Bridey writes:

Well, itâ??s just so desperately chic to mock other peopleâ??s pleasures, isnâ??t it? I bet Mr. Henry would come home from Las Vegas with the shocking news that itâ??s gaudy and vulgar.

Iâ??m not a Disneyphile by any stretch â?? I havenâ??t been to Disneyland in years and feel no pressing urge to go again. But geeze. If you donâ??t like it, donâ??t go.

From time to time Mr. Henry has been described as chic, but witnesses of his recent Disney World tour would surely testify against such an accusation. In his broad sunhat, anti-UV sunshirt (tail flapping), and slouchy lightweight trousers â?? all in clashing shades of greenish khaki â?? Mr. Henry looked like the youngest recruit of the AARP.

Bridey is partly justified in her objections to Mr. Henryâ??s anti-Disney screed. Of course, he went for the kids, not for himself, as raincoaster so aptly noted, and he freely admits that overall he had a pretty good time.

However, his feet were killing him, the sun was everywhere, and chairs were nowhere. Although he spent nearly a thousand dollars per day, he admits he had good fun watching Little Henry and posse invade the place. Despite the flow of coin cascading from his pockets and the plethora of eateries at every turn, however, he was hungry â?? desperately hungry, not desperately chic â?? and desperately trapped, to boot, deep inside the great Mouse kingdom.

At these prices, Mr. Henry doesn’t feel that to expect one decent meal is asking too much. It’s an amusement park, after all. When you are hungry, you are rarely amused.

Why canâ??t Mouse managers get with the new food program? Why must every food served be sweet and fried and carry the nutritional content of cotton candy? Is there something NOT FUN about eating fruits and vegetables? As a nation, havenâ??t we gotten past the notion of vegetables as things eaten only under duress?

In Animal Kingdom there are ersatz Indonesian eateries serving unpalatable foodlike substances. For the love of god, bring over some Singaporean street vendors! Even the Bengali and Yemeni halal food carts from the streets of Manhattan would be a huge improvement.

And to think that the original vision of EPCOT, the Experimental Prototypical City Of Tomorrow, included a vast plan for sustainable agriculture! A planned community in harmony with nature and with man! No, Uncle Walt certainly didnâ??t lack ambition. Mr. Henry has always admired the sheer scope and scale of the place. Only in America, by golly. The bean counters who inherited Disney’s great city of tomorrow betrayed his ideals and turned back the culinary clock.

Lest you suspect Mr. Henryâ??s peculiar brand of superciliousness and skepticism to be his own original invention, read H. L. Mencken in On Being an American:

To be happy one must be (a) well fed, unhounded by sordid cares, at ease in Zion, (b) full of a comfortable feeling of superiority to the masses of oneâ??s fellow men, and (c) delicately and unceasingly amused according to oneâ??s taste. It is my contention that, if this definition be accepted, there is no country in the world wherein a man constituted as I am â?? a man of my peculiar weakness, vanities, appetites, and aversions â?? can be so happy as he can be in the United Sates.