Then there was a big pig on the highway, and a big chair that was passed by that was separate from the one in your vehicle:
The Bacon Bash festival was located in River Falls, since its now mid-September, but the greasy droplets of its presence were all over the area. A truck for a local food company was seen with a three-foot-wide pair of eagles wings adorning its back window, with a different creature positioned in the middle. You guessed it, a pig. And the following could be from that old school CD, “Songs from the big chair.” On a sidewalk not far away, a big easy chair was positioned for pickup by anyone who would want it, saying “Big Guys” about where your neck would go. Is that a reference to Big Guys Roadhouse BBQ, which also is nearby? After all, one of its proprietors, by the name of Jethro, is not lacking for girth, (he’s more than just a little wide shouldered). Synergy there?
— When in River Falls, for All Things Bacon, you’ll see a small banner for the music group The Upper Cuts pasted just below a street-corner “walk” signal at a height about the same as a basketball hoop. It is a similar distance to the front door of Maverick’s Corner Saloon, which often has live music, including the aforementioned group, and I’m sure many people checked them out during the fest.
— Another band that plays locally, Bones Gang, (like those bones on ribs?), has a comparison to Bacon Bash concerning its music on its web site, although it may not be intentional. “Awesome. (Like being) dipped in awesome-covered bacon. Bacon even makes awesome more awesome.” Could be very presidential, just like Bacon Bash.
— It is a new school year, which brings to mind one of the educators at a local Catholic school. During a welcoming potluck a year or so ago, she told me that — breaking from form — she’d held a job when around college age as a bartender at a biker bar. She said that the cyclists were actually quite nice to serve, even on the rare occasion if someone like herself got the change wrong. Fear God, not the bikers.
— Getting the change wrong? Nickelback, a “rock group,” as the St. Paul Pioneer Press reviewer so vaguely referred to them in his report that — as is typical of him — was nothing more than a recycled press release, played the state fair recently. That may or may not be important to the fact that I bought a six-pack the other day that came to a total of $5.05, and I didn’t have the nickel in addition to my five-spot and bigger bills. This is something that has happened before, even though as a relatively-poor-ink-stained-wretch freelance writer I don’t generally have those twenties and higher. So my joke for the clerk as your favorite punster? I don’t have the nickel back.
— A foursome of women who were at Dick’s Bar and Grill, celebrating something or another, were all wearing sombrero-style hats that were about two inches wide, about the same size as the magarita-salt plastic containers on the other side of the bar. The Jimmy Buffett tribute musician who plays there frequently would probably expand that girth to three inches. The whole scenario reminds me of an old Far Side cartoon, which I’d love to describe, but wouldn’t convey without you seeing it. In any case, I hope the quartet had as much fun as Buffett typically does, and not Warren Buffett, as he gave most of it away.
— At the Village Inn’s party to celebrate their 12th anniversary under current ownership, there were four people needed to carry in the main raffle prize, a big TV. Similarly, as Mallard’s in Bayport marked their anniversary of existance, a favorable online commentator was named of all things, Bonnie Clum. With that kind of star power, things must be just ducky!