Chris Henry, Roy Disney, Tiger Woods divorce; bad news

You know it's a hard day when Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chris Henry is in critical condition, Roy Disney, Walt Disney's brother, passed away, and rumors are swirling that Elin Nordegren is divorcing Tiger Woods.

Divorce?


And the day's not over.

As I blog this, Chris Henry lay in critical condition at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C after he fell out of the back of a moving pickup truck driven by his fiancee Loleini Tonga.

Loleini Tonga and Henry reportedly had what is described as a domestic dispute; more on that below.

What's so sad about this news is not just the severity of Henry's injuries - such that some reports declare him dead - but that it seems his NFL career has been marked by more bad times than good times. Henry has been arrested for DUI, assault, and marijuana possession. And when he wasn't in legal trouble he was injured: he was out for the rest of 2009 after he broke his arm in a game against the Baltimore Ravens.

But when Henry is healthy and playing, he's a pass-catching force. The West Virginia Mountaineer joined the team in 2005. But even with his long list of off-the-field problems and injuries, Henry managed to average between 16 and 20 yards per catch during his career.

This year it looked as if Henry was finally balancing out his life, and he was. Ok, he was hurt, but that's the breaks in the NFL, no pun intended. Absent that, Henry was set to get married to Loleini Tonga. But what happened that caused the argument is a story still developing. Pop Crunch has it that Tonga was driving away in the truck when Henry ran after it and her and jumped into the bed, trying to argue with her; he fell off the truck as it was moving.

I close this subject for now, presenting a very cool video created by YouTuber CincyBengals29:

Roy Disney Dies

The nephew of the brother of the man who's history and focus on the urban America of tomorrow, Roy E. Disney, passed away after a battle with stomach cancer. What I remember most about Roy was more about his father Roy O. Disney - during the 70s he was the person who really didn't see his brother Walt Disney's dream of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) through to reality.

For those of you who don't know, the original concept of EPCOT was a true city within Walt Disney World that would be home to just 10,000 people and always in state of flux. It would be constantly 25 years ahead of its time, and a place that was a living test-bed for all kinds of systems and technologies that were not yet available or used in the open market.

Here's the famous 24-minute film where Walt Disney talks about his vision for EPCOT. It's worth your time; stop what you're doing and watch it. It first aired September 16, 1965 on ABC Television:



The EPCOT that was Disney's vision essentially died with him in 1966. I write that because, as a person who as a kid of 10 years old wanted to work for WED, or what was then called Walter Elias Disney Enterprises, the Disney division responsible for designing EPCOT, I watched in horror as it was transformed from what Walt Disney wanted and you saw, to really a souped-up theme park.

What happened at the time was the Energy Crisis hampered tourism and thus Disney's revenue. Frightened over the prospect of a future without a new theme park to draw visitors, Roy Disney and Cardon Walker, the head of WED at the time, approved a move away from Walt's concept. With that, I lost interest in WED and much of what Disney was doing at the time.

I know some may discussion the development of Celebration, Florida as the real EPCOT, and I give a nod to that observation, but the basic idea that Walt wanted remains not implemented.

Still, Roy Disney was a proud representative of the Disney way and overall carried on his brothers overall legacy. Roy Disney will be missed.

Tiger Woods Divorce

Earlier today I expressed hope that Tiger Woods, the Athlete of The Decade, would overcome his personal issues and save his marriage; but from the reports swirling as of this writing that's not going to happen. Sadly, Wood's wife Elin Nordegren's seeking a divorce.

Stay tuned.