What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? This is an open thread.

Students and staff at John Dickinson High School near Wilmington, Delaware built the world’s largest lego tower, standing at nearly 113 feet tall. It’s an impressive structure.

In response to Senator Al Franken’s boasting about the Minnesota State Fair (the country’s largest), Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley did a guest post at Buzzfeed on 18 reasons nothing compares to the Iowa State Fair. By far, my favorite item on his list is the giant yellow slide. He left out the all-time greatest butter sculpture, depicting the Last Supper.

Braley and I have very different taste in Iowa State Fair food. My top two picks are Bauder’s ice cream and lemonade from the Iowa Honey Producers’ booth in the Ag building. I am not a fan of corn dogs or pork chops on a stick, but for meat eaters I would recommend the lamb kebab from the Iowa Sheep Producers kiosk, just outside the sheep barn.

I love these maps showing how Americans feel about different states. Texas, California, and New York evoke the strongest opinions in several categories. Iowa wasn’t tops on any question. We were near the middle of the pack on “Which state is most underrated?” Al Franken might be proud to know that Minnesota outscored us on “Which state is the nicest?” Then again, Minnesota was a top 5 state on “Which state has the weirdest accent?”