State Fair notebook

Friday, August 22: Hot, humid, and sunny to mostly cloudy. Windy.

Early morning, Carnes Avenue and Underwood Avenue: Watched and listened to a hilarious radio skit performed at the WCCO-AM booth, with two or three hundred others in the audience. This has become an annual ritual over some Tom Thumb Doughnuts and Moon Beam Coffee. Watched and listened to Minnesota first lady Mary Pawlenty gracefully deflect an on-air request from Gov. Tim Pawlenty to tell a funny if slightly off-color football story (Mrs. Pawlenty was saved by a hard commercial break.) Just missed shaking hands with U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

Breakfast: Spicy breakfast wrap from Dino's Gyros, essentially a gyros with less lamb and a scrambled egg, plus peppers and onions. Could have done without the feta cheese; it was satisfying but a bit of a mess to eat.

GOP booth: Loaded up on info from the Minnesota House Republican Caucus, including an audio CD of "greatest hits" from caucus members. The caucus always produces some excellent issues information. Bought a McCain campaign button for 50 cents, received a Norm Coleman button (the old blue round one, not one of the new red oval ones) for filling out a survey. Picked up a pocket booklet of the 2008 Minnesota GOP Platform.

Dan Patch Avenue: Visited the AM 1280 The Patriot booth, across the wide street from the DFL booth. Explained to my son who Dan Patch was.

Education Building: Scoped out the Minnesota House and Senate booths, picked up a copy of the session-recap issue of the excellent Session Weekly. Responded to the annual State Fair opinion poll. Picked up a new official state highway map (free) from the MnDOT booth. Got some free Spam (the Hormel product, not the junk e-mail) merchandise at the Spam cook-off event, which was staffed by some lively, Minnesota-nice Hormel employees. (Note: the Spam Mobile is missing this year, but don't miss the Spam curds and Spam logo merchandise booth at the Grandstand.)

Lunch: Foot-long hot dog, Lion's Club malt.

Eco-Experience: Discovered how annoyingly loud and unsightly wind power generators are, and why they are always located in sparsely-populated areas (as opposed to Nantucket Sound, for example).

Dairy Building: Opted for the Lions Club malt instead of the one from this venue, but discovered an incredibly cool $3 fishing line knot tying gizmo for sale.

Snack: Sno-Cone. Took the Sky Ride to the Grandstand area.

Grandstand: Picked up a "vote no" fan at the Taxpayers League of Minnesota booth. Briefly watched an amazing demo of hairspray and petroleum jelly being cleaned from a mirror, with just water and a Starfiber mop.

Ran out of time and energy for the brand new International Bazaar, the Princess Kay of the Milky Way butter sculptures, the KTLK-FM booth, the Minnesota Sesquicentennial exhibit, the trompe d'oliel sidewalk chalk art, the animal barns, and the Mighty Midway. Left the Fair tired but ready for fall.