Garrison Keillor: ...after this message from the Ketchup Advisory Board. (PIANO)
Tim Russell: These are the good years for Barb and me. We took that road trip to the Grand Canyon like we always meant to and now we're glad we did because on the way back, gas prices got so high that we had to abandon our car in South Dakota and bike the rest of the way home. It was great. We each lost ten pounds apiece and got in terrific shape so now we can come to the State Fair and enjoy all the corn dogs we want. I stood in line for thirty minutes for a deep-fried Twinkie and when I got back, I found Barb sitting on a bench by the Horticulture building, weeping into a hankie. Barb-what's wrong? I thought you were having fun.
Sue Scott: I was, Jim. And then I thought about how in two days the Fair will be all over and the rides will be gone and the buildings boarded up and the fairgrounds empty and nothing here but scraps of paper blowing over the trampled grass.
TR: Barb -- you're getting in one of those moods again.
SS: A brief day of excitement and bright lights and then it's just a vacant lot -- the Fair is only a cruel illusion of happiness, and then we return to our dreary lives --
TR: I thought you liked our dreary life, Barb--
SS: Summer is over, Jim. The leaves are dying, the grass -- one day we're sitting in the backyard on a chaise lounge and the next day we're scraping ice off the windshield with a credit card.
TR: Barb -- I couldn't help but notice that those two Pronto Pups you ate -- you put mustard on both of them.
SS: Yes? And so what?
TR: Barb, ketchup is also available. And ketchup has natural mellowing agents that help you overcome your sense of impending doom and learn to be thankful for life's little cheerful moments.
SS: You're right, Jim. I guess I'm just not getting enough ketchup.
Rich Dworsky (SINGS):
These are the good years, too wonderful for words.
The soft breezes blowing, the singing of the birds,
Life is flowing
Like ketchup on cheese curds
GK: Ketchup, for the good times.
RD: Ketchup, ketchup