Artsy and Not So Artsy

This afternoon we went to the Spring Green Arts and Crafts Fair. The Spring Green area, south and west of here, was settled by Welsh -- Yay, Wales! Y ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn!* -- English, Norwegian and German immigrants. Their early industries were dairy and produce farms, lumbering and cheese making. Newcomers included many artists and craftspeople, producing a wealth of rustic furniture, pottery, jewelry, handmade paper, and other decorative arts. It is famous for Taliesen, a Frank Lloyd Wright school and home -- an architectural landmark -- as well as the House on the Rock -- an architectural tourist attraction and nightmare. The fair is a big deal with about 200 exhibitors. Some very nice things -- a few sculptures in the $3,000 to $6,000 range. Tom spent ten bucks on a purple cow painting. He asked where I thought we should put it, and I said, "Your room." The lady who sold it to him laughed big.

From there we went on to -- wait for it, wait for it! -- the roller derby in Madison. Lucy works for a labor union in Chicago, but she was always pretty athletic. She ran track at the state level and was a Golden Gloves boxer. She participates in bicycle races and got into roller derby a couple of years ago. So she wanted everyone to go with her to a match between the Madison Dairyland Dolls and the Hotrod Honeys from Austin. What can I say? To quote the advance publicity:

This will mark the second time these two teams go skate-to-skate. Last summer, the confident Honeys invited the Dairyland Dolls to come play in Texas, and the Dolls showed all of Texas what ‘play’ really means, soundly skating away with a 52-38 victory.

That taught the Honeys a valuable lesson, and now they realize that the strong, fast ladies from the dairy state are not to be trifled with. The Honeys want to get even, but your Dairyland Dolls won’t just give it away – they’ve built a roster of some of the finest members of the Mad Rollin’ Dolls’ home teams, and they’re out to see if Texans really bleed red, white, and blue.

The results? The Dolls beat the Honeys 101 to 92. Lucy says it was a pretty bloodless battle, and only one participant was carried off with a broken arm. As I told Helen, it's a subculture -- but it's not my subculture.
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*The Welsh slogan above means (approximately) "The Red Dragon Inspires", in reference to the dragon on the Welsh flag, ancient symbol of the homeland of the Dodds.