Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Oh, Kentucky




Good guys with guns, in Madisonville next school year.

Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey; Paducah and seven other places, per USA Today.

"There are several guidelines, which include: ..." reads the tee-up to a bulleted list in a Kentucky Standard staff report on a Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist and Convention Commission grant program. For my money, the most interesting of those guidelines are that "(r)equests may be made for start-up and/or operational costs, including staffing, for local non-profit organizations’ tourism-related project or event" and that "(f)unds awarded to festivals and events are normally awarded on a sliding scale, for no more than three consecutive years. (Assuming, of course, all other guidelines are met.)" Both seem well-conceived to me, assuming the notion of the granting program is to spark new tourism-oriented activities, as opposed to sustaining them. Anyway, I find this whole report interesting, congratulate the not-credited Kentucky Standard staffer (maybe an intern) who put it together and wish the Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist and Convention Commission the absolute best of luck in achieving its goals.

OK, the primaries ... localwise, my wife and I rocked the Hopkins County Precinct 27 vote late yesterday afternoon at our local Shriner’s Rizpah Temple. We were accompanied by our daughter and one of her fourth-grade friends, who spent their day off playing together, and at the polls we ran into my wife’s parents, a woman we go to church with, a couple we used to go to church with and the woman who owned our house two owners before us. Nary a fistfight broke out, so we celebrated by taking the girls for milkshakes and me a corndog. My wife, who is all about sensible choices and self control, thought long and hard about a white-chocolate Twix and dark-chocolate KitKat—but passed on both so as not to spoil her supper. The joke was on her, however, as it turned out my 4 p.m. corndog was powerless against my almost-undefeated appetite--I still ate double helpings of mac-and-cheese and white beans just a couple of hours later. As my wife and I tidied up the kitchen and the girls frolicked with some neighborhood kids in the sprinkler, we listened to (sublime) Danny Koeber read returns on WFMW Classic Hit Country AM 730, as they rolled in from the Hopkins County Clerk downtown. The big news was that barbecue-magnate Kevin Cotton edged two-time-incumbent/hailed-CPA/gospel-singer David Jackson in the Republican primary for mayor--and, furthermore, Danny divulged after polls were closed that he had heard a rumor that Democratic challenger David Oakley, who was unopposed in the primary, would discontinue his campaign if Kevin beat David J. (David O and Kevin both used to work for the city, but it was unclear whether David O was considering forgoing the November general because he and Kevin are friends or because his main goal was to unseat David J or some other reason.) Anyway, all of this is fine with the two eligible-voter Democrats in this Precinct 27 house, as, though we think David J has done a fine job and have had nothing but positive experiences in our interactions with him, we also love Kevin (and his barbecue) and believe he is an inventive thinker with a heck of a lot of energy and a demonstrated orientation toward the least of these. We couldn't vote in the GOP primary yesterday, but we had already pretty much decided to cross lines and cast for whichever Republican come November. I think Kevin will do great.

And, statewise, here's the AP's unsurprisingly sturdy roundup.

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