08/14/1015h. Rested, rehydrated. No Native Companion along to ask embarrassing questions about why the reverential treatment; plenty of time for the Harper’s Bazaar rumor to metastasize: I am primed to hit the Dessert Competitions.
08/14/1025h. Dessert Competitions.
08/14/1315h. Illinois State Fair Infirmary; then motel; then Springfield Memorial Medical Center Emergency Room for distention and possible rupture of transverse colon (false alarm); then motel; incapacitated till well after sunset; whole day a washout; incredibly embarrassing, unprofessional; indescribable. Delete entire day.
— From “Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From It All”, in David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. Covering the Illinois State Fair for Harper’s Magazine, he is mistaken by a group of old ladies for a reporter from Harper’s Bazaar and they take the opportunity to show off their best recipes. This is why I love DFW.
