Celebrating Robin's Birthday At Disneyland

Did You Know? - This is a children's race game based on the transportation system of the Monorail and Casey Jr. train at Disneyland. Players race not only each other, but the train, Casey Jr. (a non-player character). Roll the dice, using the white die for your own movement on the monorail track and the colored die to move Casey on the train track.

Pure luck, no decisions at all, and Casey can win the game. But it is a cute depiction of Disneyland transportation, and amazing that it still applies perfectly 40-some years later!

Did You Know? - King Louie (full name Louie Lamount; in TaleSpin) is a character from the 1967 Disney animated feature The Jungle Book and its spin-off television shows TaleSpin and Jungle Cubs.

Louie is an orangutan, inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic novel. Louie did not appear in the book, however, because orangutans are not native to India. The original story for Louie started out quite differently, but he was eventually given the voice and personality of famed jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Prima.

Did You Know? - Pocahontas is a title character in Disney's 33rd animated feature film Pocahontas, and its direct-to-video sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. The character and the events she goes through are very loosely based on the actual historical figure Pocahontas.

Did You Know? - It also hosted the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show from after they left the Golden Horseshoe Saloon until they were fired by Disney and went to Knotts Berry Farm, on January 6th 2014.

Did You Know? - Red is the most popular color, accounting for roughly three-quarters of all sales nationwide, followed by white and pink. The more than 100 varieties of poinsettias come in a range of colors from red, salmon, and apricot to yellow, cream, and white (but not blue—these are a designer color created with dyes). There are also unusual speckled or marbled varieties with several colors blended together. New varieties are introduced yearly.

How many poinsettias do you think are sold in a year? If you guessed over 34 million, you'd be in the ballpark. According to the 2013 USDA Floriculture Statistics report, poinsettias accounted for about one-quarter (23 percent) of sales of all flowering potted plants. In economic terms, that's $144 million out of a total of $618 million in sales of all flowering potted plants.

Did You Know? - Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, an amateur botanist and first United States ambassador to Mexico, introduced the plant that became known as the poinsettia to this country. He discovered a shrub with brilliantly colored red leaves growing by the side of the road in Taxco, Mexico, in December 1828 and sent cuttings home to his plantation in Greenville, South Carolina.

Most botanists at that time dismissed the poinsettia as a weed? Fortunately, Poinsett continued to study and breed this plant in his greenhouse, sharing plants with his horticulturist friends. It soon gained acceptance as a holiday plant, despite its very short bloom time. It wasn't until the 1960s that researchers were able to successfully breed plants to bloom more than just a few days.

Here's another bit of interesting trivia. December 12 is National Poinsettia Day (www.poinsettiaday.com/). Never heard of it? Believe it or not, the United States has observed this official day since the mid-1800s. It honors the man and the plant he introduced. Poinsett died Dec.12, 1851.