Blog Post #300

Well, it was inevitable, I suppose. I've finally reached 300 posts on this gigantic free time vaccuum known to friends, colleagues, old and new acquaintances alike as 'my blog.' Rather than post something really impressive, detailed, personal and thoroughly entertaining such as this fellow blogger's recent 300th milestone, or this typically high quality entry from the creative mind of one very solid wine writer residing in B-r-o-o-k-lyn the planet, I thought that I would take the easy way out and do one of those 'by the numbers' deals (numbers may or may not be accurate).

- At least 60 youtube posts (that’s 20%, or 1 out of every 5 posts!) Some might call it laziness, I would prefer to highlight the fact that Old World Old School is truly your source for terrific, varied youtube programming on wine blogs.
- 9000 minutes (150 hours, or 6 ¼ days) of time spent considering, typing, re-considering, the content of all the posts on this site. That’s based on an average of 30 minutes per post. 150 hours would represent 2.5% of my waking hours since I started this blog last September
- More than 60% blogs are still not tagged, since I only figured out that I should tag posts a few months ago.
- 1 live Doobie Brothers post
- 2 DC go-go and 2 Bmore club posts
- 1 Bmore club re-mix of Dave Chapelle’s Samuel Jackson beer skit
- At least a few posts that actually discuss wine…
- 5 posts on my recent ‘camino de vino’ in Spain (with at least several more to come)
- 1,000 wine blogs which have started since mine
- According to feedburner, an average of .547 site views a day (in case you missed the decimal point, that would be a little more than half a site view per day).

Maybe post #500 will be a bit more milestone-like. Until then, hope you enjoy the stuff that follows.

Thank you to all my friends, family, co-workers and kindred spirits in wine/food/music geekdom for all of your support, comments, and attention. I tend to think that we bloggers blog primarily for ourselves, but having an audience sure makes it more enjoyable, educational and worthwhile. So, thanks. I sure do appreciate it.

Sunday at the state fair in Sac-to

That would be Sacramento for my readers outside of California. It's state fair season, which was the primary motivation for the trip. We started out with a primer on the diversity of the golden states' many counties, displayed in county exhibit booths which entertained and occasionally educated. Who knew that Butte County was home to Knudsen's juice company and Lundbergh Farms, the large producer of organic rices? Or that almond production contributes to as much as $85,000,000 of a few counties' GDP? Kudos to Solano County for their inspired, crazily outfitted barn booth and Lake County for having the friendliest exhibit staff of anyone. One piece of constructive criticism for Mendocino County, though: why not mention anything about your top cash crop (it's not grapes, that would be #2). Come on Mendo, that's not keeping it real....

From the county booths we toured the entomological, followed by the agricultural portions of the fair. Highlights included a lush, densely growing group of kiwi trees and an impressive variety of eggplants. Then it was on to the livestock: expecting cows, huge sows with their nursing piglets, sheep, and my favorite, the goats. I would advise against petting or sticking your hands in proximity of their mouths; those chompers look well-developed and goats do love to chew. Just admire them from a distance and move on.

After a quick walk-through of the fine arts pavillion (actually much better than I had expected) we finally made it to the rides and then the food (definitely recommended in that order, rides and then food). Try the fried artichoke hearts, terrific with just a sprinkle of salt and nothing else. Funnel cake (fried dough to some) was crisp, chewy and delicious. Lemon italian ice from a local purveyor (was it called Merino's, perhaps?) was fresh with loads of natural lemon flavor. Very refreshing on a 90+ degree, sunny day.

I definitely would recommend checking out a state fair if you haven't done so in a while. Brave the large crowds for as long as you can and you'll probably walk away having learned a few things. Just don't forget the livestock.