State Fair 2009

Ah, the end of summer... time for the annual "Erin eats her way across the Minnesota State Fair post." And so, without further ado, the foods I ate on Friday were:

• A sarsaparilla custard float... think root beer float, but with sarsaparilla and frozen custard
  
• State Fair French Fries... an annual tradition and favorite of my mother's
  
• Hotdish on a Stick (see photo)... this might be the most quintessential State Fair Food I have ever eaten. Take a stick and make a kebab of meatball, tater tot, meatball, tater tot, etc. Cover it in corn dog batter and deep fry it. Serve with cream of mushroom sauce. It was delicious.
  
• All-I-Could-Drink-Milk... only three glasses this year. I think they've gotten bigger. Plus, we screwed up our ordering and went from here to the Dairy Barn, where my stomach refused to let me order a milkshake. Sad, because those are the best milkshakes in the world.
  
• Stuffed Olives on a stick... onion, garlic, pimento, sun-dried tomato (given away due to allergies), and a jalapeno
  
• Honey taffy... actually, I'm still eating that as I brought a bunch home.
  
• Deep fried cheese curds... Quite possibly the most unhealthy thing I look forward to all year. Yes, you can get cheese curds in Wisconsin, but can you get them deep fried?
  
• Deep fried macaroni-and-cheese on a stick... you think we'd be all cheese-on-a-stick'ed out at this point, but no.
  
• A sample of some organic-all-natural-whatever cheese from the environmental building... it was good, but a little too healthy for the fair.
  
• A Happy Dog Meal... okay, I didn't eat this. But we did buy one for Cooper. It included "french fries" which smell remarkably like real french fries, a "mini-bacon cheeseburger," a "bacon bone," a "cheese biscuit," a "cheesy chicken wrap," and a "peanut butter cannoli." (Okay, in actuality, these were all flavored dog biscuits.)
  
• Chocolate-Vanilla twist frozen custard in a cone... This was to make up for the lack of a milkshake.
  
• A lingonberry sno-cone... A good refreshing palette cleanser after a solo trip on the Sky Ride (because my sister refused to go).
  
• Sweet Martha's Cookies... two buckets of them. Mmmm... delicious with ice cold milk.
  

The Best Crossword Clue Ever?

I don't normally solve the Boston Globe crossword (and by "don't normally," I mean "haven't since 2004"), but I did come across a blog post proclaiming that today's puzzle contained the best crossword clue ever.

69 (across) - "The _____ mightier than the sword."

Yep, that's pretty good. (On the other hand, I own this book, so it's not the worst/best I've ever seen. But it is the most suggestive clue I've seen in mainstream print.)

How to tell that The Onion is from Wisconsin

A recent Onion headline: Orlando Cabrera Hates Metrodome's Tuna Casserole Smell

... except here's the problem. No one in Minnesota would call it "Tuna Casserole." It's tuna noodle hotdish. It would be like having the headline "Orlando Cabrera Hates Metrodome's Late Night Duck Duck Goose Tournament" -- Minnesotans don't play that.

A Beatle at a Ballpark

Holy crap.

I don't care how awesome you think your Thursday night was -- mine was more awesome. In fact, pick your best Thursday night ever and mine still beats it. Ask any one who knows me even a little what my two biggest obsessions are and they will tell you they are baseball and The Beatles. Somewhere I even have a 7th grade art assignment reflecting this. So, Paul McCartney at Fenway Park with a two and a half hour Beatle-heavy* set? Pretty much the most awesome thing ever. *(20 of 33 songs were Beatles, 6 were Wings, and only 2 were from his latest album. The man knows why people come to see him.)

A loud rocking and rolling shout out to Chris Morse for the ticket -- who knew that Red Sox season tickets get you first dibs on rock concerts too?

Oh, and the drummer was amazing. Not only could he play the skins, but he provided some great backing harmonies too. Actually, the whole band was pretty great.

And finally, the full set list with any notes I remember about them...

The first encore set:

• Day Tripper
  
• Lady Madonna
  
• I Saw Her Standing There
  

The second encore set;

• Yesterday (Paul solo with acoustic guitar)
  
• Helter Skelter
  
• Get Back
  
• Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
  
• The End