Hidden Location #4 and the winners on #3

Ok, so the last one was too easy. Brook, just south of Main, looking south, correctly identified by all involved. Michael's comment tells a tale. Last week, after coffee, wine, and dessert at Bristol, my friend Elizabeth made a request, so I delivered.

Here is Hidden Location #4 which is, hopefully, a bit more difficult. Leave comments.

661. Errant Strokes

Well into the night, I had some surprise conversation with a friend I had been missing. We're both suffering from a similar malady and it was good to reconnect. I'm recognising I often hastily and callously paint a canvass with the wrong emotional colors and that time eventually corrects such errant strokes. Even in these shortest of days, it is best to be optimist (and I am), even if not a very good one at times.

Hidden Location #3 and the answer to #2

The responses were in the neighborhood but not on the money. The answer is W. Hill Street looking east. That's the 14th Street Railroad overpass in the distance and beyond that 13th Street and the Park Hill area.

The hint had to do with the street intersection where the picture was taken. On the south side of Hill it is 16th; on the north side it is 15th. Hence the -1, the difference between 16 and 15. And the railroad, which takes the place of 14th, allows for the second -1.


Here is a new photo --

Hidden Location #2 and a winner on #1

Well, that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Thanks to JeffNClifton and Marty for their answers. JeffNClifton was in the neighborhood but a little to the northwest.

Marty's answer, Ormsby looking east at I-65, is correct. The picture was taken in the 300 block of E. Ormsby Avenue. That's S. Preston Street in the distance.

Here is a new photo --




I await your comments/answers. Thanks for playing.

UPDATE - - This one is taking longer than the last one. None of many, many present players have correctly guessed the location. So here is your first obscure and probably not too helpful hint:

-1 behind you, and -1 more in front.

Hidden Location #1

As promised, a new feature - a new feature admittedly blatantly copied from www.brokensidewalk.com. Here is your first Hidden Location to guess its location. Leave answers in the Comments section. We'll see how this goes. One other note: if you click on the picture, it should open up in a much larger window.

660. Changes

That title - Changes - implies a lot. 2010 has been a year of changes for me. But this posting will not address all of that. I'm not ready to face all of those changes just yet, and much less write about them anymore than I have.

But I get comments not on the blog but in person from people reminding me to blog more often. I have gradually gotten out of the habit of blogging. While I could blame it on a number of things, mostly it has just been laziness - not taking the time to do it. And, like billions of other people, I have been blogging, so-to-speak, a lot more often in short paragraphs on Facebook and in 140 space comments on Twitter. Somehow I need to marry these social media thoughts with the blog so that we don't lose relevance or viability here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. It may or may not be too late, I don't know.

So, as a starter, my plan is to blog here more often by repeating some of the things I write about over on Facebook. I know I have at least one time copied over here a lenghty exchange on Facebook between me and Preston Bates, someone I used to converse with a lot but that haven't actually spoken with or seen in person for over three months. Nonetheless, we do get caught in the Facebook web now and then. So, again as a plan, I will be entering shorter posts on occasion copied from my own words, and those of others, from Facebook and/or Twitter.

I plan also to outright steal an idea from Brandon Klayko, who blogs at the Broken Sidewalk (www.brokensidewalk.com), a great blog concerning development and traffic patterns from around Louisville and the world. Brandon used to post pictures taken along one of Louisville's streetscapes and then ask his readers to identify the location. He hasn't done that since October 5th when he posted a picture taken in the 300 block of W. Woodlawn Avenue. I always enjoyed trying to guess the location and making comments when appropriate.

Given that there hasn't been such a posting in seven weeks, I will start the same game myself. If Brandon restarts the game on his end, I'll rethink my plagiarism.

So, that's the plan. We see if my execution fares well or not. Tomorrow I will post the first of the "Hidden Location" spots for my seven faithful readers to take a stab at identifying. I do not plan to limit the pictures to Louisville and Jefferson County, although most will be from this area. Some will also be out in the state or over in southern Indiana. But tomorrow's, as an introduction, will be a Louisville location. So, stay tuned.

Unrelated, today would have been my paternal grandfather's 104th birthday. His name was U. G. Noble, and he was a native of Alabama. He died on July 5, 1987 in Shelbyville and is buried at Louisville Memorial Gardens West in Shively.

Thanks for reading. Remember to look for tomorrow's Hidden Location stumper.

659. Get Right With God - Point/Counterpoint

My friend Tim Havrilek has been mentioned here in the blog before. He operates The Underground Rooster blog, a blog which is subtitled Politics and Life in Western Kentucky. This morning Tim's entry was called West Kentucky Results and My Take on General Election. I felt at least parts of it deserved a response. Below is Tim's entry (in italics) and following that is my response. Tim's blog, should you wish to read it for yourself, and I suggest you doing so as it, like mine, wanders from time-to-time away from politics can be accessed at www.undergroundrooster.blogspot.com. But, this entry, and my response, are commentary on a subject Tim and I wholly agree upon - electing Democrats to office.

Tim Havrilek wrote:

It's early Wednesday morning and I'm still reviewing the results from across the state. First, I'm pleased that two of our clients were victorious that being Dennis Parrott in the 10th Senate District and Rep. Carl Rollins who chairs the House Education Committee. I'm sick about Will Cox Jr. losing his re-election bid for Mayor of Madisonville. The Republicans swept through Hopkins County. Sen. Jerry Rhoads retained his seat but lost his home county of Hopkins. Muhlenberg County provided Rhoads enough of a margin to win. The Republicans also picked up Eddie Ballards seat with the help of most big name Democrats in Hopkins. Republican Ben Waide won Eddie Ballard's seat with 56.59% of the vote (6,887 to Mike Duncan's 5,284. Rand Paul carried Hopkins County with 59% of the vote. Will Cox lost the mayor's race by 72 votes. It would appear that the African-American precincts in Madisonville decided to vote for Republicans this year.

Republicans did well in Trigg and Todd County. The Republicans retained the County Judge Executive position while picking up the Sheriff's office. Rand Pual carried Trigg by 19%. In Todd County Paul won also by 19% and Republicans picked up the County Judge Executive's seat.

Rex Smith waged a campaign that appeared to be very one-sided. Smith invested a lot of his own money and it seemed to have paid off. Bob Leeper's campaign was non-existent on the air waves. Smith ran very good commercials promoting his Christian and traditional West Kentucky values by using his Sunday School Class and pictures of himself with his shotgun as a backdrop. Former Governor Julian Carroll was also heavily involved in the Smith Campaign. Leeper did in fact pull the race out in the end with by a small margin from McCracken County losing Marshall and Ballard Counties.

It would appear that the Senate Democrats have lost two seats with Boswell and Reynolds losing and have picked up one Conservative Democrat by gaining Dennis Parrett . It would also appear the Republicans have gained a net 7 seats in the Kentucky House.

So what's the lesson. Well it's the same as its been for the last 26 years. Simply put there has never been nor will there ever be a future for a progressive/liberal agenda in Kentucky. Kentucky should have divorced itself years ago in a public manner from the National Democratic Party. Kentucky Democrats must embrace and promote only the issues important to the majority of Kentuckians. Jack Conway gave away a U.S Senate seat by not focusing and prioritising the federal issues important to Kentuckians that being agriculture, military,veterans, coal & fiscal conservatism. Until Democrats can prove that they are 100% committed to these issues then winning federal races will remain a futile effort in Rural Kentucky.

Democrats like Rex Smith, Will Coursey, and Martha Jane King were all smart enough to champion Christian values, guns, agriculture and veterans. In short, you don't get to hold office and talk about jobs and education until you get right with God and Rural Kentucky. Athough Smith lost his race he ran a very effective camapaine.

The lesson- There is no future in supporting or promoting the left wing platforms of the National Democratic Party. It's time for Conservative Democrats to rule the roost. The alternative-keep losing.

Below is my response:

Tim -- I tried to comment on your blog, as I have done many times in the past, but was restricted from doing so. Thus, I have copied below my comments in response to your most recent post. They take, as you might expect, an opposing view of some of what you said. Having said that, I otherwise hope all is well with you and yours.

Greetings from a tiny but bright Blue spot in a sea of Red, Louisville. I fully understand there are social issues which create a large gulf between how we vote up here and y'all vote down there. But I also believe that some of the "progressive/liberal" values we promote and support also offer and create a better way of life for many people, including your readership in rural and west Kentucky.

Serving the poor and the needy aren't geographic or ideologic issues. Providing healthcare - not the Obamacare which has many people upset, but the healthcare known as Medicare and Medicaid at the federal level, and K-chip and other programs at the state level, again, aren't geographic or ideologic issues - they are issues of importance to people in all of Kentucky's 120 counties.

I know that we on the left do an absolutely horrible job of communicating why these issues are important, irrespective of one's place on the political spectrum or the address and zip code on one's mailbox. The fact remains that these and many other tenets of the National Democratic Party serve well the hopes, dreams, and importantly, the needs of rural and west Kentuckians, as well as the rest of us.

If we as a country continue on a path of less government, continued lower and lower taxes, and widening the chasm of civility between people on the left and people on the right, and all of those in the middle, sooner or later there will be no government left to serve any one at any level for any purpose. That is the slippery slide of which we should all have a measure of concern. And, once down that slide which we've already begun, will be catastrophic for all Americans.

There is a reason that the founding fathers began the words of our Republic's guiding document, the United States Constitution, with the single word "We" - a word of simultaneous plurality and oneness. They understood that for America to succeed and thrive, which it has, there must be a social contract and construct among us. Since the election of Ronald Reagan, who successfully taught us the fallacy that the government is bad, our country has become less and less a citizenry of "We the people" and more and more a citizenry of "Everyman for himself and to hell with those who can't keep up."

I do not believe that "survival of the fittest" is in the best interests of the great many of us who, collectively [a word which I know I should not have used but there is no other which fully suggests its definition], are called Americans. And in the end, I hope that voters who feel this way will see the error of their ways and return towards Jesus' teachings in the gospels of "feed my sheep, tend to the poor, care for the elderly, the homeless, the orphaned, and the widowed." He also said to "render unto God and to render unto Caesar." Neither God (religion) nor Caesar (government) can do their respective works of grace, mercy, and justice, without sufficient support from the people.

It is wrong to believe that people who think as I do have not "gotten right with God" nor are not "championing Christian values" as you suggest. Most of us take very strongly our belief in God, our various denominational religious teachings, and fully believe we are in fact "right with God" and are working assiduously to "champion our Christian values."

*****

Your thoughts?

Election Day 2010

I was voter #3 at in precinct N134 at the Cable Baptist Church gym early this morning. I always get a little emotional when I vote knowing that, along with millions of other Americans, some in their right minds and others in the right wing, I am doing my part. Irrespective of a person's political place on the spectrum, voting is an essential part of being an American. Failing to vote is, for me, a difficult thing to explain. Intentionally failing to vote, for me, is unpatriotic and treasonous.

I understand that not everyone is always happy with the choices they are offered on the ballot, often having to choose between the lesser of two evils in their minds. Very few of us, in any undertaking, whether at church, work, play, and/or especially in our personal lives, are always happy with the choices we have to make. But we do make them and live with the consequences.

In a previous post, I mentioned there were four election years of my thirty-two years of participating, which have stood out in my memory. But I still participated in those other twenty-eight years. I think it is important to do so. But more importantly, I believe it to be my duty as an American to do so. As I said, doing less is unpatriotic and, perhaps, treasonous.

If you do not know if you are registered, or where to vote, follow this link:

https://cdcbp.ky.gov/VICWeb/index.jsp