Having a great time in Des Moines. My hosts took me out to the State Fair last night. It was about 80 degrees and sticky, and jam-packed with people. There was live country music playing on several stages across the grounds, and cicadas chirping in the trees. I saw a 1999 (correction: 1199) pound pig, who sat there with his face in his food dish. Giant ears of corn. Prize-winning peppers and tomatoes and melons. And a huge cow made entirely out of butter (I am not kidding: it's like an ice sculpture, except they carved it out of butter). We ate rib-eye steak sandwiches and cole slaw that was out of this world. More later . . .