That's live marimba being played as the crowd parades with its usual and unavoidable slowness. I make a mental note to arrive much earlier if I'm ever going to try to do this again.
Speaking of notes, here's my "Overheard at the Farmers Market" collection:
1. "When are we going to buy stuff? Like, now?" (There's a trance you go into at the Farmers Market, where you keep walking, slowly, with the group and gazing upon the vegetables, but you don't stop and buy anything yet. This person vocalized what I believe everyone is thinking.)
2. "Look! It's the White House!" (The Farmers Market is arrayed around the Wisconsin Capitol Square, which looks like the nation's capitol building, which is white, so, to a kid, he's looking at the White House. Everything merges.)
3. "Do you want your cinnamon roll now? Bailey?" (Why encourage a kid who's running around to focus on downing a pastry? Why name a little girl Bailey?)
That's all I have to say about the Farmers Market — which is often cited first in articles about Madison being the best place to live — other than that I am fully aware that, officially, there's an apostrophe after the "s" in "Farmers," but I just happen to think it looks inelegant.
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Why name a little girl Bailey?
You Are putting a lot of pressure on her.. After all Bailey Quarters was the hot chic on WKRP
That's a LOT to live up to.
"Why name a little girl Bailey?)"
WKRP reruns.
I took my wife there for her first time ever on our road trip last weekend. I remember going decades ago - I would show up, go into some sort of daze, and when I got home and came to, I would for some reason have 12 pounds of green beans and eight jars of honey.
This time I was more or less prepared. Practical purchases only, if fancy popcorn, a triple brownie for the son, and a bag of cheese curds counts as practical.
If you click on my link, you'll see a chart showing the popularity of the girl's name Bailey and it does do a huge spike beginning in the 1970s, so the WKRP guess is probably right. Could also be Bailey's Irish Cream, a drink that was first marketed in the 1970s.
Jan Smithers (who played Bailey Quarters on "WKRP") was a perfect example of how, when producers want a female TV character who's smart and shy, they take a gorgeous actress and make her wear glasses.
I don't think I ever watched that show.
We still had a black and white TV when that came on in the late 70s. Didn't have a color TV until the 80s.
The liquor store, today, was out of Bailey's and any other similar types of liquors.
They also had a very limited supply of vodka.
Worrisome.
at least you have shade. the FM here is mostly sun.
I don't think I have ever once met anyone named Bailey. Of course, there is a long-term major character on "Grey's Anatomy" named Bailey.
Althouse lived in the 1950s until the 1980s.
The WKRP "Turkey" episode remains the best show ever. "I thought turkeys could fly". The cast of WKRP were wonderful.
Farmers markets seem fake to me. Creating an illusion of food from the field, but likely not.
Bailey's Irish Cream? That brings back a 40- or 50-year-old memory. As I recall, the federal government tried to ban the import of the stuff for false advertising, since it contains no trace of cream or any other dairy product. I'm too lazy to look it up, so I don't know if it was just sensible second thoughts, or countermanding orders from higher up, or public ridicule that made them change their mind. Whatever it was, they did eventually admit that no one seeing the bottle on the shelf at a liquor store or in the wine section of a grocery store would ever imagine that the name was anything but a metaphor.
No color TV? My wife and I had a B&W for our first couple of years--late 70s--and then had no TV at all until our son was born in 1986.
Never saw an ep of WKRP, or of many other popular shows.
The female half of the young couple who have moved in next door is named Bailey.
The Farmers Market story reminds me of the old Gallagher bit about women shopping . . . the self-hypnotizing incantation as they wander aimlessly, "I'm Shopping. I'm Shopping."
Baileys Irish Cream does indeed contain (non-metaphorical) cream, and always has. Just for the record, and because I'm a pedant.
I remember going decades ago - I would show up, go into some sort of daze, and when I got home and came to, I would for some reason have 12 pounds of green beans and eight jars of honey.
Going to the grocery store while stoned. I always end up with 4 or 5 packages of Fig Newtons.
Beaneater:
Of course, what was I thinking? It wasn't Bailey's, it was Harvey's Bristol Cream that the feds tried to ban: that has no dairy products whatever, it's just a sweet sherry, 'cream' only metaphorically. It is indeed very smooth.
Personally, I find both way too sweet, and drink only Dry Sack when I drink sherry. Besides being Falstaff's favorite drink, and the fact that each bottle comes in a burlap sack which makes a very comfortable neck pillow when stuffed, it's the only sherry I've tried (not a huge number) that's neither too sweet nor (despite the name) too dry. Any other sherry, one small glass is plenty, but I could easily drink half a bottle of Dry Sack if I didn't know better. When I first realized that, it gave me a deeper insight into Falstaff's character.
Anyway, thanks for the correction.
Around here the same three Asian ladies show up each Sunday, selling bok choy and some weird looking root vegetables. None of that stuff is grown locally, so I don't know who they think they're fooling.
TV stories. My parents had 3 children-all 2 years apart. Then a 4th child but 4 years after. Asked my dad why they waited 4 years instead of 2. He said we could afford another child or get a new TV. He said “we chose the TV!”
As for 1, I hate buying early and seeing equal/better stuff for the same or less...
I haven't been to the Dane County Farmers Market since COVID. I have my own garden, therefore I would always buy the same things - a package of cheese curds, a container of cheese spread (or two or three), and scones. I would always want to get there early in the morning, at least by 7:30 a.m. at the latest and out by 9:30 or 10:00. My kids hated my hours. I dislike trying to walk in crowds.
We go into Des Moines farmer market on Saturday mornings, about twice a year. Good people watching and the prepared hot food is yummy. Des Moines is supposed to be one of the Nations best, but I am not an aficionado.
Sorry to be off topic but thank you for the Bailey reference. As a 16 year old boy in small town Ohio I remember that 1966 Newsweek with Jan Smithers/Bailey and it had a big influence on my life. Remember 2 profiles, that of Jan, the quintessential Beach Boys SoCal girl, and another one of a more cerebral 16 year old girl who probably went to Berkeley later. She introduced me to James Baldwin and I read many of his books within a year. The magazine provided an infusion of new ideas pre internet.
The best farmers market I’ve been to is the Saturday market in Beavertown, Oregon.
Why name a little girl Bailey? The latest greatest girl's name is Harper!
It's the best place bring/display your beneckerchiefed dog.
Baileys Original Irish Cream Liqueur likely begot more retriever dogs named Bailey than all the WKRP replays over 50 years - extremely popular among both Labrador and Golden Retriever owners and presently ranked # 6 among all puppy names.
"Besides being Falstaff's favorite drink..."
Ha, that reminded me of my favorite drink at El Universidad; we got a case of 24 longneck Falstaffs, which after the deposit return, set us back $3.00.
I have a friend who named their daughter Bailey approximately 25 years ago. It struck me then as unusual, but cute.
A "Farmers Market" (no apostrophe) is a market of farmers as opposed to a "Farmer's Market", a market belonging to farmers.
That's my interpretation ... worth exactly what you paid for it.
After hitting "Publish Your Comment" I realized that I shouldn't write comments before finishing my first cup of morning coffee.
We regret the error.
The name that amazes me, is Madison. Last year i went to a high school graduation party (for my friend's daughter), and there were TWO Madisons there. NEITHER, had EVER heard of the movie Splash. It's just a regular girls name now.. No Longer a street sign
WKRP was the last tv comedy series - or any series for that matter - I watched. No topping that one. Ever.
I have gone by a roadside fruit and vegetable stand - very old-time Florida-ish - and seen the same semi delivering their stock that I saw at the corporate supermarket earlier that morning.
Best gambit at farmer's market... cruise a half hour before closing, then make an offer on any desirable stuff. Ask the farmer,"you REALLY want to pack all that stuff up?".
You'll never go back to Bailey's once you've had Metcalfe's Vermont Maple Cream Liqueur.
I'll take "things white people like" for a thousand, Alex.
Presby Poet--I agree with you about the WKRP Turkey episode being the best show ever.
It was a nun who turned me on to Bailey's Irish Cream. The Catholic hospital where I worked had a Christmas luncheon for staff, hosted by the Sisters, and after the meal little chocolate cups were distributed and filled with Bailey's. We raised a toast, drank up, and ate the cups. Then, back to the office.
If the music stops does everyone try to sit down?
I look at all the piles of vegetables, then think about what I actually eat, and remember again why I prefer Whole Foods. I don't need that much. I want to look at all the possibilities at the same time, I want to just pick up what I want (not have a whole quasi-social interaction), and I want to pile it up in a cart with other things I need (like milk and fresh orange juice), and I want to pay in one transaction at the end when I've picked out what I need. If a vegetable is to be part of a dish, I want to be able to get the other ingredients and not just accomplish the first of a series of errands.
Didn't have a color TV until the 80s.
Wow. I thought we were the last family to get one. In 1970, my Dad was still insisting that they weren’t perfected yet, though our neighbors all seemed quite satisfied with theirs.
I buy at Farmers Markets in the Poconos run by Amish people. Just a tent and some folding tables in parking lots of local businesses. The baked goods are amazing. Seasonal fruits, squash and tomatoes are the best but for green stuff, the local supermarkets are superior due to refrigeration and hydration. In Florida I haven't encountered a Farmers Market that wasn't being stocked from the same trucks that go to the supermarket.
In addition to having the best farmer’s market, Beaverton has New Seasons, which is so much better than Whole Foods.
Gadfly: The best girl's name is "Harper"? IS that a reference to harping or Harper Lee? Likely, pathetically slavishly, the latter. How embarrassing. Why not just name her "Tom Robinson"? In the actual novel, Atticus Finch doesn't believe women are competent to vote or be on juries. Is that what you want?
Read harder.
This is my personal favorite overheard comment at the Madison farmers' market. I was walking (counterclockwise) behind two 60ish men (white hair/soft in the middle). I assumed they belonged to the professorial class. One must have realized that his vacation destination choice might appear elitist in Madison. He turned to the other and said, "Well you know, it does snow in Tuscany." Apex humble brag. Well played.
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