Things To Do In SW Florida

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Right-wing extremists are celebrating Elon Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a speech Monday, although his intention wasn’t totally clear and some hate watchdogs are saying not to read too much into it.

“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” Musk said during a speech at Capitol One Arena on Monday afternoon, referring to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Then he slapped his hand on his chest, extended his arm straight outward and upward with his palm facing downwards. He turned around and made a similar gesture facing the other way.

“My heart goes out to you,” he said.

Many social media users noticed that the gesture looked like a Nazi salute. Musk has only fanned the flames of suspicion by not explicitly denying those claims in a dozen posts since, though he did make light of the criticism and lashed out at people making that interpretation.

“The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Musk posted on X several hours after he left the stage. read more

If Space Mountain were a person, it could be eligible for AARP benefits. The Magic Kingdom coaster turned 50 this month. Although it’s nowhere near retiring, it seems like a good time to round up Central Florida’s thrill rides and present them chronologically by opening date.

We used the online Roller Coaster Database as our primary source for these dates, and we stuck to the thrill rides in Orange and Osceola counties for this list.

It’s fun to look at the flurries of coasters, like the turn of the century Hulk-Rock ‘n’ Roller-Kraken era (and that’s not counting the departed Dueling Dragons). We might be in a golden age right now. The area has had a coaster debut every year since 2016, with the exception of 2020, and blaming the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be the right thing to do.

This list gets bulkier in the near future. Epic Universe will open with four coasters – Stardust Racers, Mine-Cart Madness, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders and Curse of the Werewolf – on May 22.

But here are our current roller coasters, including the under-refurbishment Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom, from oldest to newest. read more