Fair weather packs 'em in

Fair weather boosted Wisconsin State Fair attendance this year.A total of 872,458 fairgoers walked through the turnstiles during the 11-day fair, which ended Sunday night. A year ago, when rain fell on four of the days and sweltering heat drove some away on other days, 801,420 came to the fair, said spokeswoman Patrice Harris.A ticket scam marred the first few days of the fair when more than 4,000 people bought tickets from sellers outside the fairgrounds only to learn the tickets had already been scanned and were not valid. Harris said fair officials plan to discuss this week ways to change ticket handling."That's the last thing we want is people getting ripped off," Harris said.Loads of cream puffs rolled off the assembly lines and into people's mouths, setting daily records on eight of the days. A total of 381,926 cream puffs were purchased, compared with 355,173 last year.The Wisconsin Dairy Producers sold 48,582 grilled cheese sandwiches, the Wisconsin Pork Producers sold 46,967 pork sandwiches and the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers sold 4,235 bags of maple flavored cotton candy. Also, 60,000 baked potatoes were consumed, more than 18,000 lemons were used to make lemonade and the Giant Slide set a single day record of 15,500 rides.