No joke one of my favorite days of the economic year because the Fed came out with the Beige Book today — its eight-times-a-year regional breakdown of the U.S. economy.

Here, courtesy of the Real Time Economics blog at Wall Street Journal, are some of the highlights.

From the Boston Fed this quote:

“A manufacturer of frozen fish reports weak retail sales in the second quarter attributed partly to unseasonably warm weather which led people to eat out more.”

From Minneapolis Fed: 

“Minot, ND, saw renewal of a shopping center in spite of slowed activity in nearby oil fields.”

A casino in South Dakota, though, saw a drop in traffic. 

C’mon, fascinating!