austin_dern | Someday he will reassess the world (Reply)

Looking back on the past week on my humor blog, I see myself struggling with having any idea what to write that might be funny. I blame putting a lot of good short material into toots on Mastodon. Also, you know, everything in the world. Well, judge it for yourself:

And now, let's see more of the Ionia Free Fair.

The Mercantile Building, built in 1923 by the National Bank of Ionia County and repainted a decade ago thanks to the National Bank's successor, a dealer in mercant eels.

Looking out the arches of the Mercantile Building offers this nice view of the rides.

Here's the Zipper having risen for our national anthem.

Pickles pack the stands for the pickle races! ... Or, well, preserves of many kinds.

Meanwhile, at the AnthrOhio cake decorating contest ...

A bunch of Lego sculptures, including a Tigers Stadium and a Lego-based Legoland, plus ... say ...

A Lego camera! I was very impressed and as you can see they won a third place for this build, which I learned at another county fair (Jackson?) was either a kit you could just buy or else the same person entered it in another county fair.

Here's the historic 2013 flood level lectern.

And the map of the fair. It's not the most detailed one but it also includes some historic pictures, including of past floods. And yes, that is the Grand River there.

And here's the Floral Building, where bunnyhugger's photographs were displayed.

Here's the frontage of the Floral Building, which has this nice 1920s style they've preserved.

And you knew that bunnyhugger was going to like the place because of this figure right inside the building.

Trivia: In 1800 Jonathan Grout built the first semaphore telegraph line in the United States, stretching 65 miles between Martha's Vineyard and Boston. It was used for commercial news, particularly reporting the arrival of ships. Source: Engineering in History, Richard Shelton Kirby, Sidney Withington, Arthur Burr Darling, Frederick Gridley Kilgour. (The New England Historical Society claims it started in 1801, although that might be discussing operation versus construction. They report Grout shut it down in 1807, but that a similar system built in 1822 worked for about thirty years, when the electric telegraph overtook the semaphore. At least some Telegraph Hills in Massachusetts seem to owe their name to Grout's system, though.)

Currently Reading: Force: What It Means to Push and Pull, Slip and Grip, Start and Stop, Henry Petroski.

Someday he will reassess the world

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