Parade

I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times over the last two decades and have been writing the Funland theme park blog for about four years now. As a result, people are always asking me how to do everything at Disneyland in a single day. The short answer is you probably can't. It can be a struggle for even hard-core fans with military assault-like strategies. The longer answer is there's lots of ways to maximize your time in the park and get on the most rides possible. PHOTOS: How to do Disneyland in a day So in honor of Disneyland's 24-hour Leap Day celebration , here are my seven tips for tackling Disneyland in a day: Tip 1: If you're trying to get the most out of your day at Disneyland , I always recommend arriving just before the park opens in the morning, staying until the park closes at night and taking a long break in the heat of the afternoon at your hotel pool or cocktail bar. It may sound like a long day, but you'll get more done in the first two hours and the last two hours of your day than if you spent 15 hours straight at the park.

SANA, Yemen - A suicide bomber targeted soldiers rehearsing Monday for a military parade here, killing as many as 112 people and signaling that Islamic extremists may be shifting their focus to Yemen's capital after weeks of intense battles in outlying provinces with U.S.-backed government forces. Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Sharia claimed responsibility for the bombing in retaliation for American-assisted government offensives against its strongholds in southern Yemen. Unnerved by increasedU.S.

A small wooden cabinet went up for auction on EBay. Inside were two locks of hair, one granite slab, one dried rosebud, one goblet, two wheat pennies, one candlestick and, allegedly, one "dibbuk," a kind of spirit popular in Yiddish folklore. The seller, a Missouri college student named Iosif Nietzke, described the container as a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" that had plagued several owners with rotten luck and a spate of bizarre paranormal stunts.

The air may be chilly from the weekend's winter storm, but San Juan Capistrano is gearing up for spring by celebrating the annual return of the swallows. Monday was Swallows' Day for Mission San Juan Capistrano, where lore has it that cliff swallows return each year just in time for St. Joseph's Day after wintering 6,000 miles away in Argentina. Although the gregarious birds have hardly been seen at the historic mission in recent years, swallows nest in small numbers elsewhere, in the eaves of schools, shopping malls and underneath freeway overpasses.

'2009 Hollywood Christmas Parade' Where: MyNetwork When: 8 tonight Rating: Not rated

Blending elements from "Drumline," "Stomp" and "Glee," the new music-centric " Mickey's Soundsational Parade " opening at Disneyland on Friday delivers on its fun and energetic party premise without feeling forced or contrived. There are no show stops with false interactivity, no overtly clever design features that feel more manufactured than creative and no painful attempts to appear hip by playing on fleeting contemporary cliches. Instead, "Soundsational" manages to be whimsical and imaginative, with moments that are at times quirky, weird and flat-out crazy.

Join the throngs lining Hill Street and North Broadway in Chinatown for the 111th Annual Golden Dragon Parade and Chinese Lunar New Year Festival, which has grown to encompass nearly two dozen floats, multiple marching bands, dignitaries, cultural groups, public figures and entertainers. Parade at 1 p.m. Sat. Festival 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Los Angeles Chinatown, Broadway and Cesar Chavez Avenue. www.lagoldendragonparade.com.

Parade music is traditional, popular, rousing--the very life of a parade. Agreed? Then why in the name of Great Jumping Jehoshaphat can't TV reporters shut their mouths when they're covering a parade? Watching the presidential inaugural parade Jan. 20, I tuned from channel to channel trying to find one that would give me a sense of witnessing the spectacle instead of attending the most vacuous talk show on earth. The CNN reporters, after sticking with the parade longer than the others, seemed to conclude viewers were bored.

Re "Rose Parade Will March Without KTTV's Cameras" (Dec. 11), does anyone else remember the good ol' days when KTTV televised the Rose Parade from the corner of Colorado and Sierra Madre? Not only did it provide a slightly different perspective, but it also gave viewers a second chance to view an entry without having to sit through the entire rerun. When they joined the million or so other stations already broadcasting from the Orange Grove starting point, they went from innovative directly to redundant.

SO MUCH ugliness in the news to get through each day: the financial crisis, suicide bombings, natural disasters, campaign mudslinging. However, learning that Stephanie Edwards would be back in 2009 to host the KTLA Rose Parade telecast I always used to watch but have skipped for the last two actually made me smile ["It Won't Rain on Her Parade," by Greg Braxton, Sept. 18]. This doesn't occur often while reading the paper nowadays. Steve Campbell Burbank -- GOOD, now I can watch that station's coverage again.

I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times over the last two decades and have been writing the Funland theme park blog for about four years now. As a result, people are always asking me how to do everything at Disneyland in a single day. The short answer is you probably can't. It can be a struggle for even hard-core fans with military assault-like strategies. The longer answer is there's lots of ways to maximize your time in the park and get on the most rides possible. PHOTOS: How to do Disneyland in a day So in honor of Disneyland's 24-hour Leap Day celebration , here are my seven tips for tackling Disneyland in a day: Tip 1: If you're trying to get the most out of your day at Disneyland , I always recommend arriving just before the park opens in the morning, staying until the park closes at night and taking a long break in the heat of the afternoon at your hotel pool or cocktail bar. It may sound like a long day, but you'll get more done in the first two hours and the last two hours of your day than if you spent 15 hours straight at the park.

Russell Arms Actor who started on 'Your Hit Parade' Russell Arms, 92, a singer and actor who was a regular vocalist on the popular TV musical program "Your Hit Parade" from 1952 to 1957, died Monday at his home in Hamilton, Ill., where he had retired with his wife, Mary Lynne. The Lamporte-St. Clair Funeral Home in Hamilton confirmed his death but did not give the cause. Along with other regular cast members Gisele MacKenzie, Snooky Lanson and Dorothy Collins, Arms performed what were billed as the seven most popular songs in the country every Saturday night on the NBC show.

The beads were flying all around them, some pooling in the street, some caught by revelers and cherished for a moment — most of them destined, in all likelihood, for the landfill. It was Mardi Gras 2011, and Kirk and Holly Groh were stationed in their family's traditional viewing spot downtown, where they had watched so many parades roll by in years past. This time, they kept thinking what a waste it was. Their hometown had never seemed more environmentally fragile.

Prosecutors on Friday declined to file murder charges against former Tournament of Roses official Richard Allen Munnecke, finding that DNA evidence presented by sheriff's detectives was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The decision came two days after Munnecke, 71, was arrested at his Alhambra home in connection with the 2004 death of Donna Lee Kelly, a Buick saleswoman and a longtime Tournament of Roses volunteer. The abrupt change in course left Pasadena's tournament community trying to process the news after an already surprising couple of days.

By all accounts, Richard Allan Munnecke was a model citizen. He devoted several decades to the Tournament of Roses, working up the ranks until he was one of its top directors. He sang in his church choir in San Marino and served in the Pasadena Rotary Club and many other civic groups. It was through his work at the Rose Parade that he met Donna Lee Kelly, a Buick saleswoman who was also a longtime volunteer for the annual parade effort. In 2004, Kelly, 59, was found dead, stuffed in the trunk of her car. Police investigated, but the case quickly went cold.

Three sanitation workers found it along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day march: a nest of wires in a backpack. The homemade bomb was equipped with an unusual remote-controlled trigger and stuffed with more than 100 heavy fishing weights coated in rat poison. The Spokane County bomb squad disarmed it hours before the route would have been flooded with marchers last year. If the device had detonated and the weights had torn into the intended victims, the poison would have prevented their blood from coagulating, all but ensuring their deaths, lab analysts concluded.

Re "Conquering Lakers Ride in Triumph," June 19: The cost of cleaning up confetti, LAPD officers working to control the crowd, protect Police Chief Bernard Parks, Mayor Richard Riordan and Laker personnel, and closing down major streets for hours. . . . Could this money have helped a school or bought a new bus or fixed a few potholes? Call me a curmudgeon, but why a parade for millionaires who play a game for a living? Jason Rubel San Fernando

Disneyland Paris will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a new nighttime spectacular in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle and a revamped evening parade starting in April. The Disney Dreams show will feature castle projections, water screens, dancing fountains, pyrotechnic displays and laser effects that combine elements from the Magic, Memories, and You show at Florida's Magic Kingdom and World of Color at Disney California Adventure. PHOTOS: Disney Dreams water show at Disneyland Paris The new Disney Dreams nighttime spectacular at the French theme park will employ 30-foot-tall water screens in the moats in front of the castle that will serve as giant canvases for Disney animated scenes set to an original musical score.

EVENTS It's the Year of the Water Dragon and Chinatown is set to celebrate one of the most vibrant and colorful animals in the Chinese zodiac in style. The 113th Annual Golden Dragon Parade will kick off a celebratory Chinese New Year weekend full of traditional arts, crafts, music and dance. Food trucks and cupcake wars will keep hungry bellies satisfied. Chinatown's Central and West plazas, 943-951 N. Broadway, L.A. 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sat., 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sun. Free. (213) 680-0243; http://www.chinatownla.com