LLC. Apparently he’s living quite well – here’s a picture of his home courtesy of Google Maps. It’s 2009 market value is $688,764.00. He’s also the registered agent of Universal Auto Leasing Inc. at 8542 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33614, which looks like some strange car rental or leasing location. I’d laugh if this also happens to be Haim Goldenberg, the famed Israeli mentalist, but I doubt it.

You can’t get your healthcare provider to talk to itself.

Some background to explain.  Upon moving to Florida, I took a job at the University of Tampa with Ryan, where I had good health insurance.  A large chunk of that insurance was covered by the University and we didn’t really worry about the insurance that much.  Our insurer: BlueCross BlueShield of Florida.  But upon the termination of my contract at the University of Tampa, we had to decide what we were going to do about insurance.

Turns out, the insurance at the University of Tampa is far from perfect.  Ryan is covered under a minimal insurance option, at no cost to himself – he literally pays nothing to cover himself.  To add Toren with the minimal coverage plan costs about $60.00 per month.  To add me to his plan (and not Toren) would cost $80.00 per month.  One would think, then, that to add both of us to his plan would be something like $140.00 per month.  And thinking that would be wrong!  Nope, it’s closer to $340.00 per month for a family plan.   Now, if we had 5 or 10 kids, that would be a steal.  But couples with 1 kid are charged the same as couples with 10 kids, or 20.  So, what did we do?  I ended up getting insurance as a student at the University of South Florida for… $80.00 per month!

Here’s where it gets fun.  The plan Ryan is on is kind of a minimalist plan – there are high deductibles and you pay a percentage of every visit or prescription, but the premium is low.  But here’s how BlueCross BlueShield of Florida describes their student plan that I am on:

A health care plan providing limited benefits

You know a plan can’t be very good when the best the insurer can do when describing it is to call it a “limited benefits” plan.

Of course, the transition from BlueCross BlueShield of Florida to BlueCross BlueShield of Florida couldn’t go smoothly – this is a health insurance company after all.  To begin with, I was denied coverage for a pre-existing condition because I did not have evidence of prior coverage.  Yes, you read that right, BlueCross BlueShield of Florida denied me coverage for a pre-existing condition because they had no evidence that I was covered prior to switching to the student plan by… BlueCross BlueShield of Florida.  After getting the correct form from the University of Tampa HR department and sending it to BlueCross BlueShield of Florida, BlueCross BlueShield of Florida denied my claim that I had pre-existing coverage, again.  So, what does this say about health insurance providers?  BlueCross BlueShield of Florida can’t communicate with BlueCross BlueShield of Florida.  It’s the same fracking company!!!

Do we need healthcare reform in the U.S.?  Duh!

I noted on here that we bought a new dishwasher back in November of 2008.  It’s a great dishwasher; it has a built in food grinder so you can put all sorts of stuff in there and it makes quick work of it.  It worked fine for about 10 months, but about 2 months ago it started having problems cleaning dishes on the top rack.  It got so bad that Thursday I tore the thing apart to see if I could figure out what the problem was.  I literally removed all of the internal parts and some of the external parts, took it out back, and sprayed it down with our hose, blowing all of the crap out of it.  I was hoping that the hard water deposits (of which there were plenty) were the problem.  But when I started it back up and try to clean some dishes on the top shelf, no luck.  The hours of work I spent on it made no difference!

Out of options for what to tear apart and clean, I turned to the internet.  A couple sites recommended using specific types of detergents.  That’s when it dawned on me that a couple of months ago is when we switched from a name brand gel detergent to a no-name brand detergent.  Wondering if that may be the problem, I put another load in and dropped in some name brand detergent that we had sitting around, Electrasol gel pouches (we were using up the no name brand stuff we bought for cheap).  I also read that if you have really hard water you should use twice as much detergent as the detergent, if it is good detergent, will actually help keep hard water deposits from forming.  So, I dropped two pouches of the Electrasol in and hoped that it was the answer.  Turns out, it probably was. That very first load came out a lot cleaner.  Each subsequent load has also improved.

I’m hoping the knock-off detergent hasn’t permanently damaged our dishwasher, but using the name brand detergent seems to have substantially improved the cleaning ability of the dishwasher.  It’s not back to where it was when we first bought it, but I’m hoping it continues to improve.

The lesson here – if you spend $600+ on a nice dishwasher, spend the extra few bucks for the good detergent.  Not all dishwasher detergent is created equal.

Our second day in Southeastern Florida was mostly spent volunteering at Horses for the Handicapped.  We did a variety of things while there, from painting to picking up rocks to grooming horses, but mostly we cleaned up horse feces.  Horses defecate a lot.  I was happy to help, but I’ll be happy if I never have to clean up horse crap ever again.

The day was pretty uneventful until our way home.  The large van I drove down to Fort Lauderdale didn’t get the greatest gas mileage.  On the way home from volunteering we needed to gas up.  So I stopped at a gas station near our hostel to get some gas.  While I was pumping the gas a car pulled up to the pump opposite mine.  In the car were three young, black men.  The driver got out and began filling his car.  Meanwhile, the young man in the passenger seat seemed busy with something, then he threw something out the window onto the ground.

Enter one of Ryan’s major pet peeves: I HATE it when people litter!!!

I periodically see people through garbage out of their car onto the ground.  Whenever I do, my blood boils.  I’m not quite sure why I get so irate, but it really, really bothers me.  As most of the time I see people do this they are in cars and I can’t really pull them over to chew them out, I usually can’t do anything except honk or give them dirty looks (yep, I get that mad).  But this time… Well, the guy was sitting in the car 5 feet from me.  So, I put the pump on automatic and walked over to the car.  Here’s how the conversation played out to the best of my memory:

Ryan: Um, did you drop something?

Guy in car: Excuse me?

Ryan: I thought I saw something fall out the window.  Did you drop something?

Guy in car: Yes, I dropped something.  I threw it out the window.

Ryan:  Oh, you meant to drop it?

Guy in car: Yeah.

Ryan: Oh, okay.  Um, I wasn’t sure if you meant to drop it.

At this point the conversation paused while I considered whether to say what I was thinking.  Perhaps stupidly, I said it…

Ryan: You do realize there is a garbage can about 10 feet away, right?

Guy in car: Are you some sort of ecololo-ecolologist?  (that’s exactly how he said it)

Ryan: Nope.  Just a guy who doesn’t like to see people litter.

Guy in car: Why do you care?

Ryan: I just don’t understand why you’d drop something on the ground when there is a trash can 10 feet away.

Guy in car: I was done with it.

Ryan:  Oh.  Okay.

The driver of his car has now finished filling up the car and now gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car.  As he begins to pull out, the guy with whom I’m sharing this enlightening conversation decides he’s not done.

Guy in car (to the driver): Wait.  I’m going to pick this up.

He opens his door, bends down, and picks up one of the two pieces of trash he dropped on the ground.  He stands up in front of me and continues our conversation:

Guy formerly in car: There.  I picked it up.  (pointing over to more trash near the street)  But I have a question for you.  Why do you care so much about me dropping this when there is trash all over the f*cking place?

Ryan: Because it is littering.

Guy in car: But you’re not going to pick it up, are you?

Ryan: I volunteer picking up trash. (It’s true; part of what we did at Horses and the Handicapped is pick up trash.)

Guy in car: But you’re not going to volunteer to pick up trash right here, are you?

Ryan: I think you’re missing the point…

Guy in car: You’re not, are you?

It’s at this point he draws right up to my face until he’s about 6 inches from me, kind of like this:

This is pretty close to the real deal, except I doubt I was smirking and we were about the same height. This must have been how it looked to the students in the van (props to Quinton Jackson and Forrest Griffin).

He was actually about my height.  I think he thought he was going to be taller than me, so he could intimidate me, but he wasn’t any thicker than I am or any taller, so his attempt at intimidation didn’t work.  But he sure tried:

Guy formerly in car: Are you my f*cking mother?  (feints at me)

Ryan:

Guy formerly in car: Why don’t you mind your own business?!?  (feints again)

Ryan: (probably just staring dumbly at the fact that this guy is getting in my face because I called him on littering)

Guy formerly in car: Why don’t you mind your own business?!?  Why don’t you mind your own business?!?  (feints each time he says this)

Perhaps he thought I would back down or that I would throw a punch, I don’t know.  But when I just stood there and stared at him he eventually gave up his feints at me, turned, walked to the trash can, threw his trash in it, walked back to his car, got in, and drove away.  All the while I just stared.

After he left, I walked back to the van, removed the gas nozzle, and closed everything up.  I then opened the door and looked in to see all the students staring at me in a strange combination of awe and bewilderment.  One of the guys said, “I thought we were going to get in a brawl.  I was about ready to jump out and back you up.”

I laughed and said, “All that over a piece of trash.”

One of the students then said, “Remind me never to litter around you.”

Right.  So, that’s the story.  But I have to admit I’m really, really intrigued by this whole event.  As noted above, littering is one of my pet peeves.  But as a sociologist, I can’t help but wonder why people do it.  Almost every single person I’ve ever seen throw trash on the ground has been young, of a lower socioeconomic status, and black. Here’s where I’m intrigued.  Clearly there is a cultural difference between myself and the individuals who throw trash on the ground.  But I’m not sure which characteristics leads to this behavior.  I’m guessing it’s not a youth thing as I have been anal about littering since I was a kid and there are lots of kids who don’t litter.  I’m guessing this isn’t a racial cultural difference as I don’t ever see higher socioeconomic status blacks litter and I’ve been in predominantly black, middle-class neighborhoods (in Cincinnati) that were basically trash free.  Why it has been mostly blacks I’ve seen this, I don’t know, but it could be due to where I live (in cities where the poorest group tends to black) and the fact that blacks are more likely to be poor.  My best guess is that this is a lower socioeconomic status thing as I’ve seen poor white people litter.  I’ve also been in poorer, predominantly white neighborhoods that have a lot of trash on the street.  So, I’m going to venture a guess here and say that this must be a lower socioeconomic status cultural difference.

This leads me to my question, which I’m really hoping some of my sociology colleagues who read this post will be able to address:  First, am I right that this is a class difference?  Second, what is it about this socioeconomic group that leads them to litter?  I thought the response of the Guy in the car was somewhat telling – “he was done with it.”  Is that the mindset of people who litter?  They give no consideration to: (1) the environment, or (2) to the people who will have to pick up their trash.  Their only thought is: “I’m done with this and don’t want to have it around me anymore, so I’ll just throw it on the ground.”

I happened to catch a science news article a couple days ago after this incident that I thought might help explain it.  Apparently young offenders who think they are likely to die young are more likely to engage in criminal activities, which runs counter to common wisdom.  Perhaps there is a similar disregard for social order among those who litter?  Anyway, I don’t have an answer to this question, but am interested in any thoughts you have.  I’d really like to understand the litterer’s mindset.

Oh, and any thoughts on why the Guy in the car got in my face over this?  I have my suspicions, but I’m open to ideas on this as well.