Running's More Fun with Tobacco

Source from:  by Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet July 9, 2008 07/11/2008

Jeff Boone at The Beat Coffeehouse just alerted me to an unmissable event coming up next weekend south of Madison in Edgerton, Wisconsin: Tobacco Heritage Days, an annual festival celebrating the history of a city that was once called (by someone, sometime) "the tobacco capital of the world." Arts Orbit is a multisource blog about the local arts scene, featuring both original contributions by Daily Planet writers and entries reprinted from partner blogs and online publications. Entertainment on the Miller Lite Music Stage (one good vice deserves another) features performances by, among other acts, Bad Medicine: "Wisconsin's #1 Bon Jovi tribute band," formed in response to "an increasing hunger and demand for all things Jovi." The weekend-long event also includes the usual constellation of rural festival fun-a horseshoe tourney, a petting zoo, a pie-eating contest, a dunk tank, cow bingo, and a mailbox improvement contest. Head-scratchingly, though, the event also includes a significant number of athletic events: a softball tournament, an ax throw (if dart-throwing counts as a sport, surely so does ax-throwing), and-wait for it-a fun run. Reports from previous years suggest that yes, many participants do indeed smoke as they run. It's only fitting: why worry about the future when you've got a heritage? Enditem