What follows is an objective, and mostly positive, account of one family's visit to Walt Disney World. If you are the type who is outraged by even the mildest criticism of anything Disney, you are advised to proceed with caution.

Alex at the base of EPCOT's famous giant golf ball.

EPCOT is essentially divided into two distinct sections. At the entrance is the famous giant golf ball, officially known as "Spaceship Earth." In the area surrounding the golf ball are attractions that tell us about life in the future. Visitors can see gadgets that might become household staples in the next few decades. At one booth, a woman held a plastic stick that will one day, she said, be able to scan and retain thousands of kitchen recipes. (Why is it, we wonder, that new technology is often presented to the masses in terms of what it can do for our collections of recipes? We're surprised that Guttenberg didn't print a cookbook before he printed a Bible.) While that plastic stick may sound impressive, the fact remains that the "prototype" the woman was "demonstrating" was merely a plastic stick that had no more functionality than a twig that you might find in your back yard.

Alex visited an Aztec pyramid in Mexico, and learned to play the drums while in Africa.

Anyway, once you get beyond the "wonders of the future" section of EPCOT, you get to a large lake, which is surrounded by miniature representations of many of the nations of the earth. While strolling around the lake, visitors can sample the souvenirs, and food, of countries from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. During their time at EPCOT, Alex and his parents enjoyed meals in Norway, China, and Germany. Alex particularly liked his lunch in the Norwegian restaurant. He sampled a very sweet tasting goat cheese, and slurped cream of spinach soup through a straw. We don't know what compelled Alex to try the soup - he has an aversion to foods that are green - but he was absolutely wild about Norwegian cream of spinach soup.

Alex strikes a defiant pose on a European bridge, just before the arrival of the butterfly men.

Alex's exploration of EPCOT was marred, however, by an invasion of the much dreaded and feared butterfly men. These savage warriors, twelve feet tall and sporting enormous butterfly wings on their backs, have ravaged Europe for centuries. You know what we're talking about, don't you? Sure you do! Alex was buzzing around on an Italian foot bridge, his mind occupied with whatever thoughts occupy the mind of a three-year-old boy exploring Disney World, when he found himself in the shadow of a butterfly man. The butterfly man's entourage were busy shooing away anybody who happened to be in the path of the bizarre creature.

Run for your lives! It's a giant butterfly man!

Alex grudgingly gave ground to the butterfly man, and could be heard complaining about the "bad butterfly men" for the remainder of the day.

If you're worried about having nightmares about butterfly men, let us assure you, gentle reader, that the butterfly men were merely costumed Disney employees on stilts. We wonder, though, if the butterfly men were meant to represent some European pageantry from days of yore, or if they are part of Walt Disney's master vision of the future. (He was a visionary, you know.) A future in which the earth's two dominant species, humans and butterflies, unite to form a powerful race of giant winged people. (It could happen, you know!)