The Minnesota State Fair can be a bit overwhelming without a plan. You wander about in a daze, caught between conflicting but equally appealing urges to stare at a butter sculpture or get your photo taken with newspeople at the WCCO booth, and, in the end, you do less than you had wanted to.

MinnPost photo by Max Sparber

Max with Mark Rosen and Amelia Santaniello.

It helps to have a plan. Let's say you decide that you're just going to spend the day trying out new food, as I did yesterday. Suddenly, there is great clarity, the same way you know precisely what you're supposed to do when playing a video game. You move about the fairground, completing missions, and distractions fall away. Suddenly, you don't notice the crowds, or the flashing lights of attractions, or Amelia Santaniello. You should get badges for completing things, like those they offer on FourSquare, or at the end of Super Mario Brothers.

And so, below, you'll find an infographic of the food I ate, and what I thought of it. And I am proud to say that I only got distracted once, as the photo below shows.

(PDF Here)

Click on chart to enlarge

Click on chart to enlarge