“Dad! There you are, Dad!” screamed a shirtless, drunk college student I had the unfortunate luck of making eye contact with during my last venture into the Kentucky Derby infield. That was the first Saturday in May, 1999. There I was, minding my own business, strolling through the infield in search of photo opportunities, when out of nowhere comes this shirtless, drunk … [Read more...]
Yesterday, April 22, marked the 16th anniversary of the date when my mother—an only child—lost her sister following a kidney transplant. As a dutiful son, I, along with one of my brothers, visited our aunt’s grave to pay our respects on the anniversary of her death. She is buried in the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio, under a massive rock from an Arizona … [Read more...]
I’m not saying they’re dishonest, but they were certainly putting a political spin on the importance of Saturday night’s NCAA game between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. “We can’t lose, because someone from Kentucky is going to be in the final game,” Gov. Steve Beshear said after he crashed a press conference between UK President … [Read more...]
I don’t know which should scare me most, the fact that the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville will be playing in the semifinals of the Final Four or the book that came across my desk this morning. Either way, the end must be near. I know the Mayans predicted December 21, but now I’m doubtful. It is clear, life as we know it will stop—shut … [Read more...]
My attendance at a Friday conference in Louisville began with warnings from local weathermen, projecting that by day’s end we would see destruction on par with April 3, 1974, a day anyone in my generation clearly remembers. By lunchtime one of the Sons of the American Revolution attendees, an elderly man from Ooltewah, Tennessee, had received a message that his home had been … [Read more...]
So yesterday, I'm standing in line at the McDonald's across the street from Opryland feeling awful that I haven't taken my wife somewhere better for our anniversary.  The couple in line next to us mentions they're from Paris, Tenn. "Really," I said. "I promised my wife I'd take her to Paris for our anniversary ... how far away is it?" "About two and a half … [Read more...]
One of the interesting aspects of the magazine Garden & Gun is they have a secret society with members-only events, such as dinners, weekend getaways and bourbon tastings. I couldn`t help but wonder what kind of reaction Kentucky Monthly readers would have to such a group. What kind of events would we have and just how secret would the group be? Would we have a cauldron? … [Read more...]
`Oh somewhere kids are crying, And somewhere hearts are blue, But there is great joy in Louisville. Mighty Steve did pitch it true!†– my brother Tim`s attempted tribute to Ernest Thayer`s 1888 classic `Casey at the Bat.†True? I wish. Tuesday night in Louisville I had the great fortune of throwing out the first pitch in a baseball game between the … [Read more...]
`Days go by I can feel ‘em flying like a hand out the window in the wind†— Keith Urban Sometimes it feels like it was just moments ago that I was perched on the front seat of Mom`s car, hanging out of the open window, cutting the air with my hands. I don`t know where we were headed, but at some point there would be a stop at the post office and the … [Read more...]
Standing in the Silks Room Tuesday night, 24 hours prior to the post-position draw for the 137th Kentucky Derby, Jim Culver, president of Dream Team Racing Stable, told me that Mucho Macho Man would draw the No. 13 slot the following day. "I've been feeling it," Culver said. "I don't know why-it's not like a dream-more of an intuition." Wednesday, in front of a live television … [Read more...]
