When I was a kid, we all (kids in the neighborhood) looked forward to the Howard County Fair. That was a must-see. A stop at the Lions Club tent for food came first. We would hit several other tents and be given various crap—amongst which always was a yard stick—for free. We had to walk through the farm implement area and sit on tractors and earth movers. The miscellaneous "big tent" seemed always to have a vacuum cleaner that kept a ping-pong ball suspended in air. The rides were the big thing, though. The Mad Mouse was legendary. Each year someone repeated the rumor that the ride had killed a person earlier in the season. A friend—in a chair behind me, fortunately—vomited on a ride called The Paratrooper. One year I paid five bucks and rode around the fairgrouns in a helicopter.

   Riding down to Indy for the State Fair was different. We made it every other years of thereabouts. The State Fair was huge, when compared to the County Fair. The line of vendors along (what I know now to be the fence for the back-stretch of the track) seemed infinite. I was "bad" one year and bought a Budweiser t-shirt. The livestock areas were bigger and the rides seemed more grand. I always was afraid of the Coliseum, ignorant of how it blew up in 1963 and killed all those people.

  Now that I have moved to Indy, annual pilgrimage to the State Fair is obligatory. The food is okay. Some is great—butter-dipped corn, pork, beef—while some seems gross to me—deep-fried twinkies®. Perhaps with age, or the height I gained with that age, the line of vendors, I see, is not infinite. I have seen my share of Confederate belt buckles now, thank you. The walk is grueling especially in the heat. We will hit the plce early in the day, but still direct sunlight and dust will make it uncomfortable. The expo building has more of a variety of books, but titles no one really has in demand. I shall look forward to the ride on the tractor back around to the gate and where the car will be parked. Two minutes and the A/C should have the interior sufficiently cool.

   Tomorrow’s Show: Indy hotel workers and the conflagration over the City-County Council vote against workers’ rights.