101 Reasons Why I Love World's Fairs

I've been doing a bit of organizing/purging lately, and I came across this gem this evening. It's a list titled "101 Reasons Why I Love Worlds Fairs" from around 2006, I believe. I only made it to 21, but I bet I could come up with another 80 easy.

1. because Pabst Blue Ribbon was voted number one beer at the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 (that's why it's got the "blue ribbon" tacked onto the end)

2. because Mr. George Washing Gale Ferris in 1983 drew up some plans for a long wheel with carts that would carry people in a circle midair as a structure [the Ferris Wheel] to one up Paris for their massive Eiffel Tower from 4 years earlier

3. because that first Ferris Wheel carried 60 people in each 36 cars

4. because they said the belly dancers from Egypt had "educated muscles"

5. because Frederick Law Olmsted, the dude who dreamed up Central Park, took the temporary fair grounds in Chicago just as seriously as he took the permanent Central Park

6. because it gave Robert Moses just one more venue to exercise his power

7. because the Unisphere looks massively out of place in front of the Queens Museum of Art

8. because It's A Small World was at the '64 fair before it moved to the newly constructed Walt Disney World

9. because Walt Disney's dad worked at the 1893 Fair

10. because without them, we wouldn't have Epcot center (which is where I tried sushi for the first time)

11. because the panorama of NYC for the '64 fair is the only thing in the world that puts a city into perspective

12. because they were always loosing money, despite rising admission costs

13. because it transformed Chicago from a city of crime to a city of prime

14. because they were considered the "it" place to go, much like Disney World is today

15. because it shows that people were once excited and nervous about new technologies, not blase like they are today

16. because the world thought it was necessary to spend so much time and energy on creating temporary structures

17. because they were open to everyone

18. because they were an early use of marketing (ie only allowing Kodak cameras and fining anyone who used a camera other than Kodak while at the fair)

19. because each fair tried to outdo the one before it

20. because they were models for contemporary trade shows

21. because it was fun for all ages