Eric on The Road

Journeys into the offbeat, off the beaten path, overlooked and forgotten - by Eric Model

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The People Speak: No Michael Jackson Sculpture in Butter at the Iowa Fair (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

By MONICA DAVEY
Published: July 18, 2009

“We started hearing concerns from the public that he wasn’t an Iowan and didn’t have a connection to the fair,” said Lori Chappell, the fair’s marketing director, explaining why organizers ultimately put the question to a public vote.

No such concerns were raised about Tiger Woods or Harry Potter, previous honorees. And in truth, Ms. Chappell said, the King of Pop and his four brothers did perform at the fair in 1971. But apparently the link was too tenuous (or discomforting) to a majority of those who cast votes last week in the fair’s admittedly “unscientific online poll.”

Butter sculptures — and above all, the butter cow, an icon of the annual Des Moines celebration — have long been integral elements of the 155-year-old fair. The cow, five and a half feet tall, made of 600 pounds of Iowa butter and stored in a 40-degree cooler, was first carved in 1911, though the art form dates back further, fair leaders say, and once involved lard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/us/19butter.html?ref=us

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