#statefairs

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/cheese-sculpture-2026.jpgThe annual cheese sculpture from Sarah Kaufmann, “the Cheese Lady” — another 1500 pounds of temporary art, later donated to charity.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

…and it all comes down to this: all the other pics fit to print. Obviously we had to lead off with the cheese sculpture.

Next up: the entrants in the annual CANstruction contest! The charitable organization holds eponymous events nationwide in which engineers and other clever planners compete against each other to build the best sculpture made entirely from canned goods, preferably in recognizable shapes and not ordinary stacks with boring titles like “Oh No, We Overordered Mushroom Soup Again”. After the judging and the public displaying are over, all those meticulously planned figures are torn down and the components are donated to local hunger relief charities, who in turn forward them to needy families. Thus these temporary installations live on only if everyone takes pictures of them.

Rather than the fair’s official theme of The Year of Baseball, the CANstruction competitors celebrated the Harvest Pavilion’s headline exhibit, “Rewind: A VHS Revival”. So this year, the cans are all about the movies!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-stay-puft-marshmallow-man.jpgCanned Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-charizard.jpgCanned Charizard from the world of Pokemon!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-star-wars.jpgLuke and Leia in a canned galaxy far, far away.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-jaws.jpgCanned Jaws!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-sheriff-woody.jpgCanned Sheriff Woody!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-lion-king.jpgCaned Timon and Pumbaa are a bit rough to make out on either end of the display.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/canned-jurassic-park.jpgCanned Jurassic Park!

The cheese sculpture and CANstruction entrants shared the AgHort Building with the year’s largest vegetables, which returned this year after a brief relocation to the Coliseum.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/745-pound-pumpkin.jpg745-pound pumpkin!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/119-pound-watermelon.jpg119-pound watermelon!

After their success sponsoring last year’s music exhibit, the good folks at Indy CD & Vinyl brought their pop-up shop back to the Harvest Pavilion. Ironically, they had exactly zero CDs on hand this time. I consoled myself with a used copy of WKRP in Cincinnati Season 1. I didn’t get the show as a kid because I didn’t recognize any of the music or have any real appreciation for music-biz behind-the-scenes jokes. Now that I’ve gotten into AOR and classic rock a bit more in my advanced years, of course the DVD set’s back cover carries some saddening fine print: “Some of the original musical content has been edited for this DVD release.” BOOOOOOO. Sure, I understand the legal hassles of re-licensing all the original tunes. Nevertheless: BOOOOOOO.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/use-your-illusion-tribute.jpgTheir coolest display: an agamograph of the covers to Guns N’ Roses’ double album Use Your Illusion.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/state-fair-train.jpgNew this year: the tiny State Fair Train! It choo-choo’d laps around us while we sat and sampled the street-corn pizza.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/swings-silhouette-mural.jpgI’m not sure if it was new; if not, we’d never noticed the silhouette mural in the south entrance tunnel from the parking lot.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/bee-on-phone-cozy.jpgAlso arguably new this year: more bees than ever!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/bee-back.jpgAs we sat at one of Black Leaf Vegan’s tables, this bee was bee-dazzled by Anne’s phone cozy…

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/bee-on-dish.jpg…and the leftover spices from her smoked drumsticks.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/carousel-triceratops.jpgDefinitely not new: the two-story carousel by the south entrance. Still cool, though.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/corn-dog-anne.jpgAnne’s a dancing corn dog!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/indiana-state-fair-jazz-hands.jpgMandatory Indiana State Fair jazz hands!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/anne-in-baseball-helmet.jpgLast gentle reminder of their low-key theme “The Year in Baseball”.

…and then we left around 4:00, inched home through rush-hour traffic, collapsed for a while, and did some Googling to verify the new red splotches blanketing my legs were most likely exercise-induced vasculitis. That’s since faded, but the happier new memories and photos remain.

The End. Thanks for reading. Lord willing, we’ll see you next year.

Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 3: The Year of America’s 250th

Part 4: The Year in Cakes

Part 5: The Year in Lego

Part 6: The Year in Art

Part 7: The Year in Antiques

Part 8: Morning Midway Meandering

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/caterpillar-coaster.jpgPossibly the world’s fastest caterpillar, relatively speaking.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

When I was a kid, the Midway was the only part of the fair that mattered. The food was a nice change of pace, but was more of a necessity than a highlight, at least until I discovered elephant ears. The adults wanted to see the exhibits and didn’t care if I was bored stiff. I liked animals, but our family never adapted to toxic barn stench. Sometimes the special events and scheduled entertainment were okay, but I didn’t scour their schedule for appointments and never attended a concert there until I was 29. No, far as I was concerned, the Midway was the be-all-end-all of the State Fair experience — the rides, the games, the fun houses, and especially the video arcade they added in the mid-’80s.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/midway-archway-with-baseballs.jpgThis year’s main Midway entrance was decorated for the Year of Baseball, which barely made it into any of the 400+ pics we took.

In our 50s the State Fair is still an annual tradition for the two of us, but ordinary carnival rides aren’t our thing anymore. (Disney World is a different story, but the fair is no Disney World.) My son aged out of it long ago and we have no other youngsters to drag around, or to drag us around. In the last dozen years or more, we’ve only bought ride tickets there once — that time in 2019 we took to the Skyride and rose above the fairgrounds for photographic fun and fresh air.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/kid-elephant.jpgA cartoon elephant kid welcomes you to the Midway’s east border.

Even as a kid, I had limits. I got motion sickness on any Technicolor centrifuges that spun faster than the Scrambler. Roller coasters could be touch-and-go. Upside-down rides were an immediate nonstarter. I didn’t discover the magical power of Dramamine till adulthood, but I don’t get excited about relying on any pharmaceuticals for kicks except caffeine. As I got older and wider, I didn’t fit into some rides, though my 2004-2005 diet solved that problem for the next several years. Last time we drove out to Kings Island for a company picnic, I’d regained enough weight that I couldn’t fit into the seats of their latest roller coaster — not a joyful revelation when hundreds of people are in line waiting their turn and you personally are the one obstacle holding up the entire works.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ferris-wheel.jpgOnce billed as The World’s Largest Ferris Wheel, we appreciate this ride can still hold patrons of nearly any size, much like the majority of Disney World’s equipment.

I peeked through the MCC back pages and discovered I’d anticipated our withdrawal from thrill-ride pastimes and already wrote about it in the site’s first year:

…I expect to be slow to consent and slower to avail myself of the ride options…unless, perhaps, they might be willing to accept some of my suggestions for new, calmer, gentler, barely mobile “thrill” rides tailored to meet the wishes and fussiness of those disinclined against disorientation. Examples in my new, personalized ride demographic could include:

Gently rotating teacup ride, except with broken motor so there’s no actual rotating.

Antique autos driven by chauffeurs and stocked with elegant snacks.

Perfectly motionless lazy river, three inches deep and using state-of-the-art technology to prevent any kind of current or even the slightest Brownian motion.

Sensory deprivation chamber, with inside walls lined with pictures of cute kittens. No lolcat captions, though. When they’re unfunny, they angry up the blood.

Amazingly lifelike “Mattress Firm showroom” simulator.

Out-of-order video games that require you to imagine you’re playing the game in your head.

The Happy Fun Park Mascot Presents the Wonderful Wacky Padded Benches for Sitting and Watching Other People Ride Rides.

TVs. Enormous ones everywhere, like up-close drive-in screens.

The lines for the concession stands, but with extra neon lighting so they look more like rides than chores.

(I forgot “lolcats” were a thing. Ah, 2012 was such an innocent time.)

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/spinning-bear.jpgThis kindly bear beckons you into his vomit-inducing cyclone trap that’s NASA-certified for astronaut training.

…so in MCC’s annual Indiana State Fair write-ups, the Midway has consistently been filed with the Department of Not Appearing on This Blog. I suppose I could also gripe about how ticket prices haven’t gotten better in this economy: technically they seemed to have resisted inflation at $10 for a sheet of 20 tickets, but some rides also required 18-20 tickets per person for a single turn. Then again, considering how much cash we ended up blowing on Taste of the Fair dishes, I kinda waived my privilege to complain about the Midway costs.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/eminem-spinner.jpgPink and Eminem are here to make you hurl! Plus the lady at far left, whoever she is! Google’s A.I. thinks she’s Ruby Rose from Batwoman, which…um, doubtful.

This year was a slightly different story, though not for the pulse-pounding machinery merriment: early in the morning, we had time to kill.

The fairgrounds opened at 8; we arrived at 8:45 to ensure we got a decent parking space. That plan was successful thanks to a statewide fear wave. The previous two weeks’ thunderstorm onslaught and record-breaking floods had taken several lives and left Hoosiers skittish at the sight of gray clouds, same as covered the skies this particular Thursday. Also, even in the sunniest of summers, nobody but retirees ever show up at the fair first thing on weekday mornings. It’s why we take the day off work for all this — it’s the perfect time to avoid crowds for the first several hours till school lets out.

Major drawback for us Taste of the Fair fans: most food stands don’t open till 10. The exhibit halls don’t open till 9.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/biodiesel-bees.jpgWe learned some rides are now powered by soy-based biodiesel…or maybe in this case “BEE-odiesel”.

To pass the time and warm up our legs for the miles of walking we’d get in later, we wandered around the Midway hours before it’d open. The place was virtually deserted except a couple workers setting up, two police officers pounding the Midway beat in a golf cart, and a handful of other stray passersby like us. Wistful nostalgia didn’t take long to set in.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/dueling-fun-houses.jpgDueling fun houses, side by side.

The Midway was smaller than I remembered — not out of a sense of “Everything seems so huge when you’re a kid!” but because the Midway literally has less square footage than it did 40-50 years ago. It no longer stretches down toward Expo Hall because all the innocuous rides for the tiniest tykes were moved years ago to their own separate mini-Midway on the southeast corner of the fairgrounds. We didn’t feel compelled to journey over there.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/psycho-park.jpgDo you DARE brave the scary jungle-gym challenges of PSYCHO PARK? And over two months before Halloween?

As a tween aging out of the Midway experience, the last rides I recall enjoying were the giant slides and the fun houses. The fun houses were particularly accommodating — they were easy puzzle-book mazes with interactive decorations. They didn’t make me sick. I didn’t have to worry about fitting into seats. They cost fewer tickets than the adult G-force accelerators. In hindsight, admittedly The Simpsons‘ mockery of car-based fun houses got it right. (“BEHOLD THE RAVAGES OF AGE!”)

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/chucky-and-skeleton.jpgWelcome your horror hosts, Chucky and a skeleton with an immortal mohawk that never decomposed after death!

My favorite was the hall of mirrors, or hall of glass, or whatever the official name was. The first floor was all glass hallways, but with a fair amount of confusing reflections. The end of the maze was a stairway to the top floor, which had a collection of curved circus mirrors for value-added body-distortion fun. I went through those houses so many times that I memorized the layout and could get upstairs in less than a minute without bumping into a single pane.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/mardi-gras-hall-of-mirrors.jpgRecent innovations to this classic design include a curly slide at the end.

Sadly, I’m now exiled from their domain because today’s fun houses have size limits for kids-only gatekeeping. One Midway feature that knows no such exclusions: the games! I also used to love those as a kid until I realize many were rigged, and the ones I could win had terrible prizes. Kids don’t much care about evaluating whether or not they’re worth the cost and hassle: they love a sense of accomplishment, victory, and competence — even more so if they win anything substantial. I’m pretty sure I no longer have anything I ever won from carnivals, festivals, or theme parks in general — various stuffed animals, the 4-x-4-inch Michael Jackson Thriller mirror, the goldfish that lived for two weeks, and other clutter I wouldn’t have bought with my allowance from a department store.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/stuffed-bears.jpgRabbits of unusual colors.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/kiddie-bats.jpgInflatable bats! Choose your pattern: Superman, America, Spongebob, or drag racing.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/water-pistol-race-prizes.jpgThe pop-culture character lineups have of course been updated over the decades. Pooh and Cookie Monster remain eternal.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/stuffed-naruto.jpgOr go for the biggest grand prizes possible, such as giant-sized plush Naruto!

Our leisurely stroll through the territory of someone else’s future State Fair memories did the trick: we returned to the Harvest Pavilion shortly after it opened at 9, then we got a S’Mork and a flag-colored shake from the concession stands that opened first, and then we kept walking and walking and enjoying other activities that would’ve bored kids stiff.

To be concluded! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 3: The Year of America’s 250th

Part 4: The Year in Cakes

Part 5: The Year in Lego

Part 6: The Year in Art

Part 7: The Year in Antiques

Part 9: [coming soon]

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/mortimer-snerd-container.jpgBOOZE! Now that I have your attention, here’s a trio of old-time containers, including one based on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s other dummy, Mortimer Snerd.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

One of the fair’s regular features is the antiques competition, chiefly displayed on the second floor of the Indiana Arts Building. No one’s ever posted the rules, criteria, rankings, or anything expository beyond signage implying, “Here are some antiques not for sale.” Contestants bring in ancient items they unearthed somewhere, a secret council convenes far from inquisitive eyes, prize ribbons are placed next to some of them, yadda yadda yadda, they’re at your Indiana State Fair.

Amid the quilts and ’50s baby dolls and blue-and-white dishware, a few items with historical value and/or pop culture cachet will catch our attention, especially comic books published before I was born. We congratulate the winners of this year’s Antiques We Noticed Most Contest!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/popeye-the-sasquatch.jpgIf you liked the diver-headed alien gorilla from Robot Monster, you’ll love this Popeye-headed Sasquatch!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/nixon-dartboard.jpgLast century, we didn’t have phones that let us scream at famous people. If we were mad at them, we put their faces on dartboards.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/jfk-news.jpgYour grandparents remember when JFK used to be in current headlines that weren’t nostalgia pieces, and he was the only Kennedy anyone had to worry about.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lenny-bruce-midnight-concert.jpgLenny Bruce’s The Midnight Concert, with self-explanatory cover.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/rolling-stones-through-the-past-darkly.jpgBy 1969 the Rolling Stones were already on their third greatest-hits compilation.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/zorro-record-book.jpgOne of those record-and-book combos we could get as kids.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/1934-worlds-fair-book.jpgSouvenir from the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/clue-of-the-tapping-heels.jpgThe 1939 Nancy Drew mystery The Clue of the Tapping Heels was the sixteenth in the series.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/gasoline-alley-book.jpgA 1924 collection of Gasoline Alley, the groundbreaking comic strip that let its characters age in real time over the decades.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/winnie-winkle-comic.jpgAlso making the jump from comic strips: Winnie Winkle #4, circa 1948. Art probably by Martin Branner.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/captain-and-earth.jpgComics on Parade #40 (March 1943) featuring the Captain and the Kids, cover probably by Rudolph Dirks; and Classics Illustrated #105 (March 1953) adapting Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, cover by Alex Blum.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ff-richie-sherlock.jpgFantastic Four #19 (Oct. 1963), cover by Jack Kirby, debuting Rama-Tut, who recently appeared in X-Men ’97 voiced by John de Lancie; Richie Rich and Dollar the Dog #3 (March 1988), artist unknown because nobody’s ever bought and opened a copy; and DC’s Sherlock Holmes #1 (Oct. 1975), cover by Walt Simonson.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/spectre-and-the-ducks.jpgThe Spectre #8 (Feb. 1969), cover by Nick Cardy; and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #278 (November 1963), cover by Carl Barks, Tony Strobl and Larry Mayer.

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 3: The Year of America’s 250th

Part 4: The Year in Cakes

Part 5: The Year in Lego

Part 6: The Year in Art

Part 8: [coming soon]

Part 9: [coming soon]

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/red-dragon.jpgRed dragon!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

Anne and I are at that age when we’re more interested in visiting the exhibit halls than in rattling our bones on the Midway rides. We enjoy seeing what new works of paint, photography, building blocks, and 4-H instructional posters have been offered up for the various competitions. The State Fair holds its massive celebrations on behalf of our farmers, but Indiana has no shortage of artists, either. Whether adults or kids, the illustrators, sculptors, clothing designers, doll-makers and other artisans come from all demographics, work in multiple media, and bring ideas from pop culture as well as from their own influences and home lives. They each contribute in their own ways to the Hoosier State creative legacy.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/tacosaurus.jpgTacosaurus was the largest artwork we saw that day.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/crocheted-t-rex-fossil.jpgA crocheted T-Rex fossil nearly as tall as me.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/muppets-crocheted-2.jpgCrocheted Muppets!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/muppets-crocheted.jpgMore Muppets, different crocheter.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/cosplay-black-wings.jpgI don’t usually brake for the fashion displays, but cosplay is different.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/narnia-kids.jpgThe Pevensies of Narnia!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/key-lime-pie-sculpture.jpgKey lime pie sculpture, not a Taste of the Fair dessert.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/stephen-stills-fallout-ghoul-sculpture.jpgIf Stephen Stills from Scott Pilgrim became a Fallout ghoul.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/tiny-mondrian.jpgTiny Mondrian!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/black-woman-in-purple.jpgOne of a few different paintings by local artist Naomi Turnipseed.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/boxing-match.jpgBoxing match.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/red-angry-bird.jpgRed the red Angry Bird.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/daydreamer-of-butterflies.jpgDaydreamer of butterflies.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/black-white-and-fire.jpgActivism in black and white and fire.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/roy-lichtenstein-x-manga.jpgRoy Lichtenstein x Manga!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/mona-lisa-three-pointer.jpgMona Lisa three-pointer.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sabrina-carpenter-muppets-special.jpgIt’s last February’s Muppet Show Disney+ special with their special guest star Sabrina Carpenter!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/peanuts-beads.jpgPeanuts!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/jurassic-park-logo-beads.jpgJurassic Park in beads.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/mickey-and-minnie.jpgMickey and Minnie!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lunar-goddess.jpg“Lunar Goddess” from a “diamond painting” kit.

Because we need more excuses for walking to burn off our Taste of the Fair calories, I also like perusing the science-poster competitions. Those club assignments can sometimes be dry and humorless in accordance with the strict rules for their specific areas of interest, but I’ve made an annual game of looking for glimmers of creativity and inspiration that stick out like diamonds in the rough, whether their titles be pop-culture references, offbeat subjects, or just Dad-jokes. I’ll take what I can get. Our rediscovery of the other 4-H hall also introduced us to entire poster categories we’d never witnessed before…

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/using-cidrs-in-livestock.jpgI was 54 when I learned livestock breeders have means to coax animals that aren’t in heat into heat.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bee-pun-posters.jpgI am HERE for all the bee jokes, no matter how BEE-labored they are.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/is-your-cat-chonky.jpgAt last, concrete research in the field of feline fatties.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/baby-llama-mama-drama.jpgSo, SO many reports on llamas.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ar-15-tutorial.jpgIt’s time teens taught other teens proper gun handling.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/archery-as-seen-on-tv.jpgMy absolute favorite: rating pop-culture archers on whether or not they accurately depict their craft. This subject has bugged me ever since I had to do an archery unit in my college PE class.

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 3: The Year of America’s 250th

Part 4: The Year in Cakes

Part 5: The Year in Lego

Part 7: [coming soon]

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-thomas-the-tank-engine.jpgLego Thomas the Tank Engine recreates the classic moment from Thomas Comes to Breakfast that taught us why nobody invites trains over for pancakes.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

Lego is a frequent sight at our State Fair. 4-H kids and competitors in other art contests routinely turn in works of Lego as their favorite sculpting medium. Some submissions are store-bought kits; some are original creations. There’s nothing emphatically Hoosier about them. To my knowledge we have no Lego factory and no Legoland theme park. Indiana was not a beachhead for Danish explorers. Not even the old Lego Indiana Jones set have anything to do with Indiana per se, much as we might wish to contrive otherwise. But at our State Fair there’s always room for Lego.

This year we attended the fair so late into its run — the last day was this past Sunday — that the rest of this miniseries is now a retrospective instead of a concurrent update. Figuring in advance that that’d happen, I tried to convince myself to take fewer photos so I could wrap up our short-term State Fair memories as quickly as possible and I could get back to all the other pending posts I’ve been procrastinating. I even thought to myself going in, “You do not have to snap pics of every Lego ever.” Here we wound up anyway, having once again accumulated enough Lego works for a standalone gallery. Behold the power of bright building blocks!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-jazz-club.jpgLego jazz club!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-spidey-vs.-sandman.jpgLego Spidey vs. Lego Sandman!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-midway.jpgLego Midway!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-midway-ii.jpgLego Mega-Midway!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-mario-and-luigi.jpgLego old-school Mario and Luigi!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-farmland.jpgLego farmland!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-fury-tractor.jpgLego Fury tractor!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-deadwood.jpgLego Deadwood!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-blue-line-flag-cake.jpgLego Thin Blue Line flag.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-squirtle.jpgLego Squirtle!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-uss-nimitz.jpgThe Lego USS Nimitz!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-washington-monument.jpgLego Washington Monument remodeled for July 4th, but at least it hasn’t been renamed yet!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-captain-america-shield.jpgLego Captain America’s shield!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-sword-in-the-stone.jpgThe Lego Sword in the Stone!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-eiffel-tower.jpgLego Eiffel Tower!

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 3: The Year of America’s 250th

Part 4: The Year in Cakes

Part 6: [coming soon]

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ballpark-snacks-cake.jpgNo, this isn’t a Taste of the Fair dish or a Man v. Food eating challenge. This is a single cake.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

…such as cakes! Back in 2019 we discovered for the first time in our entire fair-attending lives that the main 4-H Building wasn’t their only exhibit hall. Next door Centennial Hall was formerly a dormitory — and is still inaccurately and unhelpfully labeled as such — and contained entire competitive categories that we’d never seen before. The cakes in particular were awesome sights to behold.

Then the State Fair went on hiatus in 2020, because 2020. Without that annual reinforcement of the lesson we’d learned, we totally forgot about Centennial Hall until this year. We were only pointed toward it because the contents of the main 4-H Building were restructured, rearranged, and/or relocated elsewhere. For some reason the entire second floor appeared to have been converted into an indoor driving range for 4-H golfers. Thankfully we were redirected to Centennial Hall and discovered the joy of 4-H cakes all over again — the results of hours of effort, imagination and concentration on the part of whoever was blessed with these amazing colossal talents. A shame we couldn’t eat any of their works, merely behold them. Call it the Great Hoosier Bake-Off.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/victory-field-cake.jpgVictory Field cake, based on the home of our own minor-league Indianapolis Indians.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/baseball-cake.jpgOfficially this year’s fair’s theme was The Year of Baseball, but we didn’t capture a lot of relevant references. This one’s from the Indiana Arts Building.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/art-cake.jpgMultimedia art class cake!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pumpkin-harvest-cake.jpgSincere pumpkin patch cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/harry-potter-cake.jpgHarry Potter cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/mario-cake.jpgSuper Mario cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bluey-cake.jpgBluey cake!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/circus-cake.jpgCircus cake…

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/carnival-cake-1.jpg…not to be confused with carnival cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pink-carousel-cake.jpgPink carousel cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/popcorn-cake.jpgPopcorn cake. We didn’t touch it to see whether or not the kernels were real.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/casino-cake.jpgCasino cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/minion-upside-down-cake.jpgMinion upside-down cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/i-love-lucy-cake.jpgI Love Lucy cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lorax-cake.jpgThe Lorax cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/charlie-brown-christmas-cake.jpgA Charlie Brown Christmas cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/charlottes-web-cake.jpgCharlotte’s Web cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/chicken-cake.jpgChicken cake. No idea whether it’s also an ingredient.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/oz-cake.jpgWizard of Oz cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/wicked-cake.jpgWicked cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pooh-cake-2.jpgWinnie-the-Pooh cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pooh-cake.jpgPooh mega-cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/south-pole-cake.jpgIceberg cake at the intersection of the North and South Poles.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/asgard-cake.jpgMarvel’s Asgard cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/little-prince-cake.jpgThe Little Prince cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/memento-mori-cake.jpgMemento Mori cake!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/banjo-cake.jpgBanjo cake, defying gravity.

Meanwhile over in the Indiana Arts Building, once again the annual Ugly Cake Contest fielded entries with very different objectives.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/dentistry-cake.jpgHow your teeth will look after eating every cake here.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/scary-blob-cake.jpgGoogly-eyed orange killer space blob cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ashtray-cake.jpgThe cakes are so good, you’ll need a cigarette afterward. Wait, no, this is also a cake.

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 3: The Year of America’s 250th

Part 5: [coming soon]

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/merica-eagle-cake.jpgMeet the radical new Sam the Eagle from Mark Millar’s Ultimate Muppets reboot.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

…and one splashy theme recurred throughout the various exhibits of arts, crafts, cookery, and antiquing across all participating buildings: the 250th anniversary of July 4th, 1776, generally considered the date of birth of the United States of America. Granted, not all citizens observed the only semiquincetennial party our nation will ever have, particularly among a statistically significant percentage of the terminally online. No, America isn’t perfect and never will be, which is kind of the point, no matter who’s in charge. If you only love people, places, or things that are perfect, then how many absolutely perfect people, places, or things do you genuinely love? If you count more than one, you’ve gotten it wrong.

As it happens, our road trip this year began over the Independence Day weekend and showed us evidence of folks proud to celebrate offline, about which I’ll get to post about here someday when I get caught up on sharing our travelogues, Lord willing. Anne, for one, was excited to see America cross that milestone without preemption by the Second Coming, collapsing under a giant meteor, or being conquered by a conspiratorial Canada/Mexico tag-team invasion. She braked at every roadside attraction that acknowledged its happening and was overjoyed to see that same enthusiasm here at the fair.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/america-250-soybeans.jpgWall art made entirely of soybeans.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/usa-quilt.jpgA Liberty Bell quilt hanging high above in the Indiana Arts Building.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/america-icons-thin-quilt.jpgMore American quilt blocks.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flag-variant-quilt.jpgAmerican flag but with the stars replaced by quilting versions.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/rushmore-quilt.jpgMount Rushmore blanket.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/us-flag-handbag.jpgAmerica: the Handbag!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/250-blanket.jpgAmerica: the cozy blanket!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/usa-christmas-tree.jpgAmerica: the Christmas tree!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/america-wreaths.jpgAmerica: the Wreaths!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/america-lunchbox.jpgAmerica: the Antique Lunchbox!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bicentennial-flask.jpgRemember America’s previous Independence Day mega-party with a vintage Bicentennial booze flask.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/america-250-lady-painting.jpgDown in the 4-H art galleries, this American traveler is proud of what she can do and who she can be here.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/wooden-statue-of-liberty-250.jpgThe largest Statue of Liberty at the fairgrounds.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-flag-and-eagle.jpgLego representation included a Lego flag and Lego bald eagle.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lego-flag-tractor.jpgLego American tractor.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/1776-cake.jpgAnd wow, did the American bakers turn out to compete and/or cater the occasion.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/liberty-bell-and-two-fiddy-cakes.jpgAn entire Liberty Bell-shaped cake and a “Two Fiddy” birthday cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/fireworks-cake.jpgFireworks cake.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/memorial-cake.jpgA Washington DC cake topped with the Jefferson Memorial.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/stars-stripes-stitches-cake.jpgIt’s a quilt. It’s a cake. It’s quilt cake!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/plane-landing-cake.jpgA fighter jet and an eagle landed on the same cake and then there were fireworks, and they all lived happily ever after.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/happy-american-forest-animals-cake.jpgHappy forest animals hate fireworks but love American holidays!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/america-cookies.jpgAmerica cookies!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/join-or-die-cookies.jpgAmerica cookies but for history buffs like Anne!

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 1: Our “Taste of the Fair” Tour, Worst to Best

Part 2: The Year in VHS

Part 4: [coming soon]

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/disney-vhs.jpgRemember when Disney released its movies on home video in those oversized white cases that were incompatible with VHS racks?

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context…

…and once again the most interesting exhibit was hosted in the Harvest Pavilion: “Rewind: A VHS Revival”. Same as last year’s tribute to LP cover art, the curators started with a simple premise — in this case, “Remember movies on videotape? Those were awesome!” — and didn’t tailor everything to Indiana specifically, so much as it hearkened toward ye olde American entertainment monoculture. They assembled a collection of simulated video-rental store shelves, videotape boxes, movie posters, painted recreations of posters and iconic images, a few educational sections about filmmaking, and so on. Their contributors offered some offbeat choices, so it wasn’t all just Spielberg and Star Wars.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/video-shelves.jpgSample video shelves, except nobody bothered to alphabetize them like any real, competent video store would’ve.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/horror-videos.jpgThe Guinness World Record holder for tiniest Blockbuster Video horror section.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/star-trek-vhs.jpgStar Trek‘s syndicated reruns were okay until you could start buying the ones you liked best and watch them again and again and again and again.

Remember when you could only see the most famous movies when cinemas or broadcast networks let you see them? The invention of home video was a revolution in consumer choice and convenience. It broadened access to films of all sizes, pedigrees, and countries of origin. It also contributed to the last few decades’ ongoing cultural fractionalization — now that everyone self-curates at their own paces and caters to their own particularly peculiar preferences, it’s much more challenging nowadays to persuade mainstream audiences to watch the same films at the same time (a few 2026 theatrical success stories notwithstanding).

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/gone-with-the-wind-poster.jpgOnce upon a time, Gone With the Wind was an annual TV event that drew high ratings. Decades after it won awards and became one of the all-time highest-grossing films, its eventual scarcity created demand for years. Now that we can rent it online anytime, nobody cares anymore.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/oz-re-release-poster.jpgThe Wizard of Oz was one of countless beloved films re-released to home video every so often and kept in print “for a limited time only” with a sense of fake urgency.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/police-academy-2-vacation.jpgRemember when there were comedies? And some were for adults but some weren’t just for adults?

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/star-wars-posters.jpgThe largest poster collection on hand: the first six Star Wars films in the correct viewing order.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/wings-of-desire-corner.jpgThe German classic Wings of Desire gets its own corner with a poster and a painting homage. I have the Criterion 4K set.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/poitier-and-whoopi.jpgSidney Poitier and Whoopi Goldberg starred in some of the more topical examples on hand.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/denzel-and-keenan.jpgMore Black Cinema of note: Denzel Washington in Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress and writer/director/star Keenan Ivory Wayans’ A Low Down Dirty Shame.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/the-mask-painting.jpgOther painted subjects included The Mask, whose director Chuck Russell passed away last month.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/hard-boiled-painting.jpgChow Yun-fat IS the Two-Gun Kid IN Hard Boiled! I can’t remember if this or The Killer was my first John Woo film…

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/face-off-painting.jpg…but it definitely wasn’t my last. In his Hollywood years, Woo never topped Face/Off.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bruce-lee-diorama.jpgA large section about martial-arts flicks celebrates Bruce Lee with an entire diorama.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/crow-standee.jpgWith this standee, you too can become The Crow! Hey, others have done worse than you.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/fight-club-soap-logo.jpgI am Jack’s eye-rolls at Film Twitter.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/daniel-day-lewis-painting.jpgAcademy Award Winner Daniel Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/godzilla-live-painting.jpgThis Godzilla, King of the Monsters poster repro was painted live on site, earlier during the fair.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/tank-girl-soundtrack-cover.jpgI’ve never seen Tank Girl or listened to the soundtrack, but maybe I should, judging by some of the names here?

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/adults-only-corner.jpgA nod to adults-only video in the way back (apropos!) failed to pay respects to the old Movie Gallery at Tibbs Avenue and Lafayette Road.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/logans-run-matte.jpgA section about matte backdrops in films included an example from Logan’s Run.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/amy-madigan-and-kevin-costner.jpgThe largest screen in the pavilion played Field of Dreams, starring Academy Award Winners Amy Madigan from Weapons and Kevin Costner from Yellowstone.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/20th-century-fox-logo.jpgRest in peace, best studio ident ever.

…and there was more, more, more. Far as I noticed, they avoided references to Betamax, videodiscs, laserdiscs, DVDs, streaming, and all other high-def formats except for one HD TV looping a trailer for My Fair Lady‘s 2021 4K re-release, which had the most crystal-clear visuals in the whole pavilion.

To be continued!

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/deep-fried-lindor-dubai.jpgCeci n’est pas une corn dog.

It’s that time again! The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context.

Most years, we’re all about the food. Each time our favorite part is the “Taste of the Fair” competition, in which vendors showcase ostensibly new dishes in hopes of enticing foodies and/or impressing attendees who seek more to fair-life than eating the same tenderloin again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) The TotF lineup is announced weeks in advance so everyone can plan their meals and experiments accordingly.

This year’s Taste of the Fair dishes and drinks numbered 39 in all. We sampled twelve such items during our 7-hour stay and walked off several of those cumulative calories around the fairgrounds and inside the exhibit halls, whose contents we’ll cover in subsequent chapters. Prices ranged from $9 to $15, comparable to the average AMC concession stand. The high prices hadn’t improved over last year, but we mitigated the budgetary strain with funds leftover from last weekend’s Fan Expo Chicago that we reallocated here. I wish we could’ve tried more, but we only attended a single day. I’m told the older we get, the less we should be eating, and the less we can eat.

Last year I shared everything we tried in random order. This year we’re back to ranking them against each other just because I’m awake enough to do it tonight, plus I’m annoyed with so many letdowns here. I won’t be surprised if my extended sugar rush runs out before I finish. I’ve divided our results into two separate lists — nine foods and three drinks. Pitting foods against drinks just felt weird. We’ll start with the grub.

9. Deep Fried Lindor Dubai Chocolate Truffles. This was the corn-dog-shaped serving in our lead photo. Batter-fried snack foods can be the best, but not all ideas can achieve the Deep-Fried Oreos platonic ideal. Dubai chocolate might be one of today’s hot fads among some foodies, but the fryers showed Lindor’s tiny, sugary musket balls no mercy. Anne took the first bite; in retaliation, the liquefied truffles spewed out at her, dribbled on her nice holiday shirt, and flooded the dish. That micro-eruption left us with an empty corn dog husk that’d gotten soggy from the inside. Exact same thing happened to us years ago when we tried deep-fried butter once. ONCE.

Speaking of butter…

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/butter-dipped-ice-cream-cone.jpgNo, that isn’t banana or lemon flavor. If only!

8. Butter Dipped Ice Cream Cone. Soft-serve ice cream dipped in hardened chocolate was a scrumptious treat for anyone who ever grew up near a Dairy Queen like I did. Some mad food scientist has invented a new kind of ice cream casing: hardened butter! I love the occasional salty/sweet snacks for their contrast and the way they capture The Duality of Man, but…butter? Like, just butter? There’s a difference between eating the butter pats that came with our school lunches (or was that just me?) and eating a crust made of just butter, as if someone tried to bake a flaky pie crust but a computer glitch deleted the rest of the recipe after the first line.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/chile-lime-smoked-chicken-leg.jpgNot quite “winner winner chicken dinner”, but the sauce is a keeper.

7. Chile Lime Smoked Chicken Leg. We knew we’d need at least a few protein dishes to balance out the sugar smorgasbord. Smoked meats are awesome when treated properly, or well accessorized — in this case, a perky avocado sauce I’d buy in a small jar if I could. Too bad the sauce drowned out all other seasonings, including the “chile” and “lime” selling points. The sauce also didn’t mask the lukewarm dryness of my drumstick. It didn’t help that the cashier failed at communication and they lost Anne’s order for several minutes until someone in charge finally turned around and wondered why she wasn’t going anywhere.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/charlies-mexican-street-corn-pizza.jpgAt last, authentic Mexican pizza like they serve in Italy!

6. Charlie’s Mexican Street Corn Pizza. A tentative first developmental step toward some future entrepreneur creating an eatery called Pizzeria Elotes, this cheesy corn pizza was inoffensive in every sense — texture and flavor were just-okay, not exactly a challenge to the corn-on-the-cob vendors. The lime was a welcome garnish, but the spice level was zero despite the visible tajin flecks. Anne generally avoids spicy foods, so if she’s complaining that your food isn’t spicy enough, it’s possible some practical joker filled your shakers with sawdust.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/junkyard-spam-dog.jpgCall it a Throwback Thursday flashback to that time we visited the Spam Museum.

5. Junkyard Spam Dog. As if “hot dog made of Spam” weren’t daring enough, this normal-sized wiener is loaded with coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, potato chips, barbecue sauce, and sliced jalapeños. After I discarded the peppers (I have to be in the mood), the coleslaw effectively swallowed all the other toppings. And yet I could totally taste the Spam, because nothing stops Spam from being Spam and marching through all other ingredients like the military meat it is.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/smork.jpgPork: the best State Fair meat ever!

4. The S’Mork. This year’s official Taste of the Fair Winner — announced early this very morning before our arrival — is the latest brainstorm from Nitro Hog BBQ, the geniuses behind 2024’s TotF-winning Fried Sugar Biscuit n’ BBQ with Apple Butter Sauce, which is literally The Greatest Taste of the Fair Dish in World History. This year they stuck with their potent salty/sweet foundation — the freshly fried biscuit with sugar coating, their trademark smoked pork, and the optional barbecue sauce — and easily recaptured the glory…except then they went and added a goopy La Brea pile of melting marshmallows and chocolate chips. That lipstick wasn’t quite the right shade for this expertly prepped pig. Making things worse: our plastic forks kept tearing at the flimsy foil under the sandwich and stirring shreds of it into the meat.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/strawberry-delight.jpgStrawberries in sight! Afternoon delight!

3. Strawberry Shortcake. That’s the name on the list, but the menu also called it Strawberry Delight. Anne’s favorite dessert of the day was also the heaviest thing we bought, even outweighing the proteins. Two scoops of ice cream and whipped cream atop, like, two or three pounds of syrupy strawberries with some kind of starchy discs submerged below — shortbread? biscuit? hardtack? — that proved a nifty little treasure-chest of texture once they were unearthed and brought to the surface. The syrup was a little rich for my taste (and I was beyond stuffed by this time), so Anne ate most of it herself. Frankly, I can’t believe she even fell asleep tonight.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/soul-train-egg-rolls.jpgDon’t let the taquito shape fool you.

2. Soul Train Egg Rolls. Now here’s the spice I was looking for: tightly packed dollops of jerk chicken, Caribbean spiced cabbage, rice and cheese in a crunchy shell and served with an optional packet of Thai chili sauce. The spices exceeded Anne’s tolerance threshold, but great things intertwined for me in these small packages.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/vegan-homerun-sliders.jpgBelieve me, I’m as surprised as you are…

1. Vegan HomeRun Sliders. The good folks at Black Leaf Vegan have been offering an alternative to the fair’s traditional farm-animal dominance for at least a good five years or more, but I’ve often failed to reach their faraway northeast-corner spot with any appetite left. This year I made sure to save room and didn’t regret it: I quickly devoured this trio of plant-based patties on faux White Castle buns, topped with slaw, red onions, pickles, some sort of bacon bits (soy?) and copious cheddar sauce (vegan, I assume?). Maybe it made a huge difference that the patties were freshly cooked (though I ended up patiently waiting so long that they apologized and threw in a courtesy drink), but they pulled off a hat trick of perfectly balanced hits of flavor, crunch, and food-group variety. This was the precision creativity we’d hoped to find.

…

…as for the three drinks:

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/great-american-shake.jpgSome folks hope July 4th never ends this year.

3. Great American Shake. Anne was bound and determined to celebrate the American semiquincentennial cheerfully somewhere in this country in 2026, and the fair did not disappoint her. This extra-large dessert was nothing too fancy, and designed more for looks than complexity — they drizzled red and blue syrups into the glass, filled it with a vanilla shake mixed on the spot (not in a broken McDonald’s shake machine) and capped with whipped cream and a tiny flag. It’s worthy competition to the Dairy Barn across the street, though Anne couldn’t tell what kinds of syrups those were and thinks “red” and “blue” might have also been their flavors.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/strawberry-pineapple-twister.jpgI declined the option to add boba for $3 because I am over 25.

2. Strawberry Pineapple Twister. The Twisted Drinks stand outside the Indiana Arts Building is always my last stop before we leave the fairgrounds for the day. They were frazzled and running behind today, but eventually I got my refresher for the rush-hour drive home, filled with chunks of actual strawberry and pineapple. For a change of pace, they offered Splenda instead of sugar — not my favorite artificial sweetener, but the antidote I needed to the rest of the day’s excess.

https://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/raspberry-sweet-tea-slushie.jpgIt looks like milk chocolate or floodwater runoff, but hear me out…

1. Raspberry Sweet Tea Slushie. I’ve never seen all those words in the same clause before. Maybe it was the dehydration talking, or maybe the melange was just that addictive, but with every sip I wanted more more more now now now.

…

…and that’s it for us this year. The State Fair runs through August 23rd, so if you’re reading this early enough and you’re free to head there this weekend, check out the Taste of the Fair master list and form your own action plan. You might love the other options we skipped — say, the numerous alcohol variants, or any dish definable as “the same staple we’ve been selling for decades, but we put a new hat on it.” Your Mileage May Vary.

To be continued!