Thursday, November 15, 2012

Long Remembered (plus: the Séance Circle is a Circle)

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Just a quick post to commemorate Long-Forgotten's 500,000th visitation by unseen guests (that's you).  Two and a half years it's been, close to 100 posts, and half a million viewings.  Who'da thunk it?  I want to say thank you to all readers and especially to the commenters.  The blog's reception has been consistently positive and intelligent.  To date there have been no more than two or three nasty comments that had to be deleted before they saw the light of day (or dark of night, or whatever twilight zone we're inhabiting here).  Mansionites are a classy lot.  Breeding will out, as they say. *taps silver box, pinches some snuff*

The pace will continue to be slower than it was the first year.  For awhile it's been about one post per month, but peering into my crystal ball, I can't promise you even that in future. *sneezes*  I would rather the posts be infrequent but of good quality than let the blog degenerate into a stream of trivia for trivia's sake.  Don't worry; there are still many stories to tell.  *sneezes again*  Even as I type, I've got two or three posts in the can or getting there.

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So as not to entirely disappoint those of you who came here not for self-congratulatory
speeches but for a fresh slice of juicy Mansionology, here's a light snack to hold you over till dinner.

Let's go to the Séance Circle and take a look around.  Funny, even though it's a séance we are witnessing, it doesn't look much like a séance down here at floor level.  Where's the ring of people touching hands?  This is what a proper séance looks like:


I blush to point out something that never really occurred to me until recently but which no doubt was immediately self-evident to many of you.  On the chance that other Forgottenistas have also overlooked it, let me point out that WE represent that circle.  Once you notice it, it's ridiculously obvious.  The old show script used by the Ghost Host on the "Story and Song" souvenir album makes it even clearer:  "We're about to participate in a séance," he intones.  Note that it's always been called the Séance Circle, not the Séance Room, and perhaps this best explains why our "sympathetic vibrations" give a serious boost to Madame Leota's efforts.

Raise your hands if you've never noticed that.  Okay, put them down.  I feel better.


One reason I missed it, I suppose, is that the medium in this case is not sitting at the table like we are.  The comic irony is that Madame Leota is herself a ghostly manifestation.  She's opening the doors from the other side, you might say.  The other comic irony is that she says "wherever they're at," and no one seems to mind.

Speaking of comics, Leota may be unique, but ghostly manifestations
in the middle of the séance table are not unknown to pop culture.

"Good Lord, did it actually just say, 'Wherever they're at' "?

24 comments:

  1. CONGRAULATIONS ON 500,000!!!!

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  2. Congrats on 500,000. I've never commented but always enjoy reading your posts. And *raises hand* no I never noticed that we were the seance circle!

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  3. Congratulations! Despite only having visited the Phantom Manor, your blog has lived in my *must read* folder for a good while now. Fantastic work - long may it continue (and let it never be forgotten!.. *cough* ... is this thing on?).

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  4. I originally stumbled across this blog while looking for pictures of the stretching portraits; I think I read the whole archive that same day. I love the quality of this place, and if lower quantity is what it takes to maintain that, you'll hear no complaints from me. Congratulations on half a million visits!

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  5. The previous post is the April-December one, but for an hour or so I accidentally had a post-in-progress up (or Blogger messed up, I don't know who's to blame). It got 3 views while it was up. Maybe that's what you're referring to?

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  6. Has the MouseHouse either entertained or quashed a proposal of presenting this blog's archives in book form?

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  7. <>
    Of course! How obvious! Why did I not realize this before? We are seated around the séance circle. Duh.

    Congratulations and keep up the terrific work.

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  8. I learn something new every time I come here! I never would've noticed that Leota says "wherever they're at," despite being one of the mansion's ghosts. She might just be reading that line from her book, or it might be an ollyoxall call.

    Of course, I over-think everything, so my brain's first response to this revelation was, What if Leota's not actually a ghost? It's something I've considered before.

    Anyway, congrats on the half a mil!

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    1. The phrase is indeed in Leota's spellbook. Of course, that prop was only added in 2005, but it doesn't matter. It's there, so she's off the hook.

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  9. Blogger is being a booger. It says this comment has been published, but it hasn't. I still have it in an email notification, though: "Please kind Sir, Bring on the busts! I must know who they are! I must know about the broken one that I remember being whole at one time.... or is it just my imagination hmmmm?" by Unknown.

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    1. "Uncle Theodore" has always been "broken." It's even that way on the blueprints. Left to right, they're Rollo Rumkin, Uncle Theodore, Cousin Algernon, Ned Nub, and Phineas P. Pock. And yes, those are their official names.

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  10. Three cheers to my single-most favorite site on the entire Web (and I've been around, believe me).

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  11. Mat, yeah, that's the one. If you don't mind, I won't post your comment so as not to be a spoiler for an upcoming post. It's not yet ready for prime time.

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  12. I love your blog! Congrats! Thanks for sharing!

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  13. More proof that the Mansion was "interactive" long before "interactive" was a company buzzword.

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  14. So true, never caught it either mostly because it's as if we have stumbled into something that is already in progress. Yet the evidence is there no doubt.
    Congrats Ya old Coot! ;)

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  15. Taking a look at the Little Mermaid frescos in the queue at New Fantasyland and it seems to be more closely related to the spirit (heh) of Haunted Mansion than Haunted Mansion's own new queue. Thoughts?

    http://www.mouseplanet.com/10179/Walt_Disney_World_Resort_Update#early

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    1. They're nice. I don't know if they're Mansionesque, but they're nice.

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  16. You're right, we ARE part of the seance circle! I think I knew this subconsciously all these years, but once you came out and said it, it just all made sense. This is the only point in the ride where you can see people in the other buggies, isn't it? That's a big clue right there, and a welcome communal nod before going back to shielded solitary blissfulness again.

    Thank you for all your wonderful articles!

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    1. Ooooo, that's a great point. It IS the only place we are allowed to see the others (except maybe in the HHG mirrors at the end, but that's accidental, I think).

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  17. Happy 500,000th visitations! May there many more, because there's always room for more. I never thought about how we are the seance circle. It's also one of the few times the ghosts interact directly with us (along with the Ghost Host, the Raven and the HHGs). Perhaps Madame Leota can help me make my own manifestation possible as I've been lurking here for awhile now (i.e. How do I make a profile to to comment on this blog? I'm little tired of being an Anonymous Mansionite).

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    1. You can go to Blogger and sign up as a blogger (even if you have no intention of blogging) and you fill out a profile. When you post, you use the option of posting under your Blogger ID.

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  18. Thanks a million, Dan! I'm a timid spirit by nature, but this blog has enough sympathetic vibrations to help me materialize (there are many forums and blogs out there that are scary enough in their cruelties that the various Mansions seem like a safe haven). By the way, I'm the one who provided the info on the Frankenweenie graveyard/pet cemeteries connection and the conversation concerning the king ghosts. Again, thanks for telling me how to make a profile, I'm on here so much I might as well come out to socialize to the fullest.

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  19. This is why I absolutely love this blog. I had always wondered about the Seance circle, too. I never once considered that I was part of the circle. My mind has officially been blown.

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