Jeffrey Essmann remembers the state fair, the cornucopia of wonders

THE CORNUCOPIA OF WONDERS: That is the traditional state fair. Jeffrey Essmann reflects upon his experiences. "The air itself shifted dramatically as soon as we walked through the gate and became redolent of cotton candy, fried cheese, and somewhere far off, manure. The walkways were covered in sawdust and wood chips, which after nearly a week of thousands of plodding Midwesterners and several thunderstorms was now a soft carpet of pink-blond mulch." Ew.