Boring Baseball

I think I may be starting to understand why so many people find baseball so boring. It's hard to be into a sport where the penultimate competition is completely lopsided and uninteresting. It wouldn't be so bad if that was an occasional occurrence, but the World Series for the last 3 or 4 years has been a death march of 4-0 or 4-1 series victories. I was really hoping that this year would be the year of breaking that trend, but I was disappointed once again. The World Series was a complete waste of my time and completely uninspiring. I didn't even care who won; I just wanted a fun series to watch.

What's even worse is that the playoffs leading up to the big show were equally uninspiring. The only series worth watching was Cleveland and Boston. And the networks wonder why no one tunes in for the baseball playoffs. They're about as exciting as watching paint dry. No amount of Dane Cook and "There's only one October" could salvage the postseason this year. Good riddance 2007.

The Fair is a Veritable Smorgasbord

This weekend Melissa and I went to the North Carolina State Fair. Before this state fair experience, I had been to the Wisconsin State Fair and Melissa had never been to any state fair. As I expected, the fair was for the most part the same fair that is in every state.

Lots of really unhealthy, but really tasty food. And some animals and mullets.

The NC fair, however, was unusual in a few notable ways. First of all, NC is the South. Anytime you do anything in the South, you are bound to encounter all shapes, sizes, and personalities of rednecks. I understand that Illinois and Indiana have their fair share of rednecks, but nothing is quite like a southern redneck. They are beyond accurate description and are only fully appreciated when observed.

The other notable aspect of the NC state fair was the benches and benches full of cured tobacco. I'm not sure if this is peculiar to North Carolina or if it's something peculiar to the South in general, but it was a very new and unusual experience for me. And, if benches full of drying tobacco was not enough for you, the fair generously provided homemade spittoons at the end of each bench. Each seemed to be made from whatever tin can was lying nearby. The friends we were with strongly recommended not picking up a leaf and giving it a chew unless we really wanted quite the buzz. I think I was in too great a state of shock to even process why anyone would want to pick up a leaf and chew on it. Definitely a highlight/favorite story from the fair this year.

I did actually try a fried Snickers this year, and it was better than I expected, but I kind of felt like I was eating a corn dog with powdered sugar on it and melted chocolate inside. Strange.

Carolina BBQ

If anyone ever needs a reason to move to North Carolina, one only needs to look to the savory flavor of an authentic Carolina-styled barbecue. Carolina barbecue is not just your average backyard shindig: it's a full-fledged lifestyle. We have been to several barbecues in the past few weeks, and I have come to the conclusion that nothing beats the aroma and flavor of a nice vinegar-based pig pickin'. There's no need for all that thick and heavy western style barbecue sauce that overwhelms your taste buds and sends them into sugary sweet overload.

A little tang.

A little zest.

A little kick.

There's nothing overwhelming or heavy about North Carolina barbecue sauce. In fact, it's just perfect.

But a vinegar-based sauce??? Slightly sickening perhaps, but only for the uninitiated. What's more disgusting is the amount of pig on my plate. Trust me, there have been studies done about this (in fact, my wife just informed me of a man who traveled around the country on a barbecue quest, only to conclude that Carolina barbecue is in fact the best).

Fortunately, Carolina barbecue, in all its tangy goodness, compensates for North Carolina's many severe shortcomings. But that's another topic for another day.