At the Fair

Another Southern California summer shades imperceptively into autumn. Pomona,  Roman goddess of fruits and vines, emerges from her slumber, drawn to the Fairplex grounds by the scent of deep-fried avacados, where she mingles with the other ghosts of L.A.'s lost farms for three weeks before returning to her subdivided grave. It's time for that ritual of bygone harvests; that spectacle of mass walking, shopping, gawking, and eating: the Los Angeles County Fair.