A Sticky Situation

Sure, plenty of people across the world love Disney. Plenty of those people write about their love of Disney on the internet. But why on Spaceship Earth would anyone name a Walt Disney World blog MaPo Syrup? What kind of name is MaPo and what does it mean?
For those who already know what MaPo is, scuttle along - or keep reading and don't spoil it for everyone who doesn't know. I'm going to tell a story.

Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom there was a monorail system that connected all the people to all parts of the kingdom. This revolutionary mode of transportation allowed trains to swiftly glide above the ground, its track bolstered high up on column supports. People from around the world traveled to this kingdom and rode its newfangled trains. They admired how safe, timely and fast the system was. Little did they know those trains weren't running on any diesel, but only a spoonful of sugar.

Of course I'm referring to Walt Disney World's monorails. That part about the spoonful of sugar isn't literally true (maybe someday if biofuels science gets that far). But you might be thinking "Mary Poppins? That's Victorian England! What's that to do with monorails?" Well first of all, Mary Poppins is set in Edwardian England, a subtle difference. Second of all, not much except it travels through the air kind of. But the real connection is that Mary Poppins lends her name to the computer system that runs the Walt Disney World monorail safety system.
Ma(ry) Po(ppins) will stop a monorail train if it is sensed to be too close to another train. Why is it named after her? Supposedly because the enormous box-office success of Mary Poppins in the 1960s helped fund the development of the software. Only once has this system failed to prevent an accident, in 2009 when a pilot override of the system allowed a fatal collision to occur. Since then no accidents have taken place, and although guest passengers may no longer ride with the pilot, the Walt Disney World monorail is still an awesome must-have experience for any visitor. I mean a trip to Disney World without a monorail ride? Not a trip worth going on in my opinion. Unless you can fly me around with your magic umbrella.