Back to the fair on Wednesday evening if for no other reason than to look for dinner. It was 88°F when we arrived but cooled down to a much more reasonable temperature later in the evening. There were a few things that either I didn't catch or weren't on display yet. The giant cabbage weigh in hadn't occurred yet and the hot dry summer shows in the small sized entries. The winner is a paltry 54.15 pounds (24.56 kg). But it does look pretty dense and is looking pretty wilted sitting outside of the agricultural building.
Dinner was souvlaki and stuffed grape leaves. Both were passable as "fair food" but I probably should've had the pita falafel a couple of booths down.
Another item was this very "Alaska-ish" quilt. It was displayed outside and is made of pieces of plastic tarp held together and decorated with duct tape. It seems to fit the spirit of Fairbanks. After all, at one time, Fairbanks had more fans per capita of the Red Green Show than anywhere else in the country. If you've never heard of the Canadian TV show, duct tape was a popular topic and the star, Steve Smith, was a local hero. At one point, he was treated to a 21 chainsaw salute upon arrival for a Fairbanks PBS fundraiser. No video of that frightening event but here is a sample of Handyman Corner where he uses duct tape to make tires.
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Red Green... I used to watch that and thought it was funny until I moved to NE WI. It's not funny anymore because it's true.
ReplyDeleteI say the difference between southern hillbillies and northern hillbillies is that northern hillbillies put their junk away.
I hope things weren't that strange in NE WI, there were enough similarities and a significant portion of the population of interior Alaska came from northern MN and WI, that it became an instant hit up here.
DeleteIf you don't put your junk away you lose it for over half of the year. Maybe that's a benefit....
Funny...and true! Then there's kudzu...
DeleteDuct Tape Intolerance is a medical condition. Get it treated. Some of us wouldn't be able to fix anything without it.
ReplyDeleteI think we have more duct tape in our house than most. We even have some Hello Kitty duct tape that was used on some Christmas gifts. The University Engineering department even had a duct tape contest and elementary schools even have a duct tape day. So not much intolerance around here...
DeleteHah, two Hello Kitty duct tape references in a single week....friend Stuart showed up at last weekend's rally with a repaired drinking cup, fixed with (you guessed it) pretty pink and white duct tape.
DeleteMy wife just added a large strip of it to the back of her iPad mini case to make it easier to find.
DeleteLove Red Green! That's a whole lot of cabbage! Sounds like you are having a perfectly lovely summer.
ReplyDeleteWhile the record for the giant cabbage is over 2½ times heavier, it's still a lot of cabbage.
DeleteSummer has been unusually hot and sunny this year with record number of days above 80°lF.
21 chainsaw salute?? News to me but I can't imagine a more fitting salutation! Those mechanical marvels still inspire me.
ReplyDeleteWe LOVE our County Fairs and miss the days that we participated so heavily in them.....well, we miss parts of it :)
A hot kitchen from last minute 4H cooking projects and early August humidity while shearing sticky goats will sound good again someday.
I think the first 21 chainsaw salute was for the pro-development Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, when he visited Alaska. It seemed very fitting for the host of the Red Green show. His one-man show is still very popular as are th reruns of the Canadian television show.
DeleteWe never participated in the fair since July tended to be reserved for road trips.
Duct tape, "The handy man's secret weapon" to quote Red Green. Don't laugh at the quilt, when my dog chewed a hole in my down duvet ... Duct Tape, makes a perfect patch.
ReplyDeleteWhen we couldn't decide what kind of flooring to put in the entryway and the dining room, duct tape (in stylish brown) was used to cover runs in the old carpet. It was supposed to be very temporary but duct tape is surprisingly durable.
DeleteAnd here I thought duct tape was called Alabama Chrome, but maybe that is just when found on vehicle fenders.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Red Green in years so thank you for that.
54 pounds is a huge cabbage. Lots of slaw in the making.
It's also referred to as "100 mph tape" as, so I heard, it'll hold a vehicle together travelling at 100 mph. We still have some Red Green stuff lying around the house from PBS fundraising campaigns.
DeleteA colleague at the University used to grow a bunch of giant cabbages as he would have entries in the fair every year. A couple of forty pounders would make enough sauerkraut for the both of us to last through the winter. (BTW, really good o pizza...)
Sauerkraut ... Richard I love sauerkraut! My mom used to make it, now I have to buy it in jars.
DeleteIt's easy to make. I follow a general recipe from an old cookbook I picked up in West Virginia years ago. It is written for making five gallons at a time...
DeleteI generally get the refrigerated variety in the deli section. It is "crispier".
54 pounds? Shoot, my grandaddy would have that much slaw just with lunch. Of course, he came from a time of real men...
ReplyDeleteLoved Red Green... I haven't seen that show in years.
Reruns of the show still occupy one of the prime time slots on the Saturday night schedule up here. And the live show regularly sells out every time it comes to town.
Delete54 pounds of slaw, is that with all of the other ingredients or just the cabbage?
Ah yes, duct tape, or 100 mph tape as you called it...the stuff that holds the universe together....part of any military unit's basic load...almost as important as ammo and fuel....
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to find reruns of this Red Green show....sounds like my kind of show.
dom
I think that most of the shows are available on YouTube. Go to just about any vehicle or household in the state and you'll find a few rolls of duct tape. Some brands work a lot better than others especially at cold temperatures. Some work too well and the adhesive is almost impossible to remove.
Delete54 lbs of cabbage does not sound trivial to me. :) I've only had one slaw that I have ever liked, so we would need to find a good recipe.
ReplyDeleteAs for the blanket, that is great! I was going to add that Duct Tape has certainly come out with some great designs the last year or two.
I think the record for cabbage is somewhere around 127 lbs and there are regularly ones in the 75-80 lb range. So this year, they just looked small. It is probably better as the really large ones get tough and woody and end up as being ground up and plowed back into the ground.
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