A modest proposal

This week we went to the fair. The Canadian National Exhibition has been going on at the fairgrounds down by the lake, not too far from where our new apartment will be. It's like I always imagined a state fair is like, but bigger. (On a side note, does anyone have any idea why Massachusetts doesn't have state fairs? Or does it, but out in Worcester, so we never notice?) In the agriculture building we saw cows, pigs, sheep, turkeys, and horses of various breeds and ages, and one ostrich. The pigs had a big sign above them that said, "From Farm to Fork." If you can eat bacon after watching 6 piglets suckling, well, hats off to you. We also saw butter sculptures. They were in a refrigerated trailer in the middle of the hall with Plexiglas windows. There was a young woman inside, wearing a parka and sipping a coffee, working on her butter sculpture. Farmers.

We wandered down the fairway past all the games for suckers- the strongman thing where you try to ding the bell, the various throwing games that are way harder than they look, the different "racing" games, a few gambling places, and a million junk food stands. We doubled back to catch a human cannonball show. David "the Bullet" Smith, Jr. is a second-generation human cannonball, and several of his siblings are apparently also human cannonballs. If you've never seen a human cannonball shooting in person, I highly recommend it. Dude shoots out of a canon and flies through the air.

We tried to hoof it to the opposite end of the fairgrounds to see a circus from Quebec City that wasn't Cirque du Soleil. I don't know what they were actually called, but the promos looked pretty similar. We didn't get in, so I'll assume it wasn't that awesome, anyway. I don't recommend them.

So we walked back to the rides. Your usual collection of spinning things, flying things, cars of various types, slides, and funny mirrors. We decided to give the bumper cars a whirl, and ended up getting a free ride because the gateman's scanner wasn't working properly. Instead of buying tokens to give to your kids to spend on rides, they sold debit card-type things, but with a supermarket-style scanner. Anyway, we had fun, but Capella backed herself into a corner and couldn't get out for most of it, so I went around in circles and bashed into her every lap. Soon after we decided it was time to go, and walked home.

On Thursday and Friday the Snowbirds, the aerial team of the Canadian Forces, were practising for an air show at the Exposition. The show was all weekend and today, making five days that the skies of Toronto have been filled with jets doing loop-de-loops. Over the weekend there have also been various propeller planes and older bombers. Having now experienced five days of jet fighters constantly overhead, I propose that all major cities of countries about to wage war experience the same thing before the decision to go to war is made. Of course, Isreal and Lebanon experience that already, but I'm thinking of, say, the U.S. and U.K. It's one thing to read about war, but when the fighter jets shake the ground you're standing on you begin to have some empathy for anyone caught up in it.

Just a thought. Comments?