Oh, Kentucky

Catching up from the long weekend ...

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Central City, Nov. 24; Lebanon and Louisville, Nov. 29;  Greensburg, Guthrie and Pikeville, Nov. 30; Boyce, Dawson Springs, Murray, Salem and Sebree, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Fredonia, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, London, Monticello, Pineville, Richmond and Trenton, Dec. 6; Barbourville, Berea, Bowling Green, Brownsville, Cadiz, Calvert City, Columbia, Corbin, Cynthiana, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Grayson, Hawesville, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Lexington, Madisonville, Marion, Middlesboro, Morgantown, Murray, Owingsville, Paducah, Rabbit Hash, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Somerset, Trenton, Versailles, Whitley City and Winchester, Dec. 7; Georgetown, Dec. 8; Cave City, Dec. 10; Burkesville, Burnside, Elkton, Mayfield, Providence, Williamsburg, Dec. 14, and Tollesboro, Dec. 15.

Oh, Kentucky

Not the old, old Whaler's Catch, but Paducah's old Whaler's Catch appears headed for new life next year.

Hiring in Dawson Springs, Dixon, Graham, Madisonville, Sebree, etc. Closed for good in Lawrenceburg, Radcliff and Winchester.

Hail to the bus-driver woman, Miss J.

The Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System was in better position again in fiscal 2019, says the state auditor.

It appears it'll be back to biz for Kentucky's apparently former New Hampshire vice-presidential hopeful.

Turning to sports, in Murray, it's rodeo time again. In Elkton, they had "the annual Meet the Rebels. YSE was there and got some of the first pics of the season of this year's team." And rest in peace, Mr. Terrell--he "loved the City of Corbin, he loved the Redhounds and most of all he loved people."

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Lebanon and Louisville, Nov. 29; Pikeville, Nov. 30; Boyce, Dawson Springs and Murray, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Fredonia, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, London, Monticello and Pineville, Dec. 6; Barbourville, Berea, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Calvert City, Columbia, Corbin, Cynthiana, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Lexington, Madisonville, Owingsville, Paducah, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Trenton, Versailles and Whitley City, Dec. 7; Georgetown, Dec. 8; Cave City, Dec. 10; Burnside, Elkton and Williamsburg, Dec. 14, and Tollesboro, Dec. 15.

Oh, Kentucky

(Super) Wikipedia: "As a child, he played baseball games with tree limbs as bats and with baseballs made out of string and the material of old shoes ..."

Per the Jordan Harris with the Pegasus Institute think tank, there are lots more jobs than job seekers in northern Kentucky and around Bowling Green, Lexington, Louisville and Owensboro--but not so in eastern or western Kentucky.

“It’s really pretty simple, if you’re seriously seeking employment, this job fair is for you. There are so many job openings available these days that it’s almost inexcusable to not be employed if you’re seriously seeking employment.”

Newport Independent Schools students who want something more are being provided an online option.

Thanks, Feds, for the $38M to help fix drinking-water infrastructure around the state.

Rest in peace, Mr. Gish, a Niagara-born engineer responsible for so much good safe and sanitary water service in and around Henderson County. Just a fantastic tribute by Chuck Stinnett (another Henderson legend) in the (indispensable) Gleaner.

Oh, Kentucky

Here's the thing about #LudlowKY government: there are people here - elected and staff - who simply hate each other. These meetings are always senselessly testy, and often mean. Not to mention, (expletive deleted) hilarious. pic.twitter.com/w634r3hNXF

— Michael A. Monks (@MicMonksMedia) May 10, 2018

The Rev. "Woehler believes this model is duplicable for new and existing churches: it’s an affordable model to launch in another community – requiring only a place to share a meal, communion set, and willing convener. For existing churches, potlucks could be a new offering to reach community members who may be yearning for a meal or open discussion. 'I believe that our history, polity, and culture as Disciples of Christ (in all its varied diversities) makes us uniquely positioned to live and grow into alternative church styles that God is creating in our midst.'"

Top high school in the state, per U.S. News & World Report, is Louisville duPont Manual.

Poorest town, per USA Today, is Glasgow.

Leah Shields with Channel 6 reports that McCracken County's jail is built to house 342 inmates; there are 440 people living there now--several, sleeping on the floors.

Douglas White in The Gleaner writes about Henderson Municipal Power & Light's decision making around how to fulfill its customers' energy needs in the years ahead.

As broken in 2011 by the HP, Jackie DeShannon is from Hazel, and now she's part of the 2018 Kentucky Music Hall of Fame class--along with "Stringbean," et al.

It is unlikely I will see it, but I'm interested in Carrsville Car Show, Cabin Pizza, Grand Rivers golf-cart ordinance and state-park Mother's Day reports in the new Livingston Ledger.

Bowling Green's Lost River Cave plans to open its butterfly habitat on Memorial Day.

Oh, Kentucky

No. 1! (And Nos. 7 and 73.)

There are two Kentucky companies among Brand Finance's new annual list of the top 500 brands, and Humana is the higher ranked between those.

Kentucky for sale:

MCC is getting back into the HVAC biz.

Good jobs news from Franklin, Henderson, Louisville, Sebree and maybe eastern Kentucky.

Gov Bevin chats with ex Gov and Sen Julian Carroll after thanking Senate for "phenomenal" session. ^JB pic.twitter.com/ewNgPee9Nq

— Bluegrass Politics (@BGPolitics) March 31, 2017

Least joblessness: Woodford. Most: Magoffin. Healthiest: Oldham. Least healthy: Breathitt.

Big Rivers Electric Corp. is ramping up solar in western Kentucky.

"You just wait ... a completely different landscape" to downtown Paducah is on its way.

Sam Neace in The Hazard Herald on the closing of A.B. Combs Elementary School: "Years ago, the A.B. Combs gymnasium served as a popular venue for entertainment events. 'The Macho Man' Randy Savage wrestled there several times in the early 1980s. According to the accounts of folks who attended those bouts, The Macho Man interacted with the audience in Combs… because he had no other choice. During that era in pro wrestling, fans were known to give passionate displays of disapproval for the bad guy in each match. Folks say, when The Macho Man left Combs, he knew exactly what all the little, old ladies there thought of him. Savage must have enjoyed the experience because he returned to A.B. Combs for many appearances."

Oh, Kentucky

Small pieces of hail being reported in Paintsville. #ekywx #kywx pic.twitter.com/3Lu8Y4dPJS

— Kyle Collier (@KyleWYMT) March 1, 2017

Stop feeding the geese at Etown's Freeman Lake Park.

I'd never even heard of Russellville's West Kentucky African American Heritage Museum and Research Center.

Nor did I know there is a Northern Kentucky Music Hall of Fame (or that Adrian Belew went to Ludlow!)

Madisonville’s Breathe Youth Arts Program—"a community-based, youth development program of Light of Chance that is geared toward fostering artistic expression, leadership and social skills through visual arts, music, dance and creative writing” among children in grades 5-12—is in its spring semester.

"Can we change the way people look at life and make their decisions?" Moral Reconation Therapy—“a cognitive-behavioral treatment system that leads to enhanced moral reasoning, better decision making, and more appropriate behavior”—appears to be coming to the Clay County Detention Center.

Fish and Wildife is hiring officers.

A Berea Republican decided things might be moving a little too quickly in the (real) legislature around a move to repeal (and replace?) the state's net-metering regulations (Smart Grid!).

"Do not be friends of coal; be friends of coal miners." And rest in peace, Nathan Gabriel Phillips of White Plains and Rickey Allen Thorpe Jr. of Dawson Springs.

Oh, Kentucky

The Trigg County Sheriff's Department hopes to give out about 200 bicycles this Christmas, reports WHOP.

Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 19; Ashland, Nov. 22; Lebanon, Nov. 25; Brownsville ("great crowd") and Sebree, Nov. 26; Bardstown, Dec. 1; Maysville, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 2; Arlington, Beaver Dam, Berea, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Clinton, Frankfort, Glasgow, Harlan, Henderson, Madisonville, Manchester, Murray, Paris, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 3; Boyce, Owenton and Schochoh, Dec. 4; Hickman and Lexington, Dec. 6, and Augusta, Cave City, Elkton, Hopkinsville, La Center, Nicholasville and Pikeville, Dec. 10.

Kentucky for sale:

The Rankin in that 1911 map is not the Rankin of the famous 1876 Kentucky Meat Shower.

There's a darkness on the edge of Bardstown.

Oh, Kentucky

Good jobs news from Bowling Green and Paducah.

The state's first utility-grade solar-generating project is going up in Mercer County. 

My primary exit will become 116!

Today is filing deadline for state elections, and the Fark.com founder is in!

Arriving in Owensboro to head up 14 News team coverage of Former Sen. Wendell Ford's funeral at First Baptist. pic.twitter.com/5dv17l9Jnr
— Randy Moore (@Randy14News) January 27, 2015

Oh, Kentucky

A Murray State history professor is writing a book about Adolph Rupp, and I think it sounds like it might turn out to be really quite good.

Leonard Pitts Jr. goes to Booneville, and--no surprise--the result is fantastic.

And here's a great story about a Louisville woman who is the principal dancer in the New York ballet, and the best part is the stuff about her parents' decisions around helping her pursue her dreams.

Hooray for planetariums.

Good jobs news from Leitchfield and Owensboro.

A landmark Greenville store is closing, and the reaction on Facebook is lively.

And now here are 12 photographs I took with my phone out the passenger-side window of my vehicle while driving the Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway from Madisonville to Sebree one very early Saturday in September: 

Oh, Kentucky

This fantastic 1930 map shows how U.S. 41 from Henderson to Madisonville didn't even run through Sebree--but instead ran along what is now U.S. 41-A, through Dixon and Providence. I'm about to go through a giant Webster County stage, so gird yourself for that.

 

If you like to watch stuff being blown up, Channel 6 has some video for you.

A dog park is opening in Etown: "It's going to be great."

The sound of eastern Kentucky, 1937.

The sound of eastern Kentucky, 2014.

Good jobs news from Hebron, Lebanon, London, (west) Louisville, (more) Louisville, Mount Sterling, Simpsonville, Trenton and (Dave Cowens Drive in) Newport.

Oh, Kentucky

"Our definition of the seasons is no longer determined by when they actually start, but by when our idea of them starts."

The 1979 and 1980 KHSAA Class 3A football champions are getting ready:

Since moving back to Kentucky six years ago, I have come to learn--it wasn't exactly a surprise, just something I hadn't ever thought about--that local farmers markets are often flash points of competitive tension and arguments about issues such as specific regulations or the broader question of government's role in the marketplace. For example, maybe Bloomfield ...

Good jobs news in Auburn and Mount Sterling.

Rebounding from the bad in Glasgow.

The bad jobs news in Paducah and the rise of #StangNation has the McCracken County housing market in flux. Change is coming for the local hotel game, too.

"Another important step toward completion of I69 in western Kentucky."

Maybe the Graves County school board wants back in the Cuba school to save the 1952 state-championship trophy.

The Christian County Chess Initiative Committee has a big year in the works.

"Came home from Bible school tonight (Wednesday, July 23, 2014); missed getting picture of a mink but caught this owl."

Oh, Kentucky

The Kentucky State Parks, also, are for lovers--and here's a press release saying so.

Still, not guilty.

New biz boom, and unemployment's down.

But bad jobs news from Hawesville and Sebree.

You're welcome, Frankfort.

Ronnie Ellis with CNHI News Service dopes the gov's budget proposal.

The hot and not among Kentucky's pols from John David Dyche in the ol' PCD-N.

Bill Bartleman 4.0.

KET News Quiz!

Oh, Kentucky

"Our hearts are heavy in Fredonia tonight."

“Let them pull that stuff in other places if they want, but not in Jackson County, Kentucky.”

“This is not elevating any group above another, this is just making everyone equal.”

Given to hospitality in Hoptown.

"Cash mom" in Muhlenberg County.

Onward and upward for Dippin' Dots.

Louisville Ballard and Marion County top the KHSAA basketball polls.

Cadiz and Franklin are both expanding their fiber-optic infrastructures.

President Clinton is coming back to Owensboro.

The Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway was closed for several hours yesterday between Slaughters and Hanson, and so traffic was detoured to U.S. 41. Northbound lanes were actually reopened before I started around noon to Evansville to see my mom, but, what the heck?

That's downtown Hanson, which, according to one of my college teachers, was a hotbed of basketball in the early 1940s. Today, it's home to a great elementary school, the Western Kentucky Veterans Home, an outlet mall, a good fish restaurant and a guy from whom I once bought--via eBay, when I was living in North Carolina--an awesome Munro All-Star Hockey Game.

I felt sorry for the folks in this car, who decided to spin around and backtrack. I imagine that they didn't realize they were within three-quarters mile of the end of the detour.

Fun to think about how exciting it must've been to purchase this camper originally and all of the neat places that it might've gone.

I love seeing those giant swarms of black birds. I'm uncertain whether these are officially blackbirds, however.

Here's Sebree, which is not the seat of Webster County. This town lost one of its more recognizable citizens this past fall. Rest in peace, Mrs. Darr, owner-operator of the Friendly Market for 52 years and unabashed fan of President and Mrs. Carter (just as is my mom). 

Sebree is home also to many Mexicans. Saint Michael Catholic Church there offers Sunday mass services in both English and Spanish.

I'm fascinated by monuments like this one to Milton Ashby in the Sebree Post Office. I'd like to know more about him; for example, how's he connected to Brandi Ashby, Kentucky's 1992 "Miss Basketball" and a Lady Topper who eventually transferred to the University of Hawai'i? I did find his dad's obituary--but nothing about Postmaster Ashby specifically.

It was a stone-cold joy to discover that Bell's Drugs hadn't yet totally dismantled its prodigious Christmas window display. Bell's Drugs is on the north side of Main Street/Ky. 56 through downtown Sebree.

The Purple Opry, Cadillac Jack's Billiards and the Sebree Banner ("Webster County's Oldest Newspaper") are along the south side. 

Back out on "The Dixie B-line" (sort of, anyway--that nickname really applies to the original U.S. 41, which runs through Dixon, which is the seat of Webster County, and is now U.S. 41-A) stands the American Legion post, which is housed in the old African-American school. 

There's a significant concentration of industrial concerns between Sebree and Henderson, and this one photograph, of course, fails to do it justice. (It's hard to capture big buildings in a cell-phone-camera frame while you're driving at 60 miles an hour.) For example, there's a big aluminum smelter, a chicken processor and a power plant through there. 

I first saw this eatery just inside the Henderson County line 23 years ago, and I've failed to stop there about 50 times since. Some day, I'm excited to try their strombolis. 

I hope Sebree's late Mrs. Darr got to see President Carter when he visited up the road in Henderson in 1975 and Robards in 1980. Said the president on that second trip: "You have a special opportunity in Kentucky, in the future, for another aspect of our Nation's security; that is, energy security. We've become overly vulnerable to a heavy dependence on foreign oil. This year we will import $90 billion worth of oil from overseas. That's a lot of money, hard to understand. It amounts to $400 per man, woman, and child throughout the United States. I want to depend not on foreign oil at the end of a 12,000-mile uncertain pipeline into a doubtful area of the world, but in the future I want to depend on Kentucky coal." 

Henderson is one of Kentucky's great towns, and that's the southern edge of it. 

But exploring Henderson is for another day and another post. I bailed off old 41 and jumped on the four-lane toward Mom here. The end.