I really like your paper…a lot. My day always improves when I find a new edition waiting for me in the vending machine alcove of the Brotherhood, where I spend decidedly too much time and money, but that’s for a different letter.
Now to my purpose. I am compelled to point out a small but not insubstantial error in your July 28, 2010 issue. In the endnote to your editorial about Lakefair, at least one publisher admits to, among other things, “…loving the fireworks and the smell of the fairway”.
By “fairway,” I realize you do not mean the well-groomed stretch of grass between the tees and the greens of most golf courses. And while “fairway” may also refer to any navigable path or space, I believe the crafty word that eluded you this time is “midway,” the area at a fair devoted to sideshows, games, and other entertainment. This usage of “midway” originates, like George Ferris’s wheel, from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, at which the mile-long park named Midway Plaisance, served as the fair’s amusement hub. Ferris wheels have ever since loomed over carnival midways, including the fine smelling midway of our Lakefair.
It is only because of your obvious appreciation of language that I bring this to your attention. Keep up the great work. I look forward to finding more new issues of OPL in the alcove and spending money at your generous sponsors.
- Jim Mayfield
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