Cultural References
The Illinois State Fair played a key role in the popularization of the corn dog, starting in 1946.
The fair has long been noted for its annual butter cow, a life-size animal formed of pure butter applied to an armature by a sculptor wielding an oversized palette knife. Among the butter cow's more ironic admirers was author David Foster Wallace, who covered the 1993 Illinois State Fair for Harper's; his report on the yellow bovine, and other Fair sights, is reprinted in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (1997).
The Illinois State Fair was featured on the NBC-TV show The Great American Road Trip in July 2009.
Read more about this topic: Illinois State Fair
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the sources of cultural attitudes and values.... Because myth anchors the present in the past it is a sociological charter for a future society which is an exact replica of the present one.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)