Thousands Enjoy Fair’s Attractions

Wearing a cowboy hat and scowl, Shane Kannard pondered the enormity of the living, breathing side of beef before him.

There stood Black Jack, a monstrous, 3,250-pound bull with shoulders taller than some NBA point guards.

“He’s a good-size one,” said Kannard, 25, in classic cowboy understatement during a break from the more festive events at the Orange County Fair on Saturday.

The only steer the Orange resident had ever seen close to that size was about three-quarters as large, Kannard said.

While many visitors to the Orange County Fair petted or gawked at barn animals or climbed aboard the Ferris wheels, carnival games and other rides, others enjoyed the floral exhibits, Alaskan pig races, Pez candy exhibits, wine tasting and educational displays.

Although there was plenty of elbow room, fair officials estimated about 48,000 visitors would walk through the gates on the first Saturday of the event, about the same as last year. By noon, about 8,725 visitors had arrived, topping Friday’s figure, said Diane Sorensen, a county fair official.

Olivia Arnold, 4, of Fountain Valley had a pretty good idea of what she liked and didn’t like. “I wike the wides,” the little girl said, but “I don’t wike the buffawoes. They’re stinky.”

Nine-year-old Nandy Franco of Burbank was game for a trampoline-like device that tossed her 15 feet into the air. Earlier in the day she won a prize--a mirror--by throwing darts. She said she was looking forward to riding the roller coasters. But when she was asked if she would ever try a bungee jump, her answer came quickly: “Nope!”

In the many tents, inventors peddled their products. Sabina Sayegh, a part-time pet nanny for Hollywood types and full-time real estate agent from Burbank, pitched the portable Boot Closet--a wooden contraption to slip your boots into.

“This way you don’t make a lot of clutter in your closet and you can find your boots whenever you want,” Sayegh explained.

Among the other goods being hawked were Floons--rings that let you make flower-like displays with balloons--and the Commuter Bib, for diners on the run.

Still, for Elizabeth Seward, 14, from Temecula, little compared with that gentle giant Black Jack, perhaps not even Hercules the Giant Horse next door.

“He’s a big boy,” Seward said. “Wow.”

* FAIR SCHEDULE: B5