A Different Kind of Horse Power for KY

So, yesterday Lou reported on Greater Louisville Inc.'s mission to convince the American Craft Council to move to Loueyville. (Write those letters of support, kiddos!) Lou + Louisville + Arts and Crafts = makes sense.

But today our own Gov. Steve announced his intentions to romance another organization to our fair state, and Lou is equally excited but for entirely different reasons.

Lou + Kentucky + NASCAR = wha?

Yeah, I know. If you know Lou, you know that she's hardly a NASCAR kinda gal, although she did used to spend quality time in her late teens/early twenties at a Speedbowl in SE CT-- but that was mostly because they didn't check ID's and had cheapo beer. (Some things never change.)

Anyway, today Gov. Steve had a big ol' press conference to announce his intentions to try to woo NASCAR into bringing it's Sprint Cup to the Kentucky Speedway. According to the press release:

“The impact of a NASCAR Sprint Series Cup race for Kentucky is undeniable,” Gov. Beshear said. “NASCAR is the number one spectator sport in the United States and is broadcast in more than 150 countries and 30 languages. I’m excited about the potential of Kentucky joining these ranks.”

There was also all kinds of government-y muckety-yuck said about tax credits and expansions and blah blah. I don't really care about that stuff. And I don't really care about NASCAR.

Here's what I care about: I have this really cool nephew who lives across the river, and he just eats NASCAR up with a spoon. He's seven years old and knows more about NASCAR crap than I know about most of the stuff that I care about. (Ditto with the WWE, but I just can't get behind that.) And this kid-- who isn't really my nephew, he's Roommate's nephew, but I've known him since he was one, and he calls me "Aunt Mimi"-- has a really pernicious disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). He's probably confined to a wheelchair/scooter for the rest of his life, and the common cold could have deadly consequences for him, and he's spent way, way, way too much damned time in a hospital for a little kid. And yet he's as ebullient and cheerful as any other seven year old-- maybe more so.

You've got to love a kid like that. And you've got to want that kid to be as happy as-fricking-possible. And if the Sprint Cup came to Kentucky, I personally would do everything in my power to make sure he got a ticket, and little man would be loopy with glee.

So you go, Gov. Steve. Bring that puppy to KY. I will be first in line to get tickets. (Sure, I'll probably bring earplugs and a book, but it would be worth it just to see the look on my nephew's face.)