NFL23 Update: Hail to the Chiefs (Again)!

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs! When I searched "Kansas City Chiefs" on Google a second ago, fireworks flew across the screen of my laptop.

And deservedly so! For my money, not I of the previous LVII Super Bowls was any more entertaining than last night's event featuring the Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Harrison Butker, Chris Jones and the rest of the victor Chiefs; the worthy San Francisco 49ers; Taylor Swift and (hopefully) her future in-laws; Jim Nantz and Tony Romo; Andra Day, Post Malone and Reba McEntire; Dan Marino; Usher and Alicia Keys, and the rest. Starting at about 5 Central, I watched with my family virtually every second of CBS's remaining five hours of TV coverage from Las Vegas, and, my gosh, I felt so thankful to have gotten to experience the thing.

Furthermore, the Chiefs have now won two Super Bowls in a row, played in four since 2019 (winning three) and now are now 4-2 in all-time Super Bowl appearances. All time, that's the sixth-most Super Bowl appearances and fifth-most victories (along with the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants) for Kansas City, which also won more AFL championships (three) than any other team. What a franchise!

Did you know that the Chiefs' defense from 1966 through 1971 was apparently nicknamed "The Redwood Forest?" I did not. In fact, I don't think I exactly knew that the Chiefs' offense from 2018 through 2021 was apparently nicknamed "The Legion of Doom." I remember hearing Nantz and others say "The Legion of Doom" when I happened to be watching football games off mute during that time period, but I guess I always figured they were just making something up out of thin air to promote some comic-book movie that was out at the time and never paid much attention. Anyway, I learned both of these notes this morning from the Chiefs' Wikipedia page, which I intend to read over the next several days as I think back over my favorite memories from my very fun Sunday night.

Of course, at my typical HP pace, that will likely take me right through to kickoff of the Miami Dolphins' victory in Super Bowl LIX (Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans). Hail to the Chiefs, and comments flow!

Oh, Kentucky

Godspeed, 101st Airborne.

Good for Bob White's brother-in-law. Good for Billy Reed. Good for Hurstbourne Christian. Good for the Hoptown assistant coach. Good for the old friend's widow. Good for PRP's state-champ baseball coach. Good for the Mattress Firm dude and the TV people. Good for Mike Fields.

Courier-Journal after Rick Pitino is fired at Louisville pic.twitter.com/QczdLvMp3X

— Sports Front Pages (@SportsFrontPage) September 28, 2017

Oldham County's first brewery looks beautiful.

Good jobs news from Danville.

Doesn't sound like Clark County's coyotes are going anywhere anytime soon.

Beth Smith in Henderson's Gleaner: "No one was injured in the hold-up which occurred when an armed man dressed as a Coca-Cola bottle entered Rally's and demanded money."

I am embarrassed to realize just how little I understand about how the U.S. court system works.

Rest in peace, Ms. Wiley-Mitchell, whom you may have known "as the friendliest cafeteria employee, or simply the fastest swiper at the counter" at WKU. (Good for Noah Moore.)

Oh, Kentucky

Guthrie recovering after flood, you can help https://t.co/szUIzdu1NQ pic.twitter.com/75lZdrQJAk

— WHOP AM/FM (@WHOPradio) September 2, 2017

Kentucky for sale (and the start of what I'm sure is an interesting story):

Good jobs news from Owensboro, Owensboro again and Beaver Dam. Hiring in Leitchfield and Louisville. "Holding our breath" in Wickliffe, per WPSD. And the Daily Independent reports, "there is a feeling Ashland, Boyd, and surrounding Greenup and Carter counties are on the verge of rounding the economic bend."

Trouble in Corbin and Crofton.

Reports WFPL, "according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 5,848 Kentucky residents had been approved for protections under DACA as of the end of March."

Oh, Sacramento

As you enter Sacramento from south of the McLean County town on Ky. 85, there's a historical marker that greets you ...

It reads, "SURPRISE ATTACK HERE--CSA cavalry from Hopkinsville under Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised Union forces under Major Eli H. Murray December 18, 1861. Forrest sent dismounted men to attack both enemy flanks, and, with the remainder mounted, he bore down road upon Union center, which broke and fled. Forrest pursued 4 miles, dispersed USA troops, returned to Hopkinsville."

Ky. 85 then merges with Ky. 81, and town fans out east and west of that Main Street strip ... 

Here's the Blue Jay Cafe of 245 Main Street …

The IEEE 802.11 “Wi-Fi” network is for back-office operations only. “I don’t even have the password,” says the server.

I’m at No Smoking Table B1 1. There’s a sign on the table that says so. There are a lot of signs at the Blue Jay Cafe:

Blue Jay

Cafe

Great Food

Great Friends

Good Times

Welcome

Sit Long

Talk Much 

Laugh Often

Try The

Original

ROOT

BEER

FLOAT

Absolutely No

Smoking In The

Kitchen Area

Due To New

Insurance Policy

No One allowed in

Kitchen but

Employees Only

Those are all permanent signs. Then there are five whiteboards with various price and selection bulletins, such as ...

Tuesday Night May 30th

Moonlight Bar-B-Que

with Salad Bar, Dessert,

Coffee of Tea $9.99

Starts at 5 pm till 8 pm

Sacramento is about 30 miles south and west of Owensboro's Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn on Ky. 85. 

I’m having oatmeal and toast and coffee, and it’s fine. The total cost is $4.08, and then they are going to add tax. There are many things about places like Sacremento, Kentucky, and the Blue Jay Cafe that haven’t changed since I first traveled much around the state 25 years ago. For example, to my left, there is a circular table of gray-haired men drinking coffee from mugs and eating sausage and country ham on biscuits off heavy china plates, and so far I’ve heard them talking about Silver Queen corn and Lava soap. Really. I’m not making any of that up. Anyway, I would lay money that 25 years ago that same scene was playing out among the fathers or uncles or church elders of these fellows at the Blue Jay Cafe or whatever restaurant was operating in its place in 1992 (and grandfathers, etc., in 1967, 1942 …) 

But one thing that has changed, I feel certain, is the cost of a bowl of oatmeal, two slices of toast and a cup of coffee. I am happy to pay the $4.08 today. This food and service and environment are absolutely equivalent to the $4.08 experience available at most any other restaurant I might find within 100 miles of Madisonville, and it is indisputably better than any of the chains. But, still, $4.08, even converted to $2.34 in 1992 dollars, is still more expensive than what I believe I would’ve paid then--by a 1992 quarter or two (so, 10 to 20 percent more or so). I didn’t find 1992 data for Sacramento, but, from 1999 to 2015, per-capita income in the town went up from $11,811 to $17,455 (or $12,269.17 when adjusted for inflation, about a 3 percent raise in terms of how you'd feel it). Point is that a couple of pieces of toast and a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee make more of a dint today than then, I feel sure.

The other thing I wonder about places like Sacramento is about the change in felt-sense distance between it and Owensboro, it and Louisville, it and Washington and (going the other direction on Ky. 85 and population) it and Anton since 1992, 1967, 1942 and so forth. On one hand, I know that cable TV and the internet in some ways have shortened those distances--growing up in Paducah in the 1970s and early 80s, I was a rock-’n’-roll fan who had literally never heard of the Clash or the Sex Pistols until after we finally got cable in 1984 or ’85; whereas, I imagine there is a pretty big Cage the Elephant fan somewhere in Sacramento right now. On the other hand, how do the entrepreneurial/management/leadership/artistic horizons of a place like Sacramento compare over time? For example, what does the supply chain for a place like the Blue Jay Cafe look like today vs. in previous years? Do they buy all of their oats, bread, butter, brown sugar, salt and coffee grounds from Cisco or Sam’s, where they would’ve sourced each of those from Sacramento Oat Company, Sacramento Bread Company, Sacramento Brown Sugar Company, etc., each with its own owners and layers of management in previous years?

I honestly don’t know the answers to these questions, but I would love to know and then somehow relate them to things like voting patterns, church membership, health trends, etc.

“Bye, Jimmy,” the server tells someone—Jimmy, presumably—as he leaves the cash register and heads out the front door along Ky. 81/Ky. 85. The servers had been busy in the back, and a very tall, razor-thin man of probably about 65 poked his head in the swinging kitchen door (the one with the employees-only-because-of-the-insurance sign) and asked for “Sweetie” to come out and cash out the developing line of customers at the register. That guy went to the back of the line and then stayed after paying his own bill to talk extra with Sweetie, who is a tiny woman of probably 35 years. They share a long hug and some quiet words of clear sadness. “Have a good day, Sweetie,” he says. “I love you,” she says. “I love you, too,” he says. That all really happened just as I wrote it.

These photographs were hanging on the wall in the back of the Blue Jay Cafe, outside the restrooms ...

There's a florist next door to and just south of the Blue Jay Cafe. It wasn't open ...

The Masonic Lodge is the next door down Main ...

Here are a couple of signs that were taped to the glass doors at the U.S. Post Office ...

Then there were these two pictures in a display case inside the Post Office. My guess is the pictures at the Blue Jay were from the 1959 regional championship commemorated here ...

This is the oldest headstone I found at the Free Union Cemetery on the town's northwestern edge ...

Then I drove back to Madisonville along Ky. 85. This is one of my favorite roads out of town--Anton Road. It drops off sharply from both sides of the road into swamps and farmland, so there are guard rails along both sides of a lot of Ky. 85 to keep you from falling off ...

Album Review: John Davidson by John Davidson

Here are some interesting moments in John Davidson's Wikipedia entry.

-- During an appearance on the game show Scrabble in 1987, he told the national TV audience that he appeared as an underwear model in the 1959 Sears catalogue; he would have been 17 at the time.

That's the first sentence in the "career" section of John Davidson's entry.

-- Davidson also guest hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 87 times.

Wow. That's a lot. I wonder if John Davidson felt ripped off like David Letterman did when Jay Leno got The Tonight Show.

-- Davidson made numerous appearances on the original Hollywood Squares, from the mid-1960s until its cancelation, and was known for his long-winded bluffs. No one was more convincing at getting contestants to believe his (often ridiculous) answers to questions posed by Peter Marshall. Most times, Marshall could barely conceal a grin as Davidson started in on some far-fetched but plausible explanations for his answers, often prefaced with something to the effect of: "I just read about that in the New England Journal of Medicine, it was a fascinating study, and it said that...". Davidson sold these preposterous stories with such sincerity that contestants were often duped more than once in the same show.

John Davidson's Numerous Appearances on the Original Hollywood Squares could be a great made-for-TV movie.

-- In 1977, Davidson was present at the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Southgate, Kentucky. He was expected to appear onstage as the headline act of the evening when the fire broke out, killing 165 persons. Davidson helped others escape before fleeing through a back door. Davidson was not injured and later participated in a charity concert to raise funds for the families of fire victims. John Davidson's music director was among those who perished in the fire.

I had never heard John Davidson was there.

-- Davidson, appearing in Lake Tahoe in the 1970s once remarked to a dinner show crowd that the people in the audience the night before must have all been from Petaluma, California. "My God, I have never seen so many Simplicity patterns in my life," the singer quipped.

I had never heard of "Simplicity patterns."

To be fair, Wikipedia stamps this page with the following disclaimer: "This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards." I think that's a little harsh. But Wikipedia is awesome, and I understand why it would be so unflinching in its commitment to quality.

I've been listening to a 1969 John Davidson record the last couple of days, John Davidson. It's fine. His versions of "Both Sides Now" and "Suzanne" are my favorite male-vocalist versions of those two great songs. The album cover says that one can write to the John Davidson Fan Club at 8966 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Here's the Google Maps street-level picture of that address:

Oh, Kentucky

Obama-2012: The Clint Eastwood "It's Halftime, America" ad is leading Glasgow Daily Times voting for Super Bowl favorite. Based on this evidence, the Kentucky desk is today projecting that President Obama will carry Barren County in November's election. (For the record, the Kentucky desk logged a write-in vote with the GDT for the awesome Louisville GE Appliance Park commercial.

Software solves everything.

Tom Eblen reports in the Herald-Leader, "Nearly half of the 78 companies the Lexington Venture Club focused on (at the group's annual celebration) are in biotechnology and health care fields, with the next largest clusters involving software, information technology and advanced manufacturing."

ColumbiaMagazine.com documents its town's pre-CVS era.

LHLKSo11 finalist: Bob Beatty.

Chappel Allen's Trigg County Athletic Hall of Fame induction speech closes with a touching call to his fellow adult citizens to support today's teen-agers; from beginning to end, Coach Duke Burnett's is a treasure trove of still-simmering hatred for his western-Kentucky rivals, especially Christian County: "1959 I came to Cadiz. ... At the end of the first year, we had won 18 ballgames and lost nine. That wasn't too bad. But we took a drubbing in the tournament by Christian County. I've never gotten over it. ... We won one (district tournament) the first year we were in the new gym--against Christian County, who had beaten me unmercifully the first year I was here. And the best part about it was we beat them one point, and it hurts a whole lot worse. ... Christian County beat me 30 points in the district tournament; we owe them. But we got them back. One night when we had them down here--Buddy Sivilis was playing--we beat them 40. And I pressed them every minute. And the sad part about it was the guy who was coach later became a businessman in Elizabethtown. And he said, 'Coach, why did you do that to me?' I told him I was paying them back for when they beat me before. ..."

Rest in peace, Mr. Ruter, Hilltopper basketball and baseball letterman, official scorer of 37 boys' and 15 girls' Sweet Sixteen KHSAA basketball tournaments, ABA Kentucky Colonels official scorer, co-founder of Louisville's Mason-Dixon Games and member of 12 halls of fame.

I wonder what alternative route Corey Wilford's family took from Hoptown to Murray for SEMO's game with the Racers last week.

Saturday's one-time-only Eggner's Ferry Bridge viewing drew 1,772, reports The Paducah Sun.

Food liberty in real legislature.

Twitter overnights: Louisville for foodies and Kentucky Fried Chicken for President Reagan and Richard Petty.