iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Thank everyone for picking up the book! Please leave it a star review on Amazon, it really does help me out. Your support has helped me do many wonderful things in the past few years, I cannot be thankful enough. <3 #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

All right, I guess I'll close this out by sharing my favorite thing that I've ever written in a book that got published. Page 259, last paragraph. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I think that it probably would've been better than the version of Pirates that they built in Florida, but I don't think it would've lasted to today. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

So I pretty much just had to think about the movie for about four months before I stumbled upon an angle that I feel I could attack it from. I think that's a really underrated chapter. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I mean film school taught me to read the available critical literature and then form your own opinion, but I couldn't find any critical literature on this film which is in the Library of Congress but somehow nobody has published a serious analysis of? #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Also I would just like to say that one of the weirdest things that happened to me in writing anything was when I sat down to do my background reading on The Goonies and discovered that there was none? #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I think it's very much like when cartoon characters turn to look at the audience, if it's a good gag then it goes in. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion have stories in the sense that the silly symphonies have stories, which is to say that they're basically more like scenarios? Situations? #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

It's actually from an interview that he gave with The E Ticket in the late 90s. It's also extremely stripped of its context. I think that Walt Disney and the old guard animators simply thought of 'story' in a different sense than we do. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I mean as I said in the book it's absolutely the thing that has led to all of this writing that I've done over the past 20 years. Had I not gone to Disneyland in 2003 I probably would not be a part of this community. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Unfortunately they just didn't have money to build it. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

It's all too easy to feel like Disney only started compromising their product in the past 20 years but I was very proud to bring out the aspect of the construction of Walt Disney World that was a perpetual sweaty palmed panic. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I won't say they probably the chunk the book I'm most proud of is the history of the WDW version.... especially coming after the history of the Disneyland version it's a startling contrast. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I did my best to take the work seriously while not necessarily making excuses for it. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Would you write down what you were doing if it was an offense worthy of an execution? If they did, nobody's ever found anything. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Disney writes mythologies about itself, not histories. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

That is probably the single biggest thing that Disney has stolen from the Universal playbook in the past decade+, and unlike Universal Disney really isn't very good at it. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

It's basically a theory, but it answers a lot of questions that I've had for a long time. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Not at all, SDtMH is one of those movies that keeps coming up when you read about Disney history and there's really no reason for it to? And so I just spent a long time thinking about it and reading the source material trying to figure out why this thing keeps showing up. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Disney history is full of lots of little tiny inaccuracies and I was very proud that I was able to present probably the most accurate version of the events that has yet been assembled. Def couldn't do that in an official history book. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Oh, and another thing that I was delighted to set the record straight on was that the PotC ride system did not evolve out of the small world ride system. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I feel that the analysis of the Disneyland ride is a pretty strong heart of the book and it was probably the easiest part of it to write. But I'm very much about cultural context and I was secretly delighted that I managed to delay getting to Walt Disney until page 53 #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I consulted with Chris Merritt and Tom Morris a lot, and it turns out a lot of the official information about why the ride was delayed was pretty much inaccurate. I also ended up having to restructure a huge section of the history of the WDW version based on Tom's new research. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I'm still not sure! I told myself I'd give myself a year off writing after publishing two books in 2024, and that year is pretty much up. But when an idea occurs that really grips me I'll know it when I feel it. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Most of what is in the bibliography of my book is probably the most useful stuff that I've found? A lot of the history is basically speculation because we're talking about pretty much a 35 year period with very little historical record. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Almost nothing. In order to do the initial research I read I think about 12 books on piracy in the course of about five months in mid 2020, I basically stopped when I felt like I was starting to get the same information over again and begin writing the early historical background. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

He was indeed! Deep source for pirate impersonations. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Yeah there are basically no primary sources in the sense that we understand them today. If you ever get a chance to read "The General History of the Pirates" it's fascinating and, I think, largely fictional. Different times. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I set myself a goal to publish the book within four years (Boundless Realm took about six). As it turns out I was so ahead of schedule that it was possible to write Hidden History of WDW after the second draft of SVK. They ay the first book is the hardest and I've found that to be true. #WEDReads

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Thanks for having me! After completing work on Boundless Realm, Pirates seemed a natural next step so I began doing research in June 2020 to see if there was actually a story there. Thankfully I picked up a few key books and it became clear that I could extract a pretty interesting narrative spine

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WEDReads @wedreads.com · 08/12/2025

“Ye come seeking adventure and salty ol’ pirates, eh??” Join us for the exciting return of WEDReads. Tonight @ 9pm EST. Author @foxxnolte.bsky.social will be there to answer YOUR questions and inquiries (except the whereabouts of the treasure).

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Laura Cannady @lauracannady.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

We’d watch my mom’s sailing lessons on Saturdays there! They had a shop where everything was from China and I loved it! There was an amazing Belgian waffle restaurant. This is my childhood.

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Eric Chu @ericthomaschu.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I had no idea what this place was like during its glory days! We had just stumbled upon this area before taking a cruise in 2021. I found it oddly charming - not knowing it's background. Thank you for your write-up and history of it... and it's tie to Disney.🙏

A photo of Eric and Nicole posing in front of two large sailboats at San Pedro, CA.

[Eric Chu - October 16, 2021]

A photo of the storefronts along Nagoya Way, San Pedro, CA.

[Eric Chu - October 16, 2021]

A photo of the outside of San Pedro Fish Market, San Pedro, CA.

[Eric Chu - October 16, 2021]

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I did this article RIGHT after Boundless Realm came out and it really seems to have just gone unnoticed. It's one of y proudest pieces of research, about the mall that Disney built a knockoff of. The story includes a MURDER! passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-...

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

I've got a few of them....

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

You should cover the new one, lol

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

I REFUSE TO DIE UNTIL THE WORLD GETS BETTER DAMMIT XD

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

I'm not going anywhere, btw. I'm going to keep existing as my authentic self. 🏳️‍⚧️

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Josh Avery @beyondpixiedust.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Im starting “Scoundrels, Villains, and Knaves” by @foxxnolte.bsky.social and once again the bar for historical books has been absolutely shattered by them

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Eisner and his Bud Light Lime cowboy hat

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Remember when Eisner would just tweet in all caps with zero context BO JACK HORSE MAN IS COMING and we all thought he was just having an episode

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

That is indeed the house!

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Canada has these great double-size Heinz packets that you think would be a top priority for us here in the US but nooooo we just have to keep wasting packets....

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

From the fellow new Englander: there's plenty of Disney/Uni up here if you know where to look. Take a trip to Sleepy Hollow or Nantucket. Also, thank you so much. ^^

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

oh interesting! I shall investigate....

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Magical Trash @magicaltrash.com · 30/12/2024

A curious Jimmy Carter & Walt Disney World connection from @foxxnolte.bsky.social's 'Hidden History of Walt Disney World.' a.co/d/iGMciEZ Chapter 6 explores U.S. Steel's role in building WDW hotels, including their corporate suite cottage for business deals. We'll miss you, President Carter 🥲

The image features a text excerpt discussing the sale of a cottage by U.S. Steel in 1975, its relevance to the 1976 presidential race between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, and mentions related scandals involving U.S. Steel and Ford.

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Susie Mc @susiemc23.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Currently reading during my wait. @foxxnolte.bsky.social

A Kindle Paperwhjte in a navy blue case showing the cover of Boundless Realm: Deep Explorations inside Disney’s Haunted Mansion by Foxx Nolte

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

But anyway thanks for sticking by me and basically don't be surprised if shit gets weirder around here. Thank you.

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Foxxy @foxxnolte.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

At a certain point I have to admit that devoting my life to making a line go up isn't where I want to be, and I don't know what's next. I'm probably going to experiment with some new things eventually.

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