"This Country Was Built By Carnies...Well, The Carnival Part Of It Anyway."

What a magnificent Labor Day was had by our family! We went to the great Minnesota State Fair to see our neighbor perform with her band, and from there we just wandered off through the crowd, experiencing the sights, sounds, and, ah yes, the smells of the great mass of the humanity that crawls out of the woodwork to celebrate the end of summer.

Word to the wise: Sy and SSB rock the Tilt-a-Whirl! We make that shit work!



Riding the Tilt-a-Whirl properly is a lot like good comedy: it's all timing and delivery...you've got to time when to lean and you can't shy away from squashing your neighbor. Sure, you might hurt him or her, but it's for the good of the ride. Also, it's important to scope out all the seats while you're waiting in line in order to spot any bum seats that don't spin well and any seats that spin particularly well. Then, once the carnie opens the gate to let you in the ride, run like hell to your prefered seat. Don't worry about trampling any little kids on your way; they need to learn sometime that the word "fair" is used with the biting irony that can only be properly delivered through the broken, yellowed (and, in many cases, missing) teeth of a carnie.

One thing to keep in mind about the Tilt-a-Whirl, though: eat the corn dogs and cotton candy and all other stick-borne foods after riding; Sy figured that out too late:(

I think my thoughts on the whole state fair experience can be best summed up by the words of the portly gentleman who wandered past us by the Hot Dish-on-a-stick stand: "Well, that was a waste of four bucks".