CARNIES AND BABIES AND FUNNEL CAKES

Yesterday Heather and I took our little brother, Kavon, to the York Fair, a big swirling festival of rides, games, entertainers, exhibits and food about half an hour south of Harrisburg. So much food, in fact, that the official theme of this year's festivities was "Pig Out." That's all I needed to hear.

So we went and, like most fairs you attend after the age of 25, it was sort of a disappointment. It was kind of crowded and expensive and I left feeling a little dirty. I had a better time watching the Carnies hustle local kids into playing impossible-to-win "throw-the-ball-into-the-big-plastic-bucket" games and counting the pregnant teenagers (Note to York County School Board: Free condoms with school lunches. Look into it.).

Anyhow, about the food. $6.50 Italian sausages and $7.00 cheesesteaks are nice and all, but I was looking for something else. Something different. Something unusual. I didn't really find it. The "Pig Out" theme didn't mean a wide variety of food as much as it meant a whole lot of the same food. There were about 10 cheesesteak/Italian sausage stands (all from the same company), the usual assortment of hot dog/corn dog/hamburger stands and a smattering of pizza vendors. In the end, Kavon would get a cheesesteak and a pretty good cinnamon bun. Heather would grab a corn dog and some fries and I put a hurtin' on a baked potato.

Yeah, that's right. I went to a fair whose theme was "Pig Out" and got a baked potato. In my defense it was big one and it was loaded. And I'd never had a baked potato at a fair, so it seemed like a good choice. Oh, before we left we all shared a pumpkin funnel cake. Gotta have a funnel cake. That's ours sizzling away on the right in the picture below.