Question: How do the "transforming paintings" in the hallway at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion work?
Answer: The paintings are actually slides that are rear-projected onto the "canvases". There are two slides per painting and they cross-fade. (Update, 2006-05: In a rehab within the last couple of years they changed the paintings to flash-change between the two states in sync with the "outdoor" lightning rather than cross-fading. This is apparently a return to the original effect used when the Mansion was opened. At first I missed the old cross-fade that for me was the original, but now I like the flash-change version better, especially now that they have reduced the lighting intensity such that they look like real oil paintings while they're in their, um, corruptible, mortal state.)
Source: I cross-posted to
alt.disney.disneyland,
alt.disney.secrets, and
rec.arts.disney.parks with the
subject "Only unexplained Haunted Mansion effect: Transforming Paintings".
There was a long thread, including many clearly incorrect answers, such as
that it is done with a hologram (which is how I thought
everything was done as a child). This answer was the most
common, however, and was verified by James A. Wilson, who said
that the projectors are located behind the wall, in a room painted
completely black -- a room which also houses the Cast Members' men's
restroom. 
Question: How fast is Disney's Space Mountain?
Answer: Officially, Disneyland's Space Mountain tops out at 32 mph, and Walt Disney World's at 28 mph. However, the speed is somewhat dependent on the weight of the riders.
Source: I cross-posted to alt.disney.disneyland, alt.disney.secrets, rec.arts.disney.parks, and rec.roller-coaster with the subject "How fast is Space Mountain?". There were many respondents, and answers ranged a bit, but the 32 and 28 figures are from Steven Birnbaum's official guides to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Not sure how Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland stack up.
Question: What ever happened to the record store "Licorice Pizza"?
Answer: In 1986, they were apparently acquired by (the worthless music chain) Sam Goody.
Source: Web visitor Joe Tomasone found this post to a Bangles discussion forum:
Date: 10/3/00 9:33:20 pm
From: misterbee
Subject: Re: Licorice Pizza - yum!
Hey Daryl - I didn't work in the retail stores. I started out as a driver part-time when I was going to UCLA. I worked delivering records to the stores from the the Licorice Pizza warehouse for a while, then dropped outa school to work full-time. Maybe I shoulda stayed at school, I might have run into Vicki when she was an English major. I ended up working at the main office until 1986, when all the stores became Sam Goody's, and they closed the main office. I visited all the LP stores at one time or another, which one did you shop at?
In my initial searching for the answer to this question, another tidbit I found is that the store existed as long ago as 1977. No full-blown tribute pages seem to exist, though.
Update, 2006-05: Web visitor Peter Barry says that it goes back further than 1977:
In 1976 I was in the Air Force, stationed in Riverside. I distinctly remember purchasing Zeppelin's Presence at a Licorice Pizza outlet on the date of issue: March 31, 1976. Somewhere in my memorabilia I have the business card. It has the store's logo on it, a waitress hoisting a pizza-sized LP that has heat ripples coming up from it. I could be wrong about the date and location, but I don't think so.
Question: Which Fawlty Towers episode features the "highly-strung" lad who wants some "proper salad creme"?
Answer: Season 1, episode 5: "Gourmet Night".
Source: Couldn't find the info in any of the online episode guides
(the synopses are too brief), so I just broke down and watched through
the tapes until I found the right episode (okay, not so torturous a task
).
