Louisville's Long Lost Sibling

The results have been tallied, and Louisville has been announced as the winner of Bushmills' "Twin City in America" contest!

According to today's Business First: "Bushmills chose Louisville because the city celebrates its history and heritage with festivals like Octoberfest, Irish Fest and Worldfest, and by giving its neighborhoods names like Germantown and Irish Hill. Louisville also demonstrates its craftsmanship by producing bourbon and Louisville Slugger bats and its hospitality by welcoming thousands for the Kentucky Derby every year, the company said."

Louisville is the proud recipient of not only a twin that she never knew she had but also a big, happy $40,000 check, "which must be used for preservation and advancement of the city's traditions and culture, and for programs that promote responsible drinking."

As Bushmills' contest was meant to celebrate it's 400th anniversary, if Louisville is Bushmills' twin ,that means Louisville, purported to be a mere 230 years old, has some serious 'splaining to do about those lost 170 years. That's a lot of fuzzy nights after one too many at Ye Olde Taproom or something.

Once you go Woolly, you never go back...

An unscrupulous co-worker recently introduced me to the ludicrously addictive canceled television series Veronica Mars.

Oh my gosh, she's so cute! She's so Nancy Drew! She's so hardcore! Kristen Bell can fake cry like nobody's business! That Logan... so dastardly, so kind of homely, but so oddly hubba hubba. Who killed Lilly? OMG, HE killed Lilly! That's good. I hated him! Keith Mars is, like, the best dad in the world. Back Up makes me want to buy a pit bull. My high school experience was just like Veronica's, but without the PI stuff, the high drama, the rich friends, the hot boyfriends, the great wardrobe, the perfect hair, the proximity to tropical beaches, and the convertible. Basically I was a misunderstood, outsider smart chick. I was blonde. My Wallace was an Italian boy who was also good at basketball. And my principal hated me. Ummm... yeah, that kind of wraps up the similarities. But still...

So, I mainlined Season One in a matter of days, but my co-worker/dealer connection ended there. Season One ends with VM opening the door to her apartment after the worst night of her life, busting a huge smile, and saying, "I was hoping it was you...." Who? Logan? Wallace? Eli? Please not icky Duncan!! Obviously, to quell my VM DTs, I had to get me a Season Two fix ASAP.

I'm a big fan of buying local, but I have to admit that even though just about everything points to me renting local when it comes to DVDs, I've always been sucked into the convenience of Ye Olde Blockbuster. And today was no different. It was pouring rain, and I knew that Blockbuster was a good zip-in/zip-out option. And so I hit the Big Blue Box renter after work to pick up my drug of choice.

But no dice! While Blockbuster had a whole wall full of Losts and Sopranos, there was not a VM to be had. So I bit the bullet and hopped in the ol' jalopy and drove over to the store that I should have gone to in the first place: Wild and Woolly Video on Bardstown Road.

This experience at W&W has clinched the deal. Inconvenience aside, everything else about W&W is so far superior to Blockbuster that I can't believe it took me this long to convert. The bitch is the lack of parking, and on a day like today it was a rather miserable walk in the rain to get there.

First of all, the collection at W&W has to rival the collections at some of the best DVD stores in the country. It's massive, expertly catalogued, and wildly diverse. It never crossed my mind that they wouldn't have my VM; I was only worried that it might be checked out.

Recently, I've once again become a big fan of TV. And watching TV on DVD is the way to go. The second, and probably biggest, selling point for W&W is that, unlike Blockbuster who rents TV DVDs by the individual DVD, at W&W when you rent a TV DVD, you get the whole season for one price. At Blockbuster, it would have cost me around $24 to rent the 6 DVDs for Veronica Mars' Season Two. At Wild and Woolly, I got the whole shebang for a mere $4.65!

But wait! That's not all...

Wednesday night is "Ladies' Night" and all ladies get their DVDs rent one, get one free. So I got a whopping SEVEN DVDs (and the promise of a week that's going to turn my eyeballs square) for just under $5. You can't beat that with a stick, my friends.

So, open the door, Veronica. I'm just warning you, if it's Duncan you've been hoping for, I may just skip it. After all, I only spent $5.

Louisville: Many Green Miles

Prevention Magazine has released its list of the 100 most walkable cities in the US. While Louisville didn't make the top 100, it was cited as #3 on the list of "greatest number of parks per square mile."

Kentuckiana Cluster All-Breed Dog Show 2008: Bitches, man! Bitches.*

There is a place where dapper gentlemen dressed in suits and ties stand around and talk openly about their bitches. And it isn’t the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel. The 2008 Kentuckiana Cluster All-Breed Dog Show featured thousands of dogs from May 15-18 at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center.

Of course, I went expecting to be transported to the Mayflower (yes) Dog Show from the 2000 Christopher Guest movie, Best in Show. And while the Kentuckiana Show lacks the pomp and spectacle of the show in the movie, for the most part the movie was dead on. There were the strung-out Parker Posey types and the flamboyant Michael McKeans. The second judging group I caught was the terrier group, so I couldn’t get “God Loves a Terrier” out of my head. But, truth be told, the show just wasn’t as fun or funny without Fred Willard’s commentating.

Some observations:

There’s a lot of dog-butt touching going on at dog shows. Apparently the appearance of a dog’s tail is of great significance in judging a dog, so the handlers spend a lot of brushing, stroking, and tweaking dog butt. It can be obscene and strangely intimate. At times I had to avert my eyes.

For a small dog, the tail does double-duty and serves as a handle. In order to place the dog on the judging table, handlers lift the dog by the neck and tail. I assume that this is to prevent squishing the dog’s fur. I know that it is okay lift a cat by the scruff of its neck, but it still makes me uncomfortable to watch. Likewise this means of lifting the dog.

Yes, those over-groomed poodles with the Cher hair and the hip pom-poms fair well at dog shows. I watched a white standard poodle won the Non-Working group (as she—Lord, I hope it was a “she” dog—walked by the “Non-Working" sign in the ring, my inner bitch said, “Non-Working? No shit.”). I cannot begin to describe the archness of this dog’s ugliness. Not only was she shaved to her grey-ish skin over most of her body, but her face appeared botoxed. And yet, the crowd loved her.

Dog shows smell like dogs. I don't know why this should have surprised me. I guess I assumed that with all the grooming and blow-drying and whatnot, they'd somehow wash the dog stink away. But I guess when you have hundreds of dogs under the same roof pooing and peeing, you're pretty much stuck with the dog stink. I just hope that the next expo booked in the hall isn't a flower show.

The 2007 Kentuckiana Cluster All-Breed Dog Show was named the 2007 Show of the Year by the AKC, so I guess what we have going on here is good stuff. In this dog show newbie's opinion, though, the show seemed slow and a bit anti-climatic. One way to perk things up a little (besides hiring Fred Willard) would be to mic the judging; that way in addition to the shameless poking and proding, viewers could be treated to choice comments like, "This bitch has a nice butt."

*Big love to anyone who recognizes the title as a quote from the endlessly quotable movie Say Anything.

Bushmills Twin City Vote

Bushmills, Northern Ireland is looking for it's twin city in the US. Sponsored by Bushmills Whisky, the contest has been narrowed to Louisville, Boston, and Portland, ME. And we're losing badly right now at just 14% of the vote.

Vote now at http://www.bushmills.com/. The competition ends on St. Patricks Day. By voting you're also entered to win a 3-day (yeesh, so short) trip to Ireland.

Boston has a strong lead, but we're trailing Maine by 10%. Doesn't Boston have enough drinking/Ireland-related cache?

IU Charity Case?

I'm only a casual fan of college basketball and Indiana University is not high on my list of favorite teams, so the news that Kelvin Sampson has accepted a buyout from IU doesn't rattle me much. What does rattle me, though, is the fact that $500,000 of the $750,000 buyout has come from an anonymous donor.

I appreciate that Sampson's anonymous donor must have had IU's best interest in mind. But seriously? A college basketball coach-- a creep, at that-- is a charity case worthy of someone's $500,000?

In the same section of the Courier Journal that reports on the buyout is a plaintive letter from Victoria Dempsey of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. They're $214,000 short in their budget. Interesting and sad.

Memory Lane Food: decades of sating the rumble down under

I imagine that deep in the woods of the Smoky Mountains all the hibernating bears are thinking about the same thing that this urban hibernator is thinking about: food. Too cold to explore the city, too grouchy to socialize, we're stuck dwelling on one activity that requires minimal exertion and no engagement whatsoever.

Lou recently got back from a too-short visit to St. Petersberg, Florida. Once upon a time, I spent a couple of years living across the bay in Tampa. Next to visiting with friends and generally defrosting, I had a single driving mission: have a meal at the historic Columbia Restaurant.

And it got me thinking, if I were to leave Louisville tomorrow, what food would I miss the most?

But let's take a trip back in the ol' Lou Time Machine and visit some of the past hometown foods I miss most.

We'll skip over the baby days. Let's face it, nostalgia alone renders the homecooked meals of my family far superior than anything we ever ate at restaurants. I'm a sucker for New England Clam Chowder, but no one will ever make it better than my G-pa. I love me some red meat, but my grandmother's grilled steak tips still cause me to put the pedal to the metal in anticipation as I drive to her house. My other grandmother made a kicking Vineyard Herbed Chicken; I have the recipe, but it's never as good. My aunt's Edna's Pot Roast-- she's not Edna; I don't know who Edna is-- and her Yorkshire Pudding... hubba hubba. Ma wasn't much of a cook, although she's gotten better as she's aged; I still make her lasagna and stuffed peppers.

Anyway, first stop NYC. It's been more than a decade since my college days, and some of my favorite joints may be defunct. I haven't been to the city since 2000, so I haven't had a chance to check it out. Let's see what a little web-diddling can produce.

• Distaster in the first click! The West End Gate on Broadway near Columbia closed in April 2006. Opened in 1911, haunt of the Beat generation and members of the Weather Underground, and the site of many a Columbia student's first underaged drink in a bar, the West End also had a killer grilled chicken salad with blanched broccoli. I don't ever think I ate anything else there, and believe me, I ate (and drank) there often.


• Strike Two: there's no listing online for Cafe 112, the pseudo Italian restaurant on 112th and Broadway that offered a cheese raviolli with alfredo sauce, ham, onions, and peas. Again, I don't think I ever ate anything else there. (I'm that kind of diner, by the way. Loyal to dishes.)


• Thank goodness! I finally found a mainstay of my New York City diet that is still in business. Yaffa Cafe on St. Mark's Avenue between 1st and A. And, bless their hearts, they still have the Avacado Melt-- simply an avacado with your choice of melted cheese (muenster!) and a side salad with tahini dressing for (now) only $6.95. The homefries there were also memorable.


• I'm on a roll-- clearly the East Village hangs on to its haunts-- Dojo also on St. Marks near 2nd Avenue. You don't often see burgers served on pita bread. It came with a side salad with tahini dressing (I still have a thing for tahini dressing), and I used to stuff the whole salad into the pita with the burger. Still a deal for $5.95.


• How crazy is this: by my senior year, I was going to Ollie's Noodle Shop at least twice a week for dinner. I have still never had steamed vegetable dumplings that good. But my meal of choice from this noodle restaurant (and-- GASP-- no longer on the menu??!!): Spaghetti. Hey, it's noodles.

Of course, there were other places that tickled my tummy or served as a home away from home. Most notably: the Hungarian Pastry Shop on Amsterdam between 110 & 111. I think I owe them rent for all the many hours I spent there during my four years of college. There was a Chinese restaurant on Amsterdam called the College Inn which had decent food but became a regular date place because the food came with free, cheap white wine. It didn't matter if you were 12, they'd serve you-- and serve you, and serve you, and serve you.

Leaving on a jet plane for Tampa, Florida.

• It's kind of interesting that my all-time most-missed food is a salad, the 1905 Salad at the Columbia Restaurant. Over the past few years, friends from Tampa or friends that have visited Tampa have made it a routine to gift me with a few bottles of the dressing, but somehow it's still not the same. Just about everything on the menu of this 103 year old Cuban establishment is amazing. Swanky without the swanky prices. Pretty much my ideal restaurant.


• Tampa is the city for Cuban food and the first Cuban restaurant I was introduced to was Carmine's, also in Ybor City. I never quite got the taste for it's famous Devil Crab-- kind of a sour (if I remember correctly) deep fried crabcake-- but the Cuban sandwiches and roast chicken are amazing. It's always one of those quandries when you visit: one or the other. Carmine's is open late and also has wonderful Cuban cafe con leche.

This trip down memory lane will have to be continued. My trusty laptop sidekick is hungry too. Coming soon: New Orleans and the Ville!

Lou is hibernating

I know, I know. But like a cute widdle bear cub, soon enough I shall emerge from my cave, stretch, and take on the world, or at least Loueyville, once more.

In the meantime, I've been updating Lou Reads slowly. What else is there to do in a cave?

Loueyville = Safe!

I know I'm coming from a very different perspective than most Loueyvillagers, but I've never been able to keep myself from snorting and snickering a bit any time I hear people talk about how "X neighborhood in Loueyville isn't safe" or "the rise in crime is making me scared."  Safe?  Seriously?  "I feel unsafe walking in downtown after dark because of all the scary panhandlers."  Really?  C'mon, you're kidding right?  "The gang problem in Loueyville is UN-real."  Yeah, unreal.  Like un-real-bad.  You'd think we lived in Compton!  (I'm dating myself.  I think I've heard that Compton is actually quite safe now).

Lou is going to stop mocking Loueyvillagers sense of what's "not safe" right now for fear of jinxing herself.  It would be just her luck to walk out of work in her VERY SAFE neighborhood and get mowed down in a drive-by.

But at least now we have proof that Louisville is indeed safe.  The 8th safest city of over 500,000 people.  We should make a bigger deal out of it.  I think it's interesting to note that most of the top 10 cities are located in places where the weather is so nice that people have better things to do than behave like criminals:  Honolulu is #1.  Duh.  If you live in Honolulu, why risk going to jail where you have to be inside all the time?  San Jose, CA; San Diego, CA; San Antonio, TX; Austin, TX.  I'd rather live in Alaska than ever live in California or Texas, but I have to admit that if I HAD to live in CA or TX, those would be the four cities I'd move to (under duress).  Fort Worth... not so much.

Anyway #8.  Right on, Loueyville!!

---

More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail!

Holiday Shopping-- Ho ho ho in the Hometown!

Yesterday, Lou dumped a fairly substantial chunk of change into the local economy in an effort to put her Christmas shopping to bed. (Note: "substantial chunk of change" in Lou-speak just barely tips into three digits, so no one's going to be giving her awards for local altruism.)

First stop: The Mellwood Center's Good Folk Fest. It wasn't til I walked in the door that I realized I'd gone to the GFF last year. I'm a big fan of folk art-- and an occasional folk-artist wannabe (my trip ended with a trip to Artist & Craftsman Supply to refresh my supply of brushes and paint)-- but the problem with folk-art-as-gifts is that folk art is so incredibly subjective. What's cool to me (for example, a seemingly finger-painted and incredibly timely painting of Evel Kneivel jumping a tank of sharks) may not be the taste of my Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn lovinng cousin. That being said, there's a great deal of satisfaction to be had in buying at the GFF. I bought a lovely painted wooden box for a whopping $20, and from the reaction of the artist, you would have thought I was dropping $2000. I just wanted to hug her.

Stop two: I always get turned around leaving the Mellwood, and this time I found myself driving up Brownsboro Road, right past Barbara Lee's Kitchen-- a restaurant that my students have been imploring me to visit for the past few months (somehow it came up that I love diners). And bless their cholesterol-clogged little hearts, but they sure did deliver for me. Barbara Lee's, located at 2410 Brownsboro Road, is open 24 hrs and features just about every diner-staple imaginable. And some unimaginable dishes too. I had a BLT & fried egg sandwich with hashbrowns, and I am a wee bit surprised that I am still alive to type this. But man, it was yummy and cheap-- my whole bill came to less than $7 (they take cash only). Barbara Lee's is a little dark and creepy, and certainly rough around the edges, but what can you expect from a place that has at least five sandwiches on the menu that cost under $4 including fries or hashbrowns? Dark and creepy, yes. Unwelcoming? No. After an elderly couple left five minutes after I got there, I was alone in the joint and the sweet woman behind the counter chatted UK Basketball with me (which I know nothing about and I briefly incurred her wrath when I brought up Tubby Smith. I managed to distract her by talking about the weather.)

Fortfied by my meal-- my friend behind the counter eagle-eyed me until I finished every bite, she looked like she might be the kind to chastise me for not joining the "clean plate club"-- I hopped in the ol' jalopy and decided to go wherever the road would take me. It's been a blue eon since I drove around town for the sake of just driving. And eventually the road lead to the east side of Downtown. That morning I'd read in the newspaper something about the store Scout-- I can't remember what, but I've always liked their logo (I can be such a whore for marketing)-- so I decided to try to hunt it down.

But on the first pass down Market Street, I missed it (or I thought I did-- I actually didn't go far enough), but ended up stopping at Red Tree, which, for some reason, I'd always thought was a restaurant. When it comes to Christmas shopping locally, I always end up spending my hard-earned cash at places with serious charm-- a little flair goes a long way toward putting me in the holiday spirit. Red Tree has charm in spades. Jam-packed with eclectic gifts and furniture, the two-story shop features reasonable-prices in a beautiful and festive atmosphere. I picked up three gifts for three of my hardest-to-shop for relatives for under $70. And the sweet people at Red Tree even wrapped them for me (unfortunately, I realized when I got home that I would probably have to un-wrap them for plane travel-- damned TSA folks).

I eventually did find Scout, which was also oozing with charm and quirk. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn't find a damned thing there that I could afford. I'll go back, for sure, but as with some of my favorite shops on Bardstown, I think Scout will remain a browse-only option in the future.

Speaking of Bardstown-- last night was Bardstown Road Aglow! the annual dusk-10pm holiday open house. And this year's Aglow was twice as packed as last year's. I actually had to skip a few shops because of the crowd. These open houses are always a blast, usually featuring free food and wine and sometimes discounts. (Although this year seemed to feature less wine and fewer discounts than last year-- Kudos to Spree who offered hot cocoa with peppermint schnaps; that really warmed the cockles). Why Louisville? and the Book & Music Exchange saw a little of my holiday green, but for the most part I just walked, enjoyed the sights, and browsed. (Note to self: don't wear those high-heeled boots next year, you're still recovering today!)

Black Friday: Kicking off the Season at the Edinburgh Outlets

I've always been a big fan of Adbusters, healthily critical of our conusmer culture. If I ever have kids, I'll probably be one of those "mean parents" who won't pony up the latest trendy toy every Christmas, who'll substitute books for gagets as gifts. Once I became a homeowner, my level of consumption dropped dramatically, and that's a good thing.
That being said, I'm hardly the "dirty hippy" that Roommate claims I am. It's still been too long since my last trip to Disney World. I think Martha Stewart has just about perfect taste. I have "consumption crushes" of my own: sigh... Roomba... some day, you will be mine... oh yes, you will be mine!!

Honestly, though, it wasn't until I spent my first Thanksgiving with Roommates family, back when we were dating, that I was ever introduced to this thing call Black Friday. And I thought it was utter lunacy. And mostly, I still do. And Roommate's family isn't even hardcore-- I think we got up at 5am or so that first year.

But now that I'm in the habit of scouring the Black Friday ads, I realize that "Buy Nothing Day" is all fine and good if you happen to be a rich anti-consumerist. But what if you happen to be on a limited budget? What if your kiddo really, really wants that 5-speed bike for sale at Toys R Us at 6am for $100 off the regular price? On principal, you're going to forgo the $100 saving? Forgo getting the bike entirely or spending $100 more on Saturdays? That's lunacy.

Anyway, so Roommate and I went to Indiana for Turkey Day and the family happened to mention that the Edinburgh Outlet Malls were opening at midnight with all kinds of early bird specials. We joked about it a bit, but 11pm rolled around and found us parked in the lot watching cars flood in.

The Coach outlet was the biggest draw. We were floored that the line at 11p already wrapped around the building. Later we'd heard that some folks waited more than 2 hrs just to get 10% off. I find that hard to believe. Aeropostal, Gap, Nike, and a couple other stores had amassed significant lines before the doors opened.

Roommate and I played it cool, ducked in the stores that were less crowded, got a crappy hot mocha from the chocolate store, and basically treated it like any other trip to an outlet mall. When we walked into our first store-- the Bass Outlet-- Roommate said, "Okay, my brain just reset. It's no longer midnight."

"Why?"

"I'm in a shoe store."

If I was in the practice of giving clothes as gifts, I could have made out like a bandit, but as it was I bought one thing for my mom (and did save close to $50, so yay me!), and a skirt and sweater for myself. Roommate batted zero in the tis-the-season department and came away with just a pair of shoes for himself. In the end, we spent two hours, but it was a goofy, fun way to kick of the Christmas vibe.

That being said, I don't think I'll ever be the kind of person who can wait in line for hours for a store to open. When I saw the line at Coach, I said, "Okay, if Bono were signing the pocketbooks, I might. But otherwise never." Perhaps if I lived in South Florida and could start camping outside of Best Buy at 10pm for their $15.99 DVD player doorbuster in the comfort of 70+ degree weather, my feelings would change... but last night it was in the 20's!!! Lunacy, I tell you!

Happy Thanksgiving! Blethen House Cookies...

Happy Thanksgiving to Loueyvillagers far and wide! (And wider still after Thanksgiving dinner!)

Once upon a time, ages ago, I had a boyfriend who liked to cook. This was lo those many years ago when I was in high school. David was a pro in the kitchen, even when he was fourteen or fifteen, but his true calling was dessert. All of his recipes are lost to me now (Vinegar candy??? PLEASE, someone enlighten me? So far, the web has been of no use! It involved snow, which we have in KY on occasion.), except one.

Blethen House cookies. My mother still has the recipe card in David's handwriting. I have a copied version that I've carried with me for years. It's my best-loved recipe ever. Today, I set about making a double batch to bring to Thanksgiving, and as my computer was open, I decided to check it out. And viola! One person in the blogosphere knows of which I speak. Check out the recipe here: Blethen House Cookies.

Neighborhood Association IV: Still Crazy after All these Months

*DING*

A pretty blonde in a bikini and stilletto heels steps over the ropes and enters the ring. She circles slowly, holding over her head a white sign reading "ROUND..."

...Who knows what round this is at this point, huh?

Last night (11/19) the Original Highlands Neighborhood Association (OHNA) held its November meeting and elections for six of the twelve Board of Directors. Roommate came with me this time; I was glad to have a witness. A full three-quarters of the meeting progressed with civility and sanity. Impressive.

The elections appeared to go off without a hitch. There were 9 candidates for the 6 open seats. Each stood up and spoke for 15-30 seconds about how much they loved their neighborhood and wanted to serve for the greater good. They seemed to come from all walks of life, all segments of our fairly diverse neighborhood. I engaged in the process, did my best to make democracy work for me. But to tell the truth, the process felt palpably inauthentic.

Let's face it, folks. For Lord only knows how long this neighborhood-- or at least the OHNA-- has been a hotbed of controversy surrounding one issue and one issue only: the Historic Preservation District. Only ONE of the nine candidates said anything about his or her position on the issue, and he was not elected to fill an open seat. One of the ringleaders of the anti-district movement ran but kept his mouth shut about the issue. Unless you knew he'd been one of the most-- if not the most-- aggressive campaigners on his side of the issue, he would have just come off as another concerned citizen/business owner. I applaud the man who came straight out and declared his horse in this race. At least he was giving us fair warning: a vote for him was a vote for a voice of anti-district on the Board. The rest of them... who knows???

Both the candidates and the OHNA are at fault for this. Yes, it was a democratic election. But would we stand for a government election where we were just given names and bios for the candidates? The election came down to who seemed the most likeable, who had a job that you admired, who gave you a good vibe. I suppose every one of us should take some of the blame-- somebody should have stood up at the meeting and said it was impossible to make an "informed" vote without information. Maybe it should have been me. Mea culpa, too.

The poo hit the windmill when the litter tzar of the neighborhood stood up and gave some details about clean-ups and then implored the incoming Board to review the OHNA Neighborhood Plan. He said, basically, that it was an important document with specific suggestions and that they should look into starting to implementing those suggestions ASAP.

Commence to poo-flinging.

Who drew up this document? It was done in secret! It's a farce! (repeat this last sentence at least ten times) Who is this 'they' of which you speak? Who paid for it? Where did the money come from? Don't you claim to represent the community!... be quiet... sit down.. closed doors... mismanaged... no one wants this... elite minority... the black helicopters are coming for all of us...

Okay, I made up that last little bit. This time, both sides threw the poo. And it wasn't quite as bad as August's meeting. But I left rattled. Call me sensitive, but the level of hostility shown by those who oppose the plan is just plain discomforting.

Keep in mind: this is different from the Historic Preservation District; this is a wide-sweeping plan for the neighborhood in general. I've read it. You should too. It's here.

Roommate said he left his first meeting feeling pretty hopeful about the neighborhood association, despite the outburst. He said that he felt as though the majority of the people were just shaking their heads in disbelief at the insanity. I felt less optimistic. I can't help but feel that we'll get nothing productive done as long as the inmates have such a presence in (and may now be in charge of-- who knows?) the asylum.

First Snow of Winter 2007-2008

Approximately 11:10am, Thursday, November 15, 2007. Near-invisible flurries. But there.

Kynt & Vyxsin: Keeping Louisville Weird in the Eyes of the Rest of America

First of all, I had no idea that the Amazing Race was already up to Season 12! The only person I know who watches the show is my mother, and I keep forgetting to ask her about Kynt and Vyxsin, the first (?) Louisville couple on the show.

Kynt works at Texas Roadhouse and Vyxsin works at Ramsi's, and according to their Amazing Race bios: they both enjoy roadtripping to Sci-Fi conventions across the country where as Kynt puts it, "They feel right at home surrounded by Storm Troopers and Wookies."

Currently these "purveyors of Goth" (as the website calls them... according to my online dictionary "purveyor" means "one who supplies provisions...eh?) are in a very solid fourth place. So cheer them on! Win one for the Ville, Kynt & Vyxsin! Win one for all the proud, weird Villagers!

WHILE I WAS SLEEPING

Here in the Midwest, a certain time of year rolls around, bringing with it a certain change in the weather. And certain Lous, especially those who have spent the past ten-plus years in tropical climes, inadvertantly go into hibernation.

Here's a round-up of things that have been going on in Loueyville since last I wrote....

Bring Out Your Dead!

View full size

Happy Halloween!

Ghost Hunters-- the popular Sci-Fi network-- broadcasts LIVE for 6 hours tonight from Waverly Hills Sanitarium, just outside of Louisville in southwestern Jefferson County.

Waverly Hills, one of the leading tuberculosis centers in America in the 20th century, was the site of some 63,000 deaths.

This is the Ghost Hunters' second visit to Waverly Hills; I happened to catch the first episode before we moved to Loueyville. Spooky stuff, indeed. Ghosts aside, the Sanitarium is moderately dilapidated and cuts a huge and imposing figure in the middle of the woods. Inside, the building is mapped with "death corridors"-- slides through which bodies were transported to the morgue to avoid spreading the disease through the main halls.

According to the Courier-Journal, the Ghost Hunters, it was one of the top places that they've investigated.

Check out the Ghost Hunters Sci-Fi page here, and the actual Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) webpage here.

Personally, I'm hoping for a confirmed sighting... it would really put Louisville on the map with all the Coast-to-Coast with George Noory types. And that's exactly what we need to keep on keeping Louisville weird.

PS. Coast-to-Coast fans-- tonight is the annual "Ghost-to-Ghost" show withe former host Art Bell. Stay safe Art!

Paradise City?

The newest WHY Louisville t-shirt design features a retro-80's-tropics rendering that designates Loueyville as "Paradise City." According to the website:

Legend has it that Axl Rose wrote the song Paradise City about Louisville. Whether that's true or not, you'd have to ask Axl.

In what can only be called a triumphant example of uber-procrastination, Lou just spent W-A-Y too long on the internet trying to get to the bottom of this rumor.

"Paradise City" was ranked #453 on Rolling Stones' list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and #21 on VH-1's Greatest Metal Songs of All Time.

Best that I can tell from the internets, Axl Rose, a Midwest boy from Lafayette, Indiana, has refrained from ever pegging down a true Paradise City. He's said that "the verses are more about being in the jungle; the chorus is like being back in the Midwest or somewhere." In my investigations, it's only been in the comments of websites like songfacts.com and answers.com that well meaning boosters of the city have set forth the idea that Paradise City is Loueyville.

On songfacts.com, Kelly from Louisville writes:

this great song is about louisville, kentucky... only tha greatest city on this
damn planet. Axl was a sensible guy, apparently. I named my dog after him.

Yes, our grass is green and, as far as I can tell, our girls are pretty and Loueyville is only four hours away from Lafayette, Indiana. But that's ALL the evidence that I can dig up on this urban legend.

Still think the shirt is cute though! $17.

Nothing to do with Looueyville #1: GO SOX!!

Welcome to a new series here at Loueyville.com-- the Nothing to Do With Loueyville (NTDWL) post, featuring stuff Lou just can't keep under her Derby Bonnet.

When the Red Sox won the Series in 2004, my four uncles went to my grandfather's grave the next day and adorned it with a commemorative T-shirt, cap, issue of the Boston Globe, and most memorably a note that just said: "They finally did it, Dad!"

Go Sox!

By the way, Lou has been on vacation... sorry for the radio silence.

Gene Expression Changes Related to Endocrine Function and Decline in Reproduction in Fathead Minnow (Pimephales promelas) after Dietary Methylmercury Exposure

... is the name of the first article on the list when I searched for "Hunter S. Thompson" using the Louisville Public Library's remote access to the JSTOR database.

Just thought I'd share.

By the way, I was searching for the cover article of the current issue of Rolling Stone, called "Growing up Gonzo: Portrait of Hunter S. Thompson as a Young Man."

More on that to come...