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 y mind clouded, overwhelmed by mnemonic sensation as I passed the relentless cheer of
"It's a small world after all," slipping from the traditional
heart of Southern California's Disneyland
to the brave new land of Mickey's Toontown. I stumbled back to the past, conjuring up a strange yet
compelling metaphor from Russian Tsarist history.
 I smiled, remembering the tale — Toontown would make Potemkin
 proud. In the dark days of Russia's imperial age, Catherine the Great
 sailed down the Dnieper River, hoping to see the development
 of what is now the Ukraine. According to legend,
 Grigory Potemkin, a Russian army officer and
 statesman entrusted with New Russia, con-
 structed whole villages of facades and two-
 dimensional cardboard sets. He drove tens of
 thousands of slaves, dressed as countryfolk to wave at the
 waterfront and convinced the trusting Tsarina that all was well
 in the provinces. It was a beautiful illusion, but utterly devoid
 of substance.
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