A safety bar on Coney Island's Polar Express ride broke, causing a 15-year-old girl to be thrown from the ride. Lanique Watts was knocked unconscious (but regained consciousness by the time she got to the hospital), and one witness told the Daily News, "She fell out the car and just rolled down the hill. Everyone started panicking. It looked pretty bad. She was bleeding." She added that a worker had checked all the safety bars before the ride. more ›

About 30 kids, ranging from wee kindergarteners to eighth graders, were piled up at the bottom of the stairs, 14 went to the hospital (none were admitted; most of the injuries were just scrapes and bruises, not including a new fear of escalators and movie theaters) and Loews was issued a summons. This reminds Gothamist of our fears of riding escalators; for many years, we refused to go on escalators, leaving us stranded momentarily when our relatives would think we were following right behind (it usually took a nice lady to convince us it wasn't scary). What's more, the escalator it happened on was the one that goes to the IMAX theaters from the second floor - the really steep and scary one. Poor kids, it's no fun for your face to be smushed against the angry metal grooves of the stairs; Gothamist is sorry for thinking it was funny (even though it does seem like a bad but funny movie). more ›

- Not only is The Polar Express rotten, but little kids get hurt on their way to seeing it. A class field trip to the Loews Lincoln Square IMAX showing of The Polar Express went kablooey thanks to an errant escalator. NY1's report is unintentionally funny:

The children [ages 6-11], on a field trip to see the IMAX version of “Polar Express,” were riding the escalator when it suddenly stopped and then moved backwards, according to a teacher accompanying the students. One girl fell, causing a ripple effect.

The other significant change is that my paragraphs run significantly shorter. Daily newspaper editors seem to believe that readers don't like and won't read hefty chunks of gray type. I politely disagree. As the monumental paragraphs of New Yorker writer Hendrik Hertzberg prove, what counts isn't the size of the boat, but the motion in the ocean.She lost us at "phalanxes," but that's cool. We'll read her evisceration of The Polar Express (she compares Santa's toy sack to a scrotum!) again. more ›

Look out, Max, you may have met your match: Variety's Michael Fleming reports that Spike Jonze will adapt a live-action version of the beloved Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. "Published in 1963, 'Wild Things' is the Caldecott Medal-winning story of Max, a mischievous boy who is sent to bed without supper. In his room, Max uses his imagination to conjure up a forest populated by the wild things, exotic monsters who embrace Max as their ruler." That sounds just like Spike and Hollywood. more ›