Fraters Frolic At Fair

Last Friday I went down to the Minnesota State Fair with a couple of the other Fraters brethren. And yes, I still hate it.

Okay maybe hate is too strong a word. I still have a strong dislike for the event.

Reason #156 to not like the Fair? All the free giveaways (usually crap) at the Fair tend to exacerbate the cheapness that is inherent in Minnesotans. Most Fair goers would run over their own grandmother to get a 2oz free sample of Pace Picante Sauce. Easily the best line in the movie Fargo was when Marge was talking about a restaurant to meet at in Minneapolis and asked, "Is it reasonable?" That's Minnesota.

Of course we were on hand to witness the national radio debut of James Lileks who was filling in for Hugh Hewitt. Helped by the steadying hand of Generalissimo Duane, Lileks was able to pull it off quite successfully. Here's a shot of the dynamic duo in action.

While JB Doubtless was happy to see Lileks he was quite disappointed to discover that his favorite radio personality was not live at the Fair. Oh well. He'll have to live vicariously through his hand fan with her photo.

To get an idea of what the Fair is all about (absent the various odors of course-the scratch and sniff web page is still some years off) we've put together a small collection of some of our favorite sights of the 2003 Minnesota State Fair.

And in case you missed it here's a couple of pics from Sunday's river cruise with Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and Mike Gallagher.