Son of Barnival!

This is your last day to attend the Lake County Fair. By all accounts the Fair - iteration #2 at the new location -- was a qualified success. At least this year the LakeCountyEye Low-Speed-Vehicle was not marooned in the mud, requiring some help of blue-ribbon winning livestock to be made roadworthy again. No image available, however the PlainfieldSun has the background story ...

Man claims dealer made cart illegal on streets

As reported here, your LakeCountyEye was invited to live-blog the Fair ...

Barnival!

However, as things turned out, your LakeCountyEye will not be live-blogging the Fair, either on this blog or any other.

Your LakeCountyEye was on-hand at the Fairgrounds to live-blog 560 WIND-AM's meet-the-candidate stump-fest, scheduled at 5 am last Friday. Full disclosure: at that time of the night you are more apt to find your LakeCountyEye preparing to hit the hay, than setting up computer equipment. Long story short, at 5am don't be surprised to find your LakeCountyEye attempting to plug a USB cable into an available Firewire port. With an expected result of total-lights-out.

Power was fully restored within the hour, but not before the WIND candidate show was cancelled. The whole sad story is recounted by the News-Sun ...

'Barney' comes alive at candidates show

The day was saved with an impromptu performance of your LakeCountyEye's hilarious imitation of a bumbling Lake County Sheriff's deputy. As of yet, however, your LakeCountyEye has not been invited to cover Lake County Fair 2011.

Barnival!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; then there are celebrity impersonators. Operatives may have been flattergasted to learn from the News-Sun that your LakeCountyEye will be patrolling the Lake County Fair.

'Barney' to patrol fairgrounds

While it is true there will be a celebrity Barney at next week's County Fair, the celebrity will not be this blog's very own Barney Baxter. In an exclusive to this publication, your LakeCountyEye can report with a high degree of certainty that Mr Baxter had been contacted by Lake County Fair organizers with an offer to cover the Fair live. It was to have been promoted as the LakeCountyEye keeps an eye on the Lake County Fair. And a deal might have been struck. However negotiations faltered when it became clear that when Mr Baxter agreed to cover the Fair, Mr Baxter meant he would live-blog the Fair from his basement. That stipulation in particular proved to be the deal-breaker.

Given the abundance of corndogs & fried cheesecakes & cotton candy slushies, plus bad music and a dress code that tops out at tank tops & shorts, a County fair is essentially an open air blogger's basement. And Mr Baxter may have been better advised to rethink his truculence.

But your LakeCountyEye digresses. Long story short, Fair organizers hired a Barney celebrity impersonator, no doubt at a steep discount to themselves. Although in all honesty, your LakeCountyEye believes Fair organizers got the rump end of that deal.

Celebrity Impersonator or Maalox Moment?
Ersatz Barney Baxter	Barney Baxter

Personally your LakeCountyEye thinks he looks more like Jim Carrey.

The Lake County Fair is Jul 27 thru Aug 1 -- 8am thru 11pm -- at the corner of Peterson & Midlothian in Grayslake. Operatives are encouraged to attend and say hello to Barney's doppelganger. This may not be the genuine article -- but half a loafer is better than none.