Fodor's ( /ˈfoʊdərz/) is the world's largest publisher of English language travel and tourism information, and the first relatively professional producer of travel guidebooks. Fodor's Travel and Fodors.com are divisions of Random House, Inc.
Founder Eugene Fodor was a keen traveler, but felt that the guidebooks of his time were boring, uninspired collections of quickly outdated facts and figures. He decided to address these shortcomings and wrote a guide to Europe, On the Continent—The Entertaining Travel Annual, which was published in 1936 by Francis Aldor, Aldor Publications, London.
Going beyond the usual lists of hotels and attractions, the book was updated yearly and gave practical guidance, such as tipping advice, alongside information about the local people and culture. For example, in the introduction, Fodor wrote "Rome contains not only magnificent monuments, but also Italians."
The pioneering book was a success in England and the United States. Fodor's Modern Guides, Inc. was founded in 1949 in Paris, France and David McKay Company began publishing the books a year later. McKay was sold to Random House in 1986.
Bing Futch (b. Hollywood, California, 1966) is a musician whose primary instrument is the mountain dulcimer. In 1986 he co-founded Christian techno-punk trio Crazed Bunnyz along with Marc "Gadget" Plainguet and Sean "Shaka" Harrison. He relocated to Orlando, Florida in 1993.
Futch has composed and produced soundtracks for film, theater, television and themed attractions. In 1994, he wrote and recorded music for The Castle of Miracles at Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee, Florida. In 1999, Futch formed Americana band Mohave, featuring the mountain dulcimer as the main instrument. The group has performed at the House of Blues in Walt Disney World, Hard Rock Live at Universal Studios Florida and has opened for Molly Hatchet, among other acts. He is the grandson of the late boxing hall-of-famer Eddie Futch.
On June 14, 2009, Futch was en route to a show in Ft. Wayne, Indiana on Northwest Airlines flight 2363 from Detroit, Michigan. During that time, baggage handlers damaged his double-necked mountain dulcimer. Encouraged by fans to write a song about the incident, and after seeing Dave Carroll's "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube, Futch penned "Only A Northwest Song" on July 10, 2009 and posted it to the service, hoping it would help to avoid a "lengthy reimbursement battle." Within a day of the video's posting, Northwest Airlines contacted Futch to offer their apologies along with compensation.
A place afar in distant dreams
Mystic winds blow
Men mount birds of prey to war
And raid each others shore
Wizards and Warlocks battle by night
One survives by cunning and might
Take what you can by sword and sabre
Just reward for perilous labour
Stands among them a natural King
A man of barbaric breed
In a blade of steel he lays his trust
Killing and taking his needs
Upon him the scars of battles gone by
From many who have gazed in his murderous eye
Astride his mount he cursed and then
Assembled his men in thousands and ten
Onward lads we'll kill them all
Victory is ours
We'll have their heads and female slaves
Soon to loot their towers
Riding hard they rushed the gates
And scaled the granite walls
Through boiling oil and falling stone
His men endured it all
In bloody streets the battle raged
Brave men died and women were caged
Amidst the hoard, a barbaric roar
He gut the guard and kicked down the door
Sword in one hand, torch in the other
Alert every step of the way
If legends be true this place is cursed
Demons stand guard night and day
Living hell cloaked in black
Three ungodly hosts
Upon the dais a ball of light
Which binds them to their post
Faster than a striking cobra
Hit the altar and knocked it over
Shattered in a silver shower
The priests of hell have lost their power
Up the stairs a golden door
The queen awaits within
Her naked body close to his
The prize is won again
And has she yields to his force
(Crows, wipe the blood from the end of your claws.
Said the vulture
Lets gather like storms for the war.
Crows, as the night turns its skin into coal,
Dark as corpses but cluttered with gold.
They will label you thieves, wolves, and whores
but you are nothing less than angels,
cast down and covered in black.)
Ain't this the bloodiest mess in the world? Said the virgin, a torn little girl.
Boy, you went and made a sweet wreck of my soul, and I've already forgiven you.
And blood was running down
Her dress in streams into her hands where she
Was stitching on the flesh had left
In sections on the carpet near a bed that
Never slept while she was sleeping
In her clothes that he had laid with on
The floor with all his fingers crossed
In hoping that that distance
Wouldn't grow.
But how it grew,
And how it hurt,
And how it hallowed every memory had
Never felt was threatened by a thing the world
Could conjure up to kill them, but he let it kill them
What a bunch of fools we lovers are.
And now shes smiling, with her self put back together,
just a shadow of the past before the war.
All sewn together, like a city sick from storms
and sick of waiting for a god to call the floods out of her home.
what a bunch of fools we lovers are
when tempted by the taste of flesh.
"My boy, you are nothing more than a thief and a whore
in a suit of the finest of armor." laughed the vulture.
A morbid beauty
Glows in resonation
Mercurial signs they read
Make real our minds
True fascinations
For now we're rolling
And kinda golden
As time keeps folding
We're old when our poor souls depart
Whereas cold cruel jokes now make you cry
One day you'll take them in your stride
All of the time we've resided here
You'll see our chalices rise
With ever endless tears
And illusions they fly
But someday soon will clear
Just sit back and recline
I'll guide you through the years
Through the future years
As they'll soon appear
Someday all too near
Now the distance clears
Bad ways which rule all the ways we go
Through black and the gloom
Consecutive days and plain afternoons
The things in life
They pass the time
While those all around are bored
Though we come down in real demise
Trek through all of the feelings with no tears in eyes
Kept fear veiled so it hides
Life's never forced or dry
So theres nothing inside me
I just seem alive
To the future years
As they'll soon appear
Dressed in slacks as we will
So its stars they steer
Just tie a silk sheet round your neck
And twist it till your face turns cherry red
All of the time we've resided here
You'll see our chalices rise
With ever endless tears
And illusions they fly
But someday soon will clear
Just sit back and recline
Porco cristo offenditi
c'è una dote che non hai
non è chiaro se ci sei
Sei borghese arrenditi
gli architetti sono qua
hanno in mano la città
Cambia rotta cambia stile
scopri l'anno bisestile
è volgare il tuo annaspare sai
Squarciafavole t'illudi
come notte fra le nubi
questo è l'unonovenovesei
Cristo fa'
che lei non sia qua
non è chiaro sì lo so
ma è una dote che non ho
Estremista edile
piangi e poi gli fai le fusa
mentre ho perso la mia musa
Cambio rotta cambio stile
scopro l'anno bisestile
è volgare il mio annaspare sai
Divertente criminale
la tua scala di sapone
questo è l'unonovenovesei