XXIV Olympic Winter Games, Beijing 2022 (Paper Flags)

I am Nathan Chen.

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976 
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994 

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 

-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018

-- XXIV Olympic Winter Games, Beijing 2022 (Shustermania!)

Oh, Kentucky

Good jobs news from Campbellsville and Chavies.

Hiring in Clinton (for a full-time secretary for the Hickman County schools guidance counselor).

The Price Is Right and, this October, live from Rupp.

Greetings from Paducah (maybe Stanley Kubrick visited the Paducah City Hall, designed by Edward Durell Stone and completed in 1964, before figuring out 2001: A Space Odyssey):

Happy 80th to "a Covington hot spot."

Fifty years of hospitality in Liberty.

The African American Coalition of Hopkins County is, at last.

About 16 percent of all Kentuckians are said to be deaf or hard of hearing.

Christmas parades: Murray, Dec. 1, and Henderson and Scottsville, Dec. 7.

The Nobel Prize to Bob Dylan

For the first time since 1962, when John Steinbeck won the honor, the Nobel Prize for Literature has gone to an American-born man.  It's the first time any American has won since Toni Morrison in 1993.  And the winner is Bob Dylan, who was honored "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

I'm pretty happy for Bob Dylan, and I think he's a worthy winner.  Dylan wrote many different types of songs and many different types of moods, and your preferences about his material will be heavily influenced by how your moods and his match up.  For me personally, my favorite Dylan songs are the ones with long, twisting lines that he was writing between 1964 and 1966.  Here is one of my favorites, from 1965.  It not only seems to capture all the bad stuff that was about to happen to the country in the late 1960's, it also captures a certain mood -- a combination of recklessness, anger, and despair -- that is common in modern times:

It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying

Temptation’s page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more
Person crying

So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don’t hate nothing at all
Except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked

An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged
It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge
And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it

Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something they invest in

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn’t talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer’s pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death’s honesty
Won’t fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes must get lonely

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed
Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine

But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music

Oh, Kentucky

Muhammad Ali with mom Odessa, dad n brother in background @ family home in Louisville, 1965. https://t.co/TPr6Hznxbg pic.twitter.com/rk8Dm4kb4M

— Rasheed Kappan (@kappansky) June 4, 2016

The Kentucky desk is pleased to announce that, with Gov. Bevin's (indirect) blessing, we have resumed considering recommendations for the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.

Emmanuel Felton with The Hechinger Report delivers a very thought-provoking story on how Kentucky has adjusted its systems on the premise that NOT all students need college.

Meanwhile, in a personally-heartbreaking-for-me (but well-done) report in The New York Times, Stephanie Saul reports on how Western Kentucky University decided that it did NOT need all of the Indian students that it recruited.

Draffenville's Ponderosa baroness is spreading her game to Reidland.

Kroger is putting a Ruler Foods in the old Russellville Houchens.

OK, updating previous reports, it appears now that Uncle Lee's is, indeed, back to operating in Greenville but that it is now all or almost all guns. And now Coal County Vendor Mall is set to open in the rest of the old store that apparently isn't totally being used by Uncle's Lee's ("Powered by: Budsgunshop.com"). Will advise as events warrant.

Hopkinsville appears headed toward raising taxes on home and vehicle insurance premiums by 33 percent to pay for a new sports complex and trails expansion.

Jeannie C. Riley is NOT on the Western Kentucky State Fair docket, but a demolition derby, tractor pulls and wrestling are.

Paducah's Fin Gourmet entrepreneurial success story just keeps building: "We put Kentucky proud fish products onto American tables. We solve the problems that many Americans have very few options to healthy, year round, wild-caught USA fish products. We solve this problem by sustainably sourcing and manufacturing locally caught fish into delicious, healthy, ready-to-eat fish products. Our fish are fresh daily. We hand-select and hand-craft our products. We are committed to preserving the quality of homemade goodness: fresh, natural, and always free of chemicals and preservatives."

Turning to sports, our McCracken County Mustangs football coach is NOT going back to Georgia; here's the program for the KHSAA baseball tournament, which starts Thursday in Lexington, and the Louisville International Open women's tennis tournament is NOT happening this year.

Former Glasgow HS and MTSU star Kent Bulle, the 2015 Kentucky Open champ, earned a spot in this month's U.S. Open. https://t.co/AWnnsAxpcB

— Herald-Leader Sports (@KentuckySports) June 7, 2016

Oh, Kentucky

Prayers for Ed Davender.

East Owensboro storm moving in @Kentuckyweather @Wayne_C_Hart @mycn2weather @StsofOboro pic.twitter.com/7vwBz1ceqo

— Amber Dych (@amber_dych) April 27, 2016

While the governor was in Europe, the ex-governor was giving him what-for.

Unemployment is highest in Woodford County and lowest in Magoffin.

The original owner of a 1965 Pontiac Le Mans drove from California to buy his old car from a couple in Barren County. Melinda J. Overstreet in the Glasgow Daily Times reports that they worked out the deal on the Cracker Barrel porch in Cave City.

Oh, Kentucky

OK, look, Mr. Toy already knows about the Electric Prunes. And he doesn't want to hear your memories about the show at "Paduka" Tilghman. And he doesn't want to hear your wild theories about who might've been there just because they were at some other show or whatever ...

Here's what Mr. Toy wants to know.

In McCracken County, Williams goes wet, and Hendron stays dry.

Good jobs news from Bowling Green and Hopkinsville.

School funding is down, and black Louisville poverty is up.

Lessons? Learned.

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, Shepherdsville, Smiths Grove and Walton, Dec. 4; Arlington, Bowling Green, Clinton, Frankfort, Grayson, Hopkinsville, Lawrenceburg, Leitchfield, Madisonville, Middlesboro, Morgantown, Munfordville, Murray, Paducah, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 5; Hickman, Dec. 8, and Benton, Elizabethtown, Elkton, La Center, Nicholasville and Princeton, Dec. 12.

Great Moments: Jonny Quest

This could of course be a TV show review, but the fact is Jonny Quest was more than just a TV show.  It had a big influence on cartoons and culture.  And like a great moment it was here and gone in a flash.

Jonny Quest ran on prime time ABC for one season in 1964-1965.  The show had solid ratings and got solid critical support, but was cancelled none the less.  The only reason I can reasonably find is cost, but when you start to read about it I think the show was simply more than anyone who was involved in it could handle for more than a one season run.  As it is we are left with 26 brilliant episodes and a show that had a major impact on media and pop culture in the U.S. 

Oh, Kentucky (1969)

The 1969 desk takes a road trip from Hoptown to Hartford.

"Your Picture Newspaper" put the following picture of the 11th District basketball champs on Page 1 of the March 13, 1969, edition. The Eagles ripped the Fordsville Trojans, 145-59, and then turned back the (1965-state-champion) Breckinridge County Tigers, 75-59, to win the district tournament.

"Ohio County played Drakesboro last night in the opening game of the regional tournament at Owensboro," added the Page 15 story. "Results of the game were not known at press time."

Says Wikipedia: "Ohio County is famous for its coal mines, which in the 1970s produced much of the nation's coal."

In 1969, though, basketball appeared to be a big deal. Here's a brief about some sort of rec-league game that ended 107-106!

I love newspaper activities like these.

 

Listing the hospital's visiting hours right there with the admissions is a brilliant stroke of community building.

Clean sweep for ol' OCHS ...

I Loved This Speech

That's Entertainment

Man, oh, man, do those things--from 1965 and 1967 Andy Griffith specials, respectively--make you feel like something big's about to happen or what? These are about my two favorite songs right now.

Congratulations to Bob Dylan

Who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday.

Here are my two favorite Bob Dylan songs:

MAGGIE'S FARM

I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
Well, I wake in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin’ me insane
It’s a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more

I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s brother no more
No, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s brother no more
Well, he hands you a nickel
He hands you a dime
He asks you with a grin
If you’re havin’ a good time
Then he fines you every time you slam the door
I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s brother no more

I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s pa no more
No, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s pa no more
Well, he puts his cigar
Out in your face just for kicks
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks
The National Guard stands around his door
Ah, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s pa no more

I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more
No, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more
Well, she talks to all the servants
About man and God and law
Everybody says
She’s the brains behind pa
She’s sixty-eight, but she says she’s twenty-four
I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more

I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more

Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music

DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT

It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

Oh, Kentucky

Maybe it is, indeed, "about how you were brought up."

Thank you, WKDZ of Cadiz, for posting this photo of John Y. Brown (with the lovely Mrs. George Brown) in the famous blue-and-red coat.


Rest in peace, Coach Green, coach of the runnersup for the 1965 KHSAA Class 2A football championship (which went to a legendary Hoptown team), member of three halls of fame and Mrs. Green's husband of 56 years. Wrote Eastern Kentucky University's two-time-national-champion football coach Roy L. Kidd at Creech Funeral Home's site: "Walt Green was an outstanding football coach, someone I had great respect for. He was a teammate of mine at EKU. He always called me 'Peanut' even though he was not much bigger than me. Walt's passing is a great loss to his family, friends, former teammates and ALL the ex-players he coached." And Mickey Wilson, a coach from Conway, S.C..: "Dear family, I was so hurt to hear of Coach's passing. He had alot to do with me becoming a coach. I will never forget the days at the YMCA and the 1960 season. I learned alot of FB from him, but more I learned about life. May God bless you and comfort you during this time." And a former student from Pineville: "I was having this problem understanding the teacher at Southeast. Walt met me at class the next day and set my chair four feet from the teacher. That solved the problem. He was a great student motivator."

Coach Green's funeral was Friday evening at Middlesboro's Binghamtown Baptist Church. There's one for Mr. Morgan at Hensley Chapel Baptist Church tomorrow night, and it sounds like it's going to be a barn-burner, too. "Morgan Furniture, owned and operated by Morgan, has been a landmark on Lothbury Avenue for over 50 years. From his store, Morgan ran political campaigns, conducted city business, helped friends, shared his wisdom, witnessed to customers about his Lord and Savior, and yes even found time to sell some furniture and appliances."

Great jobs news from Cadiz.

Community gardening in Paducah.

Building bridges with Indiana in Louisville and Prospect.

I had never seen the Marching Maroons' logo, but it is freaking fantastic.