Oh, Kentucky

Oh, how I love this road:

And, oh, how I love this terrain:

This, though, is unnerving.

Jenny Smith in Madisonville's Messenger delivers a thought-provoking and heart-wrenching feature on a 94-year-old local woman from Brooklyn whose family was poor enough in the Depression that her father came to her when she was 7 and asked her to give up a bracelet her godmother had given her, to be sold for money to buy food for the family. Man, that's rough.

Sam Neace with chilling news in The Hazard Herald: No. 1 on the Centers for Disease Control’s list of U.S. counties most vulnerable to soon developing an HIV and Hepatitis C epidemic is Kentucky’s Wolfe County. No. 3 is Breathitt County. No. 4 is Perry, and No. 5 is Clay. “Out of the top 220 counties on the CDC’s list, 54 of them are located in Kentucky,” he reports.

Who lobbied Real Legislature hardest this past session?

Proud that this enormous Confederate monument is coming down at the University of Louisville. Long overdue. pic.twitter.com/Q2tfMqhi5P

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) May 1, 2016

A member of the Brass Lantern dynasty took top honors in the Kentucky Monthly recipes contest, or his "Bison with Bourbon Bacon Butter and Pickled Onions."

"MovingKentuckyForward.com" is for sale.

You going to the prom?

Rest in peace, Ed Davender, whom Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader describes as "arguably the most under-appreciated star player in University of Kentucky basketball history."

Oh, Kentucky

30-NOV-1928 Happy 87th Birthday to Joe B. Hall. Hall played 3 games at UK, scoring 0 pts, then transferred to Sewanee where he starred...

— bigbluehistory (@bigbluehistory) November 30, 2015

...Hall later returned to UK to graduate. He coached at Regis College, then took asst. coach at UK, then head coach pic.twitter.com/ihB7o2fYRd

— bigbluehistory (@bigbluehistory) November 30, 2015

Joe B. will always be known for taking Cats to every part of Commonwealth with exhibition games each year. That's when Kentucky became BBN.

— Oscar Combs (@wildcatnews) November 30, 2015

Louisville wins again in Lexington.

Building a (new) bridge in Aurora.

"Because Kentuckians are often celebrated for their fighting spirit, those individuals and groups in the state who have questioned war have often been downplayed or ignored by historians."

“Whatever Christmas was before, whatever losses you’ve suffered, however far you’ve traveled, Christmas has to be where you are now—that’s the last line: ‘it has to be here.’”

Christmas parades: Hazard and Owensboro, Nov. 21; Ashland, Nov. 24; Russell Springs and Williamstown, Nov. 28; Lexington, Dec. 1; Louisa, Dec. 3; Central City, Harlan, Maysville and Walton, Dec. 4; Arlington, Bowling Green, Frankfort, Grayson, Hopkinsville, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Middlesboro, Munfordville, Murray, Paducah, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 5; Hickman, Dec. 8, and Benton, Elizabethtown, Elkton, La Center and Nicholasville, Dec. 12.

Rest in Peace, James Garner (1928-2014)

James Garner died Saturday. Richard Corliss has delivered a powerful and detailed tribute to the actor for TIME, and I've already weighed in for my love of The Rockford Files on more than one occasion. I'm going to stay up for a little while tonight watching a Rockford on Hulu; I've picked a 1975 episode that apparently has some football in it. I'm going to have a drink, and I might make a few comments. 

But what I mostly want to say is that it must stink to keep living in this world and see your friends and family drift away. James Garner and Mom were born just a few months apart in 1928, and I know that Mom decided a few years ago to just quit going to funerals. She said she's had enough of helping bury people she loves, and she says the next funeral she goes to will be be her own. I can imagine feeling same.

My thoughts and prayers are with Mrs. Clarke Bumgarner and her daughters tonight. 

II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928

Medals table:

1. Norway 6 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze

2. United States 2, 2, 2

3. Sweden 2, 2, 1

4. Finland 2, 1, 1

5. Canada 1, 0, 0

5. France 1, 0, 0

7. Austria 0, 3, 1

8. Belgium 0, 0, 1

8. Czechoslovakia 0, 0, 1

8. Germany 0, 0, 1

8. Great Britain 0, 0, 1

8. Switzerland 0, 0, 1

Canada's gold medal came in hockey. Coached by Conn Smythe, the Canadian team received a bye into the medal round and then won its three games by 11-0, 14-0 and 13-0. The 14-0 win came against Great Britain, here: