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...]
Churchill Downs Chaplin Ken Boehm has performed a dozen weddings in the track`s winner`s circle over the years. Tuesday night he united in marriage Michael Sivo and Laura Surovi, minority owners of Kentucky Derby contender Mucho Macho Man, in the coveted space. `Now you can act like you`ve been here before if you`re fortunate to win on Saturday,†Boehm said, echoing a … [Read more...]
`Pay-Day Someday†was a judgment-day sermon by Dr. Robert G. Lee, a three-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In the sermon, Lee warned his listeners to get their houses in order or be prepared to pay the price. It is arguably one of the well-known sermons of the 20th century. `Pay-Day Someday†is also the philosophy employed by Ashley … [Read more...]
The weekend before last, four of us—my wife and I and another couple—set forth on a grand adventure to see the Louisiana Derby in New Orleans. My friends had bought a share in a racehorse that is pointed toward the Kentucky Derby (you can read all about it in the May issue of Kentucky Monthly), and we knew we must get to New Orleans to watch him run in the … [Read more...]
In an effort to stump me, thee Ken Kurtz of Lexington asked for a Kentucky connection to `Taj Mahal (and I don`t mean Hal Rogers)â€â€”a reference to the Rogers-funded Center for Rural Development in Somerset, which is snidely known locally as the TajmaHal. I assume Kurtz is referring to the mausoleum in Agra, India, built between 1632-1653 and visited by more than … [Read more...]
We were having an interesting discussion this morning here at Kentucky Monthly. It was sparked by feature on Texas Monthly`s Facebook page. The magazine asks readers about important events connected to places in the Lone Star State. I voiced that it was a grand idea and that we could do a similar feature without much trouble. Our enthusiastic staff asked me to compile a … [Read more...]
