Racing In The Street

The New York Times ran a speculative piece on the decline ofstate fairs across the nation, WITHOUT ONCE MENTIONING OUR OWN N.Y. STATE FAIR!

They mentioned the ones sinking into financial debt in the midwest (Illinois), the ones teetering on the brink of extinction in the west (Nebraska, North Dakota) and even a few that are seemingly in good shape (Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, Georgia and Washington).

Nothing about the Great New York State Fair. Are they embarrassed about living in a state that also celebrates the smell of manure, tractor pulls and all things deep fried? Or are they just so self-absorbed in their own fabulous lives, so amply detailed in myriad soap operas, sit-coms and feture length movies?

“A state fair is not a business,” said Pat Haley, a state representative from Huron, S.D., home to a fair whose preview night is Aug. 30. “A state fair is a social event, much like a family reunion.”

If that is so, most downstate residents do not consider themselves part of our family.

According to the Albany Times Union blog, there will be two upcoming gubernatorial debates and both of them will be held upstate: one in Ithaca on September 26th and one in Buffalo on October 12th.

The debates are co-hosted by the League of Women Voters and Zogby International (the polling guy based in Utica). The Ithaca debate will unfortunately be broadcast by the same NY1 cable bozos who turned the first "statewide" debate into a NYC debate. The second debate will be broacast on all the state's public television stations.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS--NY
Kris Benson, Executive Director
518-465-4162 or via FAX: 518-465-0812.
kris@lwvny.org

ZOGBY INTERNATIONAL
901 Broad Street, Utica, New York 13501 USA
Toll Free in the U.S. & Canada 1-877-GO-2-POLL | fax 315.624.0210
Marketing e-mail chad@zogby.com

Mathematicians believe that a longstanding puzzle about the nature of space and topology, termed Poincaré’s conjecture after the French mathematician that proposed the idea, has been proved correct.

According to the New York Times: "there is a growing feeling, a cautious optimism that they have finally achieved a landmark not just of mathematics, but of human thought."

Great, but why can't I balance my checkbook?


“Thought is only a flash in the middle of a long night, but the flash that means everything.”
--Henri Poincaré

Who needs six-nation talks that are strained and ineffectual? Who needs incompetent Bush administration diplomats?
Kim Jong Il has written a screenplay.

Send a couple of Hollywood studio executives to Pyongyang and offer him his own production company,"Dear Leader Films", a commitment for a Hollywood remake of the current screenplay and a production deal for three guaranteed upcoming pictures. Let them haggle over percentages of the gross, merchandising and the foreign film rights instead of the possibility of thermonuclear war.

I see Julia Roberts in the title role and Jet Li as a certain plucky Asian head-of-state.

Come on, Major League Baseball screwed up with Fidel Castro's ill-fated pitching tryout. Can't we learn from history?

Bruce Springsteen is set to release ANOTHER version of the Seeger Sessions album, on October 3rd. The new disc will be dubbed theAmerican Land edition.

For all of those who ran out and bought the original version, what's our incentive to go out and contribute more money to a man who "brings his money in in crates?"

Well, versions of "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live" and "Bring 'Em Home" which were so moving in concert. A new song "American Land" written by Bruce and showed up at the tail end of the American tour. CD versions of "Buffalo Gals" and "How Can I Keep From Singing" that were only on the DVD portion of the original album.

Oh, and the new Disc's video portion has more from the original documentary, a couple of music videos and live footage from the American tour.

Yeah, I'll be down at Sound Garden on October 3rd!