I was putting the final touches on the daily Fair video when I remembered oh, great ornate peals of profanity I have a column to write for tomorrow, too. But I warned you this would be a scant week. As it happens today's Bleat is mostly about the Fair, as if you should care, but you should - it's interesting stuff, and there's a payoff you might find surprising. It's cool. Well, I think so.

In short: went to the Fair, interviewed guy in an Emerald Ash Borer costume, interviewed Smokey Bear, interviewed Fairchild and Fairborne the mascots, interviewed their security detail - really - and then did the booth for 45 minutes or so. One of the booth workers thought I had come for an Appearance, which is posted in the paper and requires a sign, but I was just there to hang out and sell T-shirts and answer questions and give free bags. (And meet loooong-time Bleat readers. Uncloak in the comments, veteran of the AOL days, and tell everyone how I need a haircut.)

As I finished the video I thought "this needs music," and it was quicker to bang something out on the keyboard than search the music library service we use, and I have to send them an email telling them what I used and where - it's just simpler to play the most obvious piano melody that comes to mind and put it in.

So: here's the story, such as it is. Here's the Grandstand. It still stands.

Now for blow-up enjoyment. Lower right:

Computer, enhance:

See that this label what? We'll never know. As for Mrs. Priebes, she had two stores, and in 1909 made $490.

Up the ramp. You may wonder why it's off center. The original design for the grandstand was twice the size, with two ramps. They scaled it down, but the first ramp had already been built.

That's the story, anyway.

Up they trudge:

A few along the promenade:

To remind you of the greater picture:

What might surprise you is the source of this picture. I can't link directly until it's up in the morning; perhaps someone will be kind to do so in the comments before I get around to it at 9 AM or so. It's nifty.

It's the winners of the state-wide scarecrow competition!

The "crow" part is unnecessary

This is omnihorrifying

Government Agents vs. the Phantom Legion: it's all about trucking.

The summary:

Here's my challenge: watch the movie with the sound off. Can I tell what's happening?

I'll write this as I watch, as usual. Okay, the cliffhanger is resolved:

Good thing he heard the glass break before the bullet got to the other side! The crooks escaped, as usual.

Now, I'll bet we go to the Boardroom of Trucker Executives, where Hal tells them what's going on and proposes something new . . .

Yep. Now I'll bet we go to the Phantom and his very small League . . .

Yep. Now I'll bet we go somewhere, possibly the countryside.

No! I'm wrong. The backlot. We've been here before. You have no idea how many times we've been here. Well, there's some driving around, and then two cars have an argy-bargy on the road. Then it's back to Government Agent Central, a hive of high-tech. To be honest, I don't know what's going on, so I give up with this sound-off experiment. Turns out the League is now looking for the Government Shipping Schedules, and they kidnap Miss Roberts. That was the car chase. The League gets away, of course. And so:

We go to the hideout. I remember this set from Captain America. The henchman accepts the shipping schedules, because of course a Government Agent would hand over the nation's uranium supply in a cheap room without backup. Little does the hench know that they marked his car, so it can be tracked to the barn where Captain America almost got killed by a big tractor. The hench discovers the tracking plot, but it's too late! Our heroes are on the spot with their razor-sharp reflexes:

I love those expressions. Well, you know what comes next -a good old-fashioned two-on-two hats-on punchfest:

I've had to clip a bit for brevity's sake, but I'll just say this: the serial redeemed itself with this cliffhanger. Because I don't know how they'll lie their way out of this.

OWWWW.

One Intermission today; it's substantial, with a great Holiday-for-Strings-type soundtrack. See you around!