State Fair Reds

On Friday I went to the Minnesota State Fair, with my trusty Tefillin in one hand and a couple of hamburgers for lunch in the other. We chanced upon the GOP booth, and after getting my Norm Coleman campaign button I began to chat with an elderly volunteer. She told me about he son-in-law who's convinced he's Jewish, and her daughter who's a good Catholic, pushing out babies every couple of years and supporting her family to boot. I asked the volunteer if her son-in-law's mother was Jewish? Turns out that they're good Episcopalians. I told her that she should tell her son-in-law to visit a Rabbi in Tucson, where he lives, and get this whole thing cleared up.
After watching a pig give birth it was time for lunch, and the hamburgers were quite good. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring any mustard, but I survived the experience. I'm sure that you're all quite proud of me.
One of the great things about the State Fair is all the free shtuff you can get. Sure, it's nothing too exciting, but it's always nice to come away with thirty free pencils, fifteen yard sticks, innumerable fans, and a toy football or cup sleeve. One year we even got free t-shirts from the local communist paper! The best place for consistently excellent freebies is the education building, where all the local universities try to get you with various thingies. This year it seemed like everyone at the fair had a purple tote (decent quality too) from St. Thomas University in S. Paul. I assume that these promotions are a bit expensive, but the exposure that is gained is tremendous.
Anyway, this year was a bit shvach, because I spent most of my time with my nieces and very little of it finding shtuff.
While in the education building I came upon the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) booth while pushing one of my nieces. I assumed that the elderly gentleman who was volunteering there was Jewish, and I went over and asked him if he wanted to put on Tefillin. He said that he didn't, and that he didn't even put them on by his Bar Mitzvah. He seemed to sense that he was being a bit harsh, and realized that he was after all supposed to be representing Jewish Relations. We began to chat, his name is Yaakov, and he told me that the booth is taken over by Christians on Friday afternoons and on Saturdays, which is nice.

Last night I discussed this with some Rabbi-type people at a Shalom Zochor here in beautiful S. Paul. First of all, I must point out, a big Mazel Tov to the Weiss and Knoblauch families, who happen to be related (R. W. and Mrs. K. are brother and sister), which made the double Shalom Zochor so much easier for everyone. My only slight quibble was that it's perhaps a little unfortunate that a town which sees one Shalom Zochor every six months or so, if that, got two in one week. Still, I'm not complaining, and the garbanzo beans made the usual fine finger food.
Getting back to the aborted Tefillin attempt, it seems that my efforts were appreciated, if not applauded. People seem to think that everyone is capable of slapping Tefillin on reluctant arms, and that the recipients of such gestures will think it an endearing and uplifting experience. I'm not denying that some people do this quite well; Rabbi Feller here and Rabbi Samuels in Milwaukee come to mind, but not everyone is cut out for this role. Well, maybe they should be. I don't know.