999

Er... no, this is not a new mark of the devil, but it could be devilishly exciting.

I was chatting with a couple of friends last night during dinner over a bowl of Vietnamese pho noodle soup when one of them pointed out to me something fascinating. Next year, on Sept. 9, 2009, one actually has something close to having "999". Thus, correlating that to 999 Happy Haunts and voila! You have the best excuse to have a special event on that day with Haunted Mansion theme.

So, can there be rumors of something being planned, possibly at Disneyland, related to the Haunted Mansion? Perhaps a special Haunted Mansion pin event? Are you making your final arrangements? Are they going to allow only 999 participants?

Still, if this actually happens, it would be interesting to see how they are going to handle a possible conflict. Since Labor Day next year will be on Sept. 7. Traditionally, the Pin Celebration event at Epcot starts the following Friday after Labor Day, which in 2007, will be on Sept. 11 (a rather unfortunately date). So if there is a pin event at Disneyland on Sept. 9, that will will make way too close to the Epcot Pin Celebration. What if the rumored Haunted Mansion event goes for 2 days? Not many (other than the pin fanatics) will do both, especially when they are on opposite coast. Maybe that's a good thing since it will spread out many pin collectors over the two events.

But then again, I could just be imagining all of this in my head.... Either way, I'm sure they're dying to have us.

Zz.