NYPD Pizza owner Robert Russo, a transplanted New Yorker, argues that the logo, decor and bills are a tribute to the department which he holds in high esteem.

Russo’s attorney is quoted as saying “We think the consumers are sophisticated enough to know the Police Department is not involved in running pizzerias,”

At least not here in Orlando.

So, what do you think? Acceptable tribute or trademark infringement? Or does anyone other than the New York Police Department even really care?

Now the State Ethics Commission is investigating her actions.

It’s about time.

Now if someone would just investigate her for the arrogant attitude she displays whenever anyone calls her judgment into question, it would be a slam-dunk decision.

About 3 weeks ago City of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Central Florida Sports Commission President John Saboor and World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon announced that WrestleMania 24, scheduled for Sunday, March 30, 2008, would be held at the Citrus Bowl Stadium.

For the past almost quarter century, WrestleMania has been considered the Super Bowl of professional wrestling, or as McMahon prefers to call it, “sports entertainment”. Dyer and Saboor estimated that the event would bring up to 60,000 visitors to the city for the pay-per-view card of matches that is broadcast around the world, as well as the Fan Axxess, media gatherings, conferences and Hall of Fame ceremony, all of which take place in the 5 days leading up to WrestleMania.

WrestleMania 23, which took place last Sunday in Detroit, Michigan, drew an estimated crowd of 80,000 to Detroit’s Ford Field (more than Super Bowl XL, by the way). And when you think about it, you know there was no other reason for all those people to be there, unless they wanted to come into town and watch all the laid off auto workers standing around on street corners. Let’s face it, when you think of a place to vacation, Detroit is not on your list of first choices. Not even the top 10. Orlando is an already established tourist destination with Worlds, Studios, Kingdoms and 3 for $10 T-shirt shops all over the place. Fans of McMahon’s brand of sports entertainment are going to LOVE coming here to enjoy all the other attractions we have to offer.

Officials also estimated that WrestleMania 24 would pump about $25 million into Orlando’s economy, but that estimate was before this past week’s WrestleMania, which brought in $30 million to Detroit. Given that figure, I’ll go on record (you can check the archives a year from now) that WrestleMania 24 will bring a minimum of $40 million into Orlando.

WrestleMania events draw in people from all 50 states, as well as 23 foreign countries. Their website averages 16 million hits per month, so every time a visitor surfs over there, they’ll be seeing Orlando, Florida as the site of WrestleMania 24. There will be events over the next year leading up to WrestleMania 24 that will put Orlando in the spotlight on numerous occasions.

And, I have to admit, this was a pretty shrewd move on the part of Mayor Dyer (who apparently became the first city official to ever approach the WWE and ASK for WrestleMania to be held in their city), because he can use this to bolster his move to have the out-dated Citrus Bowl Stadium refurbished. Or maybe he’s just a fan of professional wrestling. I can just see hizzoner sitting down every Monday night at 9 pm to watch RAW and Friday night at 8 pm to see Smackdown. Anyway, the Citrus Bowl currently seats 70,000 (about 300 more if temporary stands are placed in the North end zone), but that’s in the stands and for this type of event, they can place the ring at the mid-field point and position chairs around it on the field and perhaps gain another 3,000 seats (that’s just a guess based on visual observation and assumption, I really have no educated estimate of how many seats could be added).

Sometime over the summer announcements will be made as to when tickets will go on sale. When they do go on sale, they typically sell out within a day so if you plan on going you’ll need to be online or at the ticket outlet that day. And if you can’t wait for a year to see the WWE here in Orlando, have no fear, they’ll be bringing their Smackdown brand show here on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at the Amway Arena (it still embarrasses me to call it that) with a bell time of 7:30 pm.

This post is coming to you live from the floor of Orlando’s largest and longest running Comic Book, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Anime and Media extravaganza, MegaCon 2007.

I’m here with fellow Orlando MetroBlogger Michelle, and so far we are enjoying ourselves tremendously. This year’s convention is chock full of good stuff (see Michelle’s previous post for a complete rundown) and we are burning up our digital cameras clicking shots of dealers, costumed attendees, neat looking merchandise and…well just about anything that grabs our fancy.

We arrived shortly after the doors opened at noon and quickly obtained our press passes (thanks Beth!), then after getting ourselves put on the list for tonight’s after-party at Coliseum of Comics on South Orange Blossom Trail at Holden, we began strolling through the dealer’s, writer’s, artist’s and celebrity area of the main floor. I don’t usually buy anything the first day of the Con, preferring to look around and make a final decision on the second or, usually, the last day (when things are marked down because dealers would rather not haul it back with them), but I saw a couple of small things I HAD to pick up for Blog Girl, Blog Princess and Mikey,

After checking out the entire main floor, we made our way to the costume contest at 3pm. 15 contestants competed for 1st ($100), 2nd ($50) and 3rd ($25) place and here are the winners below. From left to right and 3rd place to 1st: the cartoon girl from “Serenity”, Mal from the same movie (and the TV series “Firefly”) and The Huntress from DC Comics.

Later we’ll be attending the “Farscape” Q & A session and the Buffy (the Vampire Slayer) Musical episode to close out the day here. But the festivities continue with an after-party (mentioned above) and more MegaCon all day tomorrow and Sunday at the Orange County Convention Center, where Internet Access is an astounding $5.00 an hour or a bargain at $25.00 for the entire day. Ouch!

This Saturday, as they have for the past 3 Saturdays in December, Dandelion Communitea Cafe will host their final Arts and Crafts Market before Christmas. The event gives local artisans and crafters an opportunity to share their homemade jewelry, clothing, candles, incense, preserves, beauty products, paintings and other gift items with shoppers who are looking for that unique gift for that special person in their lives. In addition, all vendors are only offering environmentally friendly products, most of them hand-crafted.

Plus, this week only, the “Homemade For The Holidays” Arts and Crafts Market will feature performances by folk musician Paul Gerardi, a local talent who has toured the eastern United States and hosted a show on local radio station WPRK, among many other musical accomplishments.

So if you’re looking for a locally produced, one of a kind, environmentally friendly last minute gift, make your way to Dandelion Communitea Cafe’s “Homemade For The Holidays” Arts and Crafts Market this Saturday from 1 to 6pm. The cafe is located at 618 N Thornton Avenue in Orlando, one block west of Mills Avenue and between Colonial Drive and Concord Street.

Presented by the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival at the Margeson Theater, “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” is a hilarious stage production that features Tim Williams as the frustrated thespian who yearns to perform the quintessential “A Christmas Carol” only to be continually pulled into a mashup of just about every Christmas story ever told (they missed one of my favorites; “A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story”) by Mark Lanier and Rob Maitner.

Santa, Rudolph (well, Gustav, the Green-Nosed Reingoat, to avoid copyright issues), Frosty, The Grinch, The Nutcracker and even Tiny Tim all get poked fun at by these 3 excellent performers. They are all so equally talented that I find myself thinking that each of them was “the best” as they in turn take the spotlight. As a bonus, they throw in a “Every Christmas Carol Ever Sung” performance that is an unbelievably smooth (and funny, nonetheless) medley of all your favorite holiday songs. Costume and set changes sometimes take place right before your eyes during this breakneck show that keeps the pace going so quickly that you may miss some of the holiday sendups if you’re not paying attention.

The finale of the show is a train wreck (and I mean that in the best possible way) combination of what are probably the 2 best known holiday productions, “A Christmas Carol” featuring Ebenezer Scrooge and “It’s A Wonderful Life” featuring George Bailey. Williams amazed me with his dead-on impersonations of Alastair Sim and Jimmy Stewart, alternately switching between the 2 characters so seamlessly and frequently that I was agog that he was able to keep their accents straight.

Special thanks to my wife’s parents who gave us the tickets to this show. It provided a much-needed and enjoyable chance to laugh and relax. “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” continues each night and with matinees through December 24th. Tickets are priced at $20 to $35 and are worth every penny if you want 2 hours of hilarious fun. Click on the link above for more details.

In addition to a wide variety of musical groups and performances featuring something for everyone’s musical tastes, there will be a multitude of different foods at the International Food Court as well as food and drink available from the outstanding downtown Winter Garden restaurants.

Plus the downtown streets will be filled with merchandise vendors offering everything from jewelry and stained glass to candles and incense. There will also be booths set up for the various musical performers allowing them to offer CD’s, posters and band merchandise.

The Winter Garden Music Fest is free and open to the public. The event will be open Friday, October 27, 2006, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 28, 2006, from 4:00 p.m. to midnight. Directions, street locations, vendors and performance schedules can all be found at the official web site.

I arrived at my polling place (my local library branch) yesterday 10 minutes after they opened at 10am and was actually gratified (rather than perturbed) to see about 30 people already in line and while I was waiting in line another 40 or so early voters joined the line behind me. I happen to believe voting is one of our greatest rights and I’m always happy to see people taking advantage of that opportunity. The biggest delays were caused by the fact that the election office personnel were having to use the library’s Internet connection to access their records and that connection kept going down. Anyway, I was out of there within 30 minutes, glad that I voted and that I voted early.