This is bad news: the Fair was without power today. Someone knocked over an electricity pole, and it fell on someone - don't know how badly he was injured. Radio stations went silent; the grills still sizzled if they're run by propane, but cash registers wouldn't open. The Midway was still going, but not all rides are on the Midway. There's that enormous pole by the KSTP building, swinging people waaaay up in the air.
Even someone who wanted to take that ride might have found it disconcerting to be hanging up there upside down for who knows how long. The basic premise, after all, is that this will end at some point. If this ride was affected, my deepest sympathy goes out to the people trapped in the sky. After ten minutes I would have undone my belt and tried to steer my fall into the bouncy cushions by the nearby kiddie-bungie jump.
It reminds you how the Fair is dependent on juice - if this had happened at 11 PM on the Midway, it would have been chaos. Looting! Riots! Or would it? I suspect people have gotten out their cellphones for rudimentary illumination, made a party of it, and worked their way to the exits. And no one would have asked for their money back, either.
Check here for more updates.
