354. Happy Fifth of July

Today is the 5th of July, the day my grandfather Noble passed away in 1987. He was 80. Today also marks the birthday of my friend Dan Borsch, who is somewhere near 31, although I am just guessing. Happy Birthday Dan.

Yesterday, of course, was the Fourth of July, the 232nd birthday of the Republic. I began the morning as I have for years, gathering with other local Democrats (although not too many this year) for the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Party's Annual Reading of the Declaration of Independence. This event was started many years ago and is held in front of the World War II Memorial on the Court House lawn at Fifth and Jefferson streets.

The weather this year was ominous with clouds all around and rain here and there. Although an alternate site had been arranged, it was decided that we would proceed at the original location.

Jefferson County Democratic Party Chair Tim Longmeyer opened with brief and appropriate remarks. The Declaration was divided up into five parts and the reading commenced. Congressman John Yarmuth began, followed by Jefferson County PVA Tony Lindauer, followed by me, followed by Jeff Derouen who serves as Chief of Staff for Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo and is a resident of Okolona in Jefferson County. The final reader was Party Chair Tim Longmeyer. The event was closed with a singing of the National Anthem, led by Tony Lindauer. I've always enjoyed this event, whether the crowd was large or small - today's was small.

Later in the day, I trekked the 12 or 13 miles which separate me from my mother's house, where, knowing I had a day off from work, she has a list of things-to-do, some of which I got done. I'll do more today, and probably more tomorrow. We eventually had a typical July 4th meal of Hot Dogs and Macaroni Salad.

As I left her house in far southern (and suburban) Jefferson County, I made my way through several different subdivisions (Rowland Park, Woodcreek, Timber Glen, and Briar Cliff) on my course to I-65. Following I-65, I exitted at Jackson Street, coursing through the (urban) neighborhoods of Shelby Park, Smoketown, and my own, which at one time was called Clarksdale, but it usually referred to now as the East Market Street district. In any event, it occurred to me as I was crossing all these ethnic, racial, social, economic, and geographic divides, that all of us tend to celebrate this one day a year the same way.

While we may do Christmas different based on religious or family traditions, and birthdays are either celebrated wildly or sometimes not at all (two days ago a friend told me she was celebrating the 21st Anniversary of her 31st birthday), and Thanksgiving may mean travelling to grandmas or reservations at the Galt House, the Fourth of July is typically done the same by everyone who celebrates it - food, family, and fireworks. Maybe we owe the fireworks thing to Francis Scott Key, who penned the words "the rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air." Even with all the rain and fog and mist, there were plenty of both last night here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. Chances are you had the same experience.

Worth Reading Again

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

352. Rest In Peace Dottie Priddy

If you read back through some of my postings, you will have read that the first campaign I worked in, as a very young boy, was that of Dottie Priddy, who first ran for State Representative in 1969, when I was eight.

Dorothy Jean Hayes Priddy, known to everyone as Dottie, passed away today after a long illness at the age of 75. Her son Jerry and I grew up together and we are still close friends. He called me early this morning with the news. Her other children are Peggy, Judy, Larry, and Margie. Her husband James "Bud" Priddy died many years ago.

Dottie and Bud and their kids lived at the corner of Whippoorwill and South Park roads. My family lived seven doors up on Whippoorwill on the other side of the street. My mother and Dottie still live in the houses where there families were raised. Although Jerry and I ran around together, he is two years younger than me. His older brother Larry is one year younger than me. Peggy and Judy are older and Margie is the baby. We all grew up in one of those typical suburban neighborhoods of the 1960s and 1970s - there were about thirty kids in the neighborhood and we all played together up and down the street all hours of the day and night.

Dottie got into politics in the late 1960s. The old 45th House District covered everything from Old Shepherdsville Road (now just called Shepherdsville Road) in Okolona, and south of the Outer Loop, west toward Valley Station. In her campaign in 1969 I addressed envelopes at the direction of my grandmother, Tommie Hockensmith. Two other women were instrumental in her early election - Carolyn Beauchamp and Mildred Shumate. Now, all of them, all four, are deceased. My grandmother was first, then Carolyn, then Mildred, and now Dottie.

Addressing those envelopes was my first lesson on zip codes, borders, and dividing lines, and things like that - something which still fascinates me today. The original 45th LD had the following zip codes: 40219, 40229, 40118, 40272, 40214, a bit of 40258, and a bit of 40109. It was during the campaign that I learned the 40229 zip code ended at the end of my street and 40219 began. It is one of those flukes that the house immediately east of Dottie's (the Shumate's) had a 40219 zip code, while Dottie, as well as the house on the other side of the Shumate's was 40229. The Shumate's mailbox was (and still is) on the north side of South Park Road. The houses on either side (including Dottie's) were on the side roads off the south side and were therefore in the 40229 zip. Just to the west, over I-65, began the 40118 zip code for Fairdale. And I always remember that the old Cape Cod on the corner of Manslick and New Cut roads is where the 40272 zip began even though that was miles from Valley Station.

After the redistricting for the 1970 census, Dottie's 45th District was divided up into three additional seats, the 27th, 28th, and 29th, first represented in the new alignment by Archie Romines, Jimmie Dunn, and Al Bennett respectively. I know Mr. Dunn is deceased, I'm not sure about Mr. Romines, and Al Bennett is still with us, working to elect Democrats in his area off Blanton Lane. After another census ten years later, the 27th was redistricted out into Meade and Hardin counties. And ten years after that, the 45th was itself redistricted to Fayette County.

Dottie's camp consisted of a number of people from the areas she served, from McNeely Lake through Okolona and Minor's Lane, to Fairdale, Coral Ridge, and northward to what used to be called the Knopp-Melton area now a part of the Airport Industrial Zone. Dottie gained notoriety when, during the protests against Desegregation, she found herself arrested and chained to a phone pole in front of the Jerry's Restaurant on Preston Highway. She gained more notoriety when it was learned she often entered the House chambers with a weapon tied on like an ankle bracelet.

I worked for Dottie in all of her races for the State House, from 1969 to the last one in 1991, which she lost. She had beaten a number of people, among them Jim Prewitt, Tommy Hadl, Len Hardy, Jim Richardson, and most famously William "Fibber" McGee, a tavern owner and all around great guy in Okolona. Fibber too has moved on to his reward in the final precinct in the sky. Supporters then lined up behind either Gene Drago on Dottie's side or "Big" Ed Louden on Fibber's side. Her final primary opponent was Joe Monroe, another good guy from up in Okolona, who I last saw at the wake for Mildred Shumate. Joe now lives out in Meade County.

These are the people who first taught me politics. They were mostly conservative Democrats, almost Dixiecrats, all tied in some ways to unions, and all working class folks who, whether they were for you or against you, went out of their ways to help you. Most folks might remember Dottie for her anti-bussing days in the mid 1970s. Others will know the laws she passed on behalf of the FOP, which were some of her strongest supporters. But there was also the last endorsement she made in a Democratic Primary in 2004, which went to Ken Herndon in his race for the Senate. She certainly had the capacity to support a broad spectrum of politicians and politics.

Late in her life, she sought and won a seat on the Jefferson County School Board and won re-election in 2002 without ever leaving her home. Her final years have not been good and illness prevented her from doing much of anything. I last saw her on Easter Sunday of 2007. Her son Jerry told me she had been more or less hospitalized since Easter Sunday of this year.

She is to be buried at Rest Haven Cemetery.

Rest In Peace, Dottie.

351. Events along KY 864 - Church and Politics

Two events: Holy Family Church Summer Picnic and Yarmuth Campaign Office Grand Opening


Kentucky State Highway 864 is a state maintained highway in Jefferson County. It runs nearly the entire length of the county, beginning at the intersection of Thixton Lane (KY 2053) and Cedar Creek Road, just a few hundred yards north of the Jefferson-Bullitt County line. It follows Cedar Creek Road north past the "T" intersection, where Cedar Creek runs to the east, opposite the site of the old Lovvorn School House, where back in the 1970s, weekends in October meant touring the old school as part of a Haunted House outing. KY 864 continues from this point on Cooper Chapel Road, named for another old southern Jefferson County landmark, the Cooper Memorial Church, properly now called Cooper United Methodist Church, which is located on Preston Highway (KY 61), south of Okolona, but in the vicinity where once was the community known as Crossroads Precinct, roughly where the Lowe's is now at Preston and the Snyder Freeway (I-265/KY 841).

At another "T" intersection, where the now east-west running Cooper Chapel intersects with Beulah Church Road, yet another road named for another venerable old church, this one over in Fern Creek and now known as the Beulah Presbyterian Church, 864 turns north onto Beulah Church. The road continues up to the intersection of Beulah Church Road and Fegenbush Lane, and not far removed from Fegenbush's intersection with the Outer Loop (KY 1065) and South Watterson Trail. This intersection has been realigned twice in my lifetime and there are current Transportation Department plans to realign it yet again, perhaps with one of the British-style roundabouts.

It is at this point that KY 864 turns left onto Fegenbush, while Beulah Church turns right onto, well, Beulah Church (at this pont carrying KY 1065). Fegenbush Lane is named for the family which operated the old Fegenbush Orchards at Fegenbush Lane and Bardstown Road (US 31E/US 150) several miles north of this point. The last of the trees in the orchard are still standing in a small plot of land roughly opposite and a little to the south of the McDonald's at Bardstown Road and Fegenbush Lane. We visited the orchard as a Field Trip when I was a kindergartner at Okolona Christian Church in 1965.

Ky 864 follows Fegenbush northward to the newly completed intersection with Fern Valley Road (which was formerly KY 1631 but is now KY 1747) on the west and South Hurstbourne Parkway (which always has been KY 1747) on the east. There are a group of merchants who want to change the name of Fern Valley at this point to Hurstbourne, which they feel is more business-friendly, but thus far that move hasn't happened. Poplar Level Road used to intersect with Fegenbush here, but with the extension of Hurstbourne from Bardstown Road south to this point, it was more feasible to connect it with Fern Valley which much further west intersects with Interstate 65. The connecting parts of Fern Valley and Hurstbourne Lane have been slowly connecting to each other throughout my lifetime, and now form a loosely (and poorly) drawn circle from the Ford Motor Company in the south to the Summit Center along KY 22 and the Snyder Freeway in the northeast. But, I digress.

KY 864 is routed along Fern Valley for only a short distance, where it turns off onto Poplar Level Road. From this point, at the southern edge of Louisville's General Electric Appliance Park, KY 864 follows Poplar Level several miles, well into the old city limits, which before Merger was called the City of Louisville, but now is called the Louisville Urban Services District, a fancy name created by His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, to allow for a system of double-taxation to exist for some taxpayers in our new unified (but not uniform) government. But again, I digress.

It is on Poplar Level Road where the first event on today's calendar is located. Starting tonight about 5 and running through midnight and again tomorrow night during the same hours, my church, Holy Family Catholic Church, will be hosting its Annual Summer Picnic. The church is located about two blocks north of the Watterson Expressway (I-264). If you show up, and I happen to know you, it is likely you will hear a loud booming voice calling your name as if from the clouds, much as God did when he spoke to Abraham. Be not afraid, the voice isn't nearly so powerful as that of God's, it is only me. I am the emcee for the event, a role I have taken for several years. So, do come by and eat some food, spend some money, drink some sasparillas, spend some money, spin the wheels, spend some money, then spend the rest of your money. Then go to the ATM and come back tomorrow night for more of the same. You can park at the KMart across the street.

But, back to KY 864. From my church, the route continues north crossing Eastern Parkway (US60-Alternate) where the name becomes Goss Avenue, named for the Thomas Goss farm which formerly existed roughly where Saint Xavier High School now stands and a few blocks south of Saint Michael's Field. Ky 864 continues on Goss Avneue northward through the sub-community of Schnitzelberg, itself a part of Germantown, which is itself an older neighborhood of the old City of Louisville. Just after crossing the Norfolk Southern Railroad, Logan Street splits off one way north, carrying KY 864 with it. The southbound lanes in the part run along Shelby Street.

Just south of Broadway (US 150), 864 routes itself a half block east along Finzer Street, then north on Campbell. Prior to 1984, the routing continued with the northbound lanes of KY 864 running along Campbell while the southbound lanes ran along Shelby. Since that time, and the construction of the Chestnut Street Connector, 864 - both north and south, have followed this connector north to the intersection of Jefferson and Baxter (US 31E), where the Connector (at this point simply called Chestnut Street) becomes Baxter and Jefferson becomes, well, Baxter. KY 864 ends here, a few blocks south of Main Street (US 31E/US60) and about one mile south of the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606.

But, for the sake of this entry, we are returning to the old routing of KY 864 along Campbell Street, which crosses directly in front of where I live. As I have mentioned before, three blocks north of where I live, where Campbell Street intersects with Market Street (US 31E-US60), the Yarmuth for Congress Campaign has relocated itself into the building which most recently was occupied the Obama for President campaign, at 900 E. Market Street, and for many years housed the Hausman Jeep Company.

Between my Holy Family picnic hours tonight and tomorrow night is another event you shouldn't miss. Congressman Yarmuth will be in town (as he is most every weekend anyway) to open the new headquarters and you are invited. The Grand Opening will run from 10am to 2pm and there will be lots to do. So, please, come on down on Market Street and join the Congressman and his staff for this event, as we kick off what will end up being his re-election this fall to the 111th Congress. Keep in mind when John wins this fall, it will be the first time since 1992 that a Democrat has be re-elected to Congress from the Third Congressional District of Kentucky. Woohoo!

348. Summer Sunday; so starts another week.

The Belle of Louisville with Jeffersonville, Indiana in the background.


We boarded the Belle of Louisville at 1:30 pm for the 2:00 launch. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We sat on the starboard side of the boat toward the stem, so along the way upriver, our view was of the Left Bank of the Ohio River, that being the Kentucky side. The ride takes you upstream past the Waterfront Park, the as-yet-unbuilt River Park Place development at Beargrass Creek, the various industrial sites just east of Beargrass, past the Kingfish Restaurant and the Louisville Water Company, past Turners and Waldoah Beach and Cox's Park (properly Carrie Gaulbert Cox Park), and almost to the Knights of Columbus building on River Road. Then the boat makes the turnaround for the ride home. Seeing the city skyline from 4 or so miles upriver, and seeing it from the middle of the river during the turnaround, is an awarding sight. The return trip, facing Indiana, starts just upriver from the big American Commercial Barge Lines building out Utica Pike from Jeffersonville. We traversed past homes large and small facing the river, some like cottages, others like castles, including those in the Arctic Springs development. Next comes the long ship and barge building yards of JeffBoat, a long time Louisville area employer. Eventually we arrived alongside the Park and Wharf on Riverside Drive in downtown Jeffersonville - easily one of the best places to view the Ohio, with older large homes overlooking the river, and all unfortunately in the path of the proposed new I-65 bridge being promoted by His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, the Courier-Journal, and other powers-that-be. But I digress.

Eventually we cross back under the Big Four, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the George Rogers Clark bridges, where we returned to port at the foot of Fourth Street in Louisville. All in all a very enjoyable ride, and the rain only started as we were disembarking. My niece, for whom the ride was taken in celebration of her 21st birthday (a celebration which even she admitted has been going on for about a week), had a wonderful time. She was accompanied by her boyfriend Matt, her grandparents, and her oldest uncle, me.

345. Very Late Spring Shower

Spring comes to an end tomorrow at 7:59 pm here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606 according to the astronomical tables. As if to put an exclamation point on the end of Spring, Mother Nature opened the clouds here and dropped upwards of 2/10 inch of rain in the last hour or so. At the Morris Forman MSD Plant down in the West End, the gauge reads 86/100 inch, making it the highest in the area. At the Nightingale reporting station, along Poplar Level Road between Audubon Parkway and Fincastle Road, the gauge is reading 69/100 inch. At the Jeffersontown Waste Water Treatment Plant, 42/100 inch was reported. But, most stations are reporting between 1/10 and 2/10, if they are reporting anything at all, which two of them are not.

It seems to be passed and the temperature is still above 80 degrees.

Happy Birthday to Jon Hurst who is 31 today. I'm off to his party right now.

344. On the occasion of a Strawberry Moon

Twenty-one years ago today, at 3:03 pm, I became an uncle - for the first time. Lindsey Shea Noble was born this day in 1987 at Audubon Hospital to my brother Kevin and his girlfriend Dawn, the first of their two (and his six and her three) children. I was there and I was awed, but also thankful that this new fragile but very healthy creature was their's and not mine. She would be my niece and that was something I could deal with, and have pretty successfully I think. Another of Lindsey's uncles was also there for her birth, a very young man named Jordan, about 6 years old as I remember. At one point when he was getting fidgetty, I offered to take him down to the cafeteria and buy him a coke. As we were going through the cashier's line, he blurted out to her, "We're having a baby!" Thinking I was the father, the lady congratulated me. I started to explain but Jordan interrupted saying, "He's not the dad. We're uncles-in-law." Out of the mouth of babes . . . .

The year Lindsey was born, the Moon was one week into its waning from Full to New, having come that year in June on the 11th. Today marks the Full Moon for the month of June, which is sometimes called the Strawberry Moon as it is the time of the Strawberry Harvest. Another name for it is the Honey Moon as bees make their way from plant to plant and hive to hive producing the mysterious elixir of the gods. Tonight, tomorrow night, and the next will have long hours of this bright moon overlooking Mother Earth. Coinciding with these long nights are the long days we are having, days which will reach their longest the day after tomorrow on the occasion of the Summer Solstice, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, on the 20th. Friday will be the night known to lover's of the Bard as Midsummer's Night, a night fraught with magic. It is the night Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, that "merry wanderer of the night, a shrewd and knavish sprite," makes his rounds having fun and wreaking havoc.

Speaking of Shakespeare, tonight is opening night of this year's Free Will in Central Park, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. Julius Caesar takes the stages for a run, followed by Pericles in July. The perfromances begin at 8:00 pm in Louisville's Central Park at S. 4th Street and W. Magnolia Avenue. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"

The Midsummer's Night Celebration Festival in Tara, Ireland

343. Fathers Day, 2008

The first reading this morning, taken from the Eighteenth Chapter of Genesis for this Fifth Sunday After Pentecost, is the familiar story of the Lord and his angels making a visit upon Abraham and Sarah and granting to them a newborn son, this when they were both approaching 100 years of age. In the story Sarah laughs to herself, saying something to the effect, "oh yeah, now that I am old, you bring me some pleasure" when the angel says he will return when her son is born and the angel sort of makes fun of her for doing so, which frightened her. But, the Lord made good on his word and Isaac was born to the two old timers. It is rather unusual for the Lectionary's readings to coincide with secular holidays such as Father's Day, but today's did just that with a story on the beginning of a fatherhood, one which for Abraham lives on to this time. Abraham was said to have been 100 when Isaac was born.

My dad, Gene Noble, was 20 when I was born in September, 1960. He and my mother had been married by a Justice-Of-The-Peace on the day after Christmas in 1959, so they made the nine-month period by hours, not weeks. He is now 68 and, while today he seemed to be in pretty good health, that is the exception of late and not the rule. And while he didn't raise me and our personal paths and beliefs are divided by great valleys as opposed to small ravines, our geographic division is, in these days, measured in blocks. I live in the 500 block of South Campbell. He lives a few doors west of the 200 block of North Campbell. Seven blocks and a generation of attitude are easy stumbling blocks to overcome.

Today for Father's Day, I went to his house where he was having a cookout, one of his passions. He had bratwursts and garlic hot dogs, Ale-8-Ones (my favorite), and ice cream. My oldest niece, who will be twenty-one later this week was there, as was my mother who has been my father's ex-wife since 1964, and now serves as a caregiver and best friend. My brother called in an appearance, as he was home celebrating his own Father's Day with his three youngest children. As an aside, my brother has a new young girlfriend, the approximate age of my oldest niece (as best she and I can tell), who will likely provide him with yet more offspring if his past is any indication. As God promised Abraham he would be a father of nations, Kevin's procreative activities at least promises that he might be the father of his own precinct. But, I digress.

Dad is worried he is getting old. This is another one of his passions. He has been passionately worrying about getting old since he was about 49, the year he had his first heart attack. And, to be sure, there have been times I thought he was old enough and ill enough that his birthdays, Christmasses, and Fathers Days might be numbered. He has a number of health problems which hold him back more than they should. I hope his good health picture today continues on for a while. He is too young to stop complaining.

Happy Father's Day.

341. On the road again.

The trip to Lexington over the weekend provided an excuse to do some driving, some driving which I had not done since the price of gas went up to $4.00 a gallon. It was my intent upon leaving Lexington to drive over to Georgetown to see a friend and I had already called him from the Heritage Hall Convention Center saying I would do so. I had even parked my car headed west on the north-side of Main Street (right in front of the historic First Baptist Church of Lexington) so I'd be aimed in the right direction upon departure. Actually, those direction-words in the previous sentence are misleading. Downtown Lexington's street grid is at a decided tilt toward the southeast. Streets running from northwest to southeast are labelled as East-West streets, with names such as Main, Vine, Short, Maxwell, and High, and all the numbered streets just north of town. Those running from northeast to southwest are labelled as North-South streets, with names such as Broadway, Upper, Limestone, Martin Luther King, and Rose. So, I was actually headed northwest, not just west. But, I digress.

I left Lexington with the intent of driving to Georgetown on the Georgetown Pike, which is US 25. But, for whatever reason, I didn't make the fork where US 25 breaks off of the Newtown Pike (KY 922) at a slight angle to the - let's get this right - to the north-northwest - where Newtown, Gerogetown, and West Fourth Street all intersect. I was probably too tired to make any good decisions at that point, so I continued north on Newtown making a stop at the McDonald's just north of I-64/75 for a cup of coffee, this despite the fact that the temperature was still in the 90s even well into the evening. For about two years, the quality of McDonald's coffee has been pretty good and something of a value, much as many years ago people would drive to a White Castle, which in those days were few and far-between, for their special blend of coffee.

When I went to pull out of the McDonald's, I noticed new construction on Newtown going on toward the north, so I followed the formerly lazy country lane out of town. And while there is a widening project going on, it doesn't go on very far, and the road returns to the bucolic drive I had been down several times before. It follows north past the Iron Works Pike to the African-American community of New Zion, just after crossing over North Elkhorn Creek at Lemons Mill Road. From there it continues north to US 460, called Paris Pike now that we are into Scott County. At this intersection, which is maybe two or three miles east of town, I turned west, toward town. For the record, the village of Newtown is for the most part gone. Had I turned east about 1/2 of a mile and crossed over the little Cherry Creek bridge, with the cemetery on the right, where Leesburg Pike runs off to the northeast, I would have made it to Newtown.

Eventually, I got into Georgetown, mostly now known as home to Toyota since the 1980s, but which has always been a beautiful small town set amongst the hills along several curves of North Elkhorn Creek, and also home to Georgetown College, a Baptist-church affiliated seat of higher learning which is Alma Mater for my cousin Steve Collins. My meeting with my friend was, as planned, not very long as I was tired and intent on getting to Louisville sometime before sunrise, knowing that upon leaving there, I'd be driving over to Frankfort, probably stopping somewhere just to unwind, which in fact I did.



The road from Georgetown to Frankfort, US 460, is a relatively due west affair passing through places that used to be called names like Great Crossing, White Sulphur, and Woodlake. On arriving in Franklin County, the one name that does remain is Forks of Elkhorn, which is sort of spread out for a half-mile or so where the highway crosses the creek, just upstream from the dam and the forks, with the old Buck Run Baptist Church along the banks. This stretch of US 460 is due to be widened and much of this area, including the church buildings, are slated to be removed. If I am not mistaken, my mother's first cousin Jean Moore, now of Choateville, was baptised at Buck Run.

Eventually I made my way down into the comfortable confines of my favorite capital city, and from there took I-64 back towards the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606.

Still on Recess

Briefly, I've had a few emails inquiring of my health. I'm fine. Tomorrow will mark the 3rd anniversary of my successful brain surgery removing a tumor from behind my left eye. The surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Doyle of Louisville about whom I will always think highly, despite his being a Republican.

The Blog will remain on recess for a bit longer.

We have a Democratic nominee for President. We made history.

Finally there are still unresolved issues concerning a piece of hate-mail issued in the Sixth Council District by an unknown group on the Saturday before the Primary. Several groups of people are interested in uncovering the truth about this hate-mailing.

337. Kentucky's Presidential Primary - A Look Back

Ok, one quick entry.

Back on May 14 - an eternity ago in this political season - I made some presidential predictions for Kentucky over on Jacob Payne's pageonekentucky.com.

A friend of mine emailed me today and suggested I look at my predictions to see how I did with those pageonekentucky.com predictions. As those of you who were at Ken's party Tuesday night know, I predicted Ken would win by 54 votes, but he lost by 112. So my numbers are a little iffy for the moment. So, here goes.

In the First Congressional District, I wrote --
"Clinton 61, Obama 27. Obama scores some few numbers in McCracken, Hopkins, Christian, and Calloway, but nothing to impress. John Edwards picks up a few votes here."

What really happened was Clinton 71, Obama 23. I was off by 14 points, 10 in Clinton's favor and 4 to Obama's detriment. Obama got 30.14% in McCracken, 22.74% in Hopkins, 37.21% in Christian, and 25.98% in Calloway. McCracken and Calloway beat the statewide average of 30%. So, I don't really know much about the 1st District.

In the Second Congressional District, I wrote --
"2nd CD — Clinton 57, Obama 29. Obama has pockets of support in Meade, Warren, and Daviess, and maybe Hardin. “Uncommitted” runs up a few votes in the 2nd, maybe into double digits."

What really happened was Clinton 69, Obama 26. My predictions were off by 15 points. That's a little better than I did in the 1st, but not much. "Uncommitted" outpolled John Edwards here by about 1000 votes, just as in the 1st. In Meade, Obama got 24%; in Warren, 32.72%; in Daviess, 29.43%; and in Hardin, 35.40%.

In the Third Congressional District, where I am supposed to know what I am doing I wrote --
"3rd CD — Obama 55, Clinton 42. Obama carries the 3rd with large support as expected in African-American precincts, as well some unexpected parts out 3rd Street, Preston Highway, and Shelbyville Road."

What really happened was Obama 53.2, Clinton 44.1. I was off by about 4 points. I feel pretty good about my 3rd Congressional District predictions. I haven't yet pored through the precincts yet to know whether my further suggestions were true or not, but I will and I will report back.

In the Fourth Congressional District, I wrote --
"4th CD — Clinton 53, Obama 42. Obama garners support all through the 4th, with similar but losing percentages in each county, but none in large enough numbers to overcome Clinton."

What really happened was overwhelming to say the least. Clinton won with 71.21%, Obama got 24.35%. My target was 36 points off. My views of the upper Ohio River counties were way off. Obama did well, meaning he didn't lose that bad in Oldham, Campbell, Kenton, and that part of Scott in the 4th CD. Otherwise, he was thumped.

In the Fifth Congressional District I wrote --
"5th CD — I expect the 5th CD to be a surprise in this contest. My brain says that the 5th CD should vote in numbers similar to West Virginia where Clinton won 67 to 25, but my gut says Obama does better than expected, but still loses. Clinton 55, Obama 42."

What really happened was that I must have been deep into either the bottle or the herb when I wrote that. Clinton 87.68%, Obama 8.80%. That's a 65 point error on my part. I'll be honest. I went back and checked my math because I was astonished. This was West Virginia except on steroids. This was a step back into the Old South and the Old Dominion. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny! But, that is why we have elections. People have the right to vote and vote for the candidate of their choice. It is a far, far better thing to have voters who vote their minds and in ways with which you disagree, than to have voters who are told they can only vote for the official party sanctioned candidate - things we read about in other countries.

In the Sixth Congressional District, I wrote --
"6th CD — Clinton 52, Obama 41. Lexington and Frankfort run up some numbers for Obama but not nearly enough, but still more that anticipated. “Uncommitted” does well here too, but not into double digits."

What really happened was Clinton 60, Obama 34. I was off by 15 points. Obama carried Fayette with 51.42%. He got 30% in Franklin County. In Congressman Ben Chandler's home county of Woodford, Obama scored a favorable 37.19%.

Over for the Commonwealth, I wrote --
"Kentucky as a whole goes for Clinton by less than expected but still a large comfortable win - Clinton 56, Obama 36."

The actual number was 65 to 30. Again, I was wrong to the tune of 15 points.

So, if there are any statewide campaigns out there looking for a prognosticator, above is my latest resume. It isn't pretty unless you are only looking to win in the Third Congressional District.

*****

As I stated in the last two postings, I will be out for a few days, maybe more. I've noticed some comments on my previous entry but I have been advised not to comment on the matter as there are investigations underway. I still plan to seek reelection to the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee at the Convention on June 7. Stay tuned.

336. There's got to be a Morning After - and then some rest

The primaries are over. Obama won Louisville, Clinton won Kentucky, and George Unseld defeated Ken Herndon by a vote of 2093 to 1981 - a 112 vote margin in a 4074 vote race. I believe Ken was winning until an anti-gay mailing attacking both Ken and me went out at the last minute. It was a soft-porn piece along with some false allegations and a photo-shopped picture and was, as it was planned to be, quite damning, and with certainty, it cost Ken the race. Whoever created and paid for the piece got what they paid for.

Questions which need to be answered are:
1) Who would gain by Ken's losing?
2) Who would gain by defaming me?
3) Who prepared the mailing, which was a four-color glossy piece, which is expensive?
4) Who paid for the mailing, which was placed in a plain white envelope and mailed First Class?

The mailing and printing would have total costs of somewhere around $4000.00.

That's the report for the Morning After.

Today marks the birthday of seven friends of mine, some very close, some more distant, one of whom I saw for the first time just two days ago while campaigning in the California neighborhood in Louisville's 6th Council District. Happy Birthday to all of them.

This will be the last entry for a while. Our visitor ticker stands at 12,890. I will be back in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Election Day in Kentucky

Tomorrow is Election Day in Kentucky. The polls are open from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm local time. Anyone standing in line at 6:00 pm will be allowed to vote no matter how long it takes.

Vote for the candidate of your choice, or in the case of the Democratic nomination for president, you have the option of voting "Uncommitted" which is to say voting for the non-candidate of your choice.

As I said previously, the Democratic presidential race will come to an end tomorrow. Barack Obama will garner enough delegates by the end of the night from Kentucky and Oregon (2026) to be the nominee. Polls will close in Oregon at 11:00 pm Louisville time.

On Wednesday or Thursday I will make some comments on the election, especially the race in the 6th Council District of Louisville which turned ugly over the weekend. Then, on Friday, I am going to the doctor who will likely put me up in a private room for a few days.

Vote Early, Vote Often.

334. Miscellany

Barret Avenue is being repaved from Broadway, US 150, to Eastern Parkway, US 60A. Barret itself does not carry any numerical designation. That part of Barret north
of Broadway, in the area where the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Headquarters, Barret was once known as Underhill Street. The part of Barret which leads south from Broadway to Castlewood, and then up Castlewood to Baxter, was the original Newburg Road, or the road to Newburg, which historically was a white farming community between Buechel and Okolona. The original Newburg community was centered at what is now Poplar Level Road and Old Shepherdsville (or, as the Metro calls it, Shepherdsville Road, as there is no "New" Shepherdsville Road). Of course, today, the word Newburg still refers to a neighborhood between Newburg Road and almost to Preston Highway, south of Buechel and north of Okolona, but no longer white at all. Much of what is today known as Newburg was built in the 1960s as housing for the nearby General Electric Appliance Park, shown below in 1997, which itself has been in the news this week.

This week's announcement that Appliance Park was for sale obviously caught His Honor the mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro by surprise. It reminded me of the time about twenty years ago when the mayor made the Airport Expansion/UPS announcement, catching elected officials such as Fourth Ward Alderman Cyril Allgeier and "B" District Commissioner Irv Maze completely off-guard. The mayor's sometimes misdirected responses this week with two of Louisville's biggest employers, GE and Ford, made clear that some of the glitter is gone from the golden days or ore when a cheer here and a begonia there was all that was needed to keep the City on track.

Tracks brings us to another event held yesterday in Maryland. Big Brown, shown above, the horse which won the Kentucky Derby three weeks ago yesterday won the Preakness Stakes in a commanding performance and 5 1/4 length victory. On to New York and a possible, and apparently probable, Triple Crown win at the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. The last horse to win the Triple Crown did so the weekend I graduated from Durrett High School, thirty years ago next month. Steve Cauthen was aboard Affirmed for all three of the Triple Crown races, winning the final leg in 2:26.8 over Alydar, the first, last, and only horse to run second in all three races. The rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar is unmatched.

Finally, speaking of rivalries, we are having an election this week. My church's school, Holy Family School, held its School Board elections today, with four people seeking two seats on the school board. I only knew one of the candidates, a former student whose father is a friend of mine. I voted for her. My other vote went to a school mother who has a child in the 1st grade. All the other candidates' children were in higher grades. I figured with her's only in the 1st, she has seven more years of dedication and she may as well get started early.

There is of course that other election, the one that started so so many moons ago. It will come to an end Tuesday night in Louisville. Although the polls will close five hours later in Oregon, between the votes Senator Barack Obama will get in Oregon and the ones he is expected to get here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, he should have the 2026 delegates needed to claim the Democratic nomination for president. Expect to see one, if not both, of the candidates, along with their spouses, here in Louisville Tuesday night. Who could have ever dreamt we'd play such a role?

Finally, some birthdays. Yesterday was my middle niece's 12th birthday. Her name is Kavesha. Today is my friend Eleanor Jordan's birthday. I know how old she is but just in case she reads the blog, I'll omit it here.

That's all for today. Off to do a Herndon lit-drop in the 6th Council District, where based on the opponent's last minute barrage of negative ads, the race must be closer than people thought it would be.

333. In the Mailbox

I really want to write something about the Triple-3 entry number, but nothing comes to mind, other than there should be something significant about the entry which is numbered 3-3-3.

*****

From the mailbox today, I retrieved a bill from my dentist (who wants some money), a bill from LG&E (which also wants money), and from my State Senator, who included a donor envelope with his letter (so he wants money to).

My State Senator sent a letter today which in the first line tells me that representing me is a privilege that he "does not take lightly." He tells me he has been "dedicated, focussed, and effective" in his representation of me. And, he tells me that the district has approximately 105,000 and "it takes a great effort to communicate in a short period of time and it is costly." Hence, the donor envelope.

During the past three years while I have been represented by my State Senator, this is the first and only letter he has ever sent me telling me anything about his "dedidation, focus, and effectiveness." This is the first time I knew he "didn't take representing me lightly." In short this is the first time he has communicated with me while he has been on my and your payroll.

Conversely, I have communicated with him, at least twice during the recent General Assembly. I sent him an email on 01/24/2008 expressing my support for Senate Bill 3. I sent him another email on February 1, 2008 expressing my thanks for his support of Senate Bill 112. Neither email was responded to. I sent the same email to my other representative, Tom Riner, who serves me as the 41st District State Representative, who managed to respond back. I sent the SB3 email to a number of friends in the legislature and a few of them responded, but not my State Senator.

Now the truth is my State Senator pretty much votes the way I would want him to vote, whether he communicates with me or not. I have no qualm with his voting record. My State Representative, who does communicate regularly, with emails, phone calls, and personal conversations when we see each other in public, does not always vote the way I would want him to, but he bothers to tell me. And he bothers to just say hello. A lot. He sends Christmas cards, puts little American flags in yards on the Fourth of July, and helps out politically in the Fall, as he did in 2006 when we used his truck to transport tables for a John Yarmuth event in Fairdale, well removed from his district.

Another truth is that my State Senator will very likely very easily win his Primary a week from today, which is no doubt the reason he decided to finally send a letter telling me all the good things there are to know about him. His opponent hasn't raised much money and probably wouldn't vote nearly as well as my current State Senator. But, his opponent has asked me, in person and more than once, if I would vote for him. I know him through his former wife and their children. He has been asking me for that support since he filed for office back at the beginning of the year. He has used every opportunity he had, whether at the Kroger or the corner coffeeshop, to communicate in the same short period of time during which the incumbent has sent exactly one letter. As the incumbent said, it is difficult to communicate with so many people in such a short period of time. I mean he has only had three years.

332. Obama does Louisville

Tonight's Obama event in Louisville can be summed up in one or two or three sentences, although I've never been real successful at summing anything up in one or two or three sentences.

It is the largest indoor political event I've ever been to in forty years. It may have been the largest political event I've ever been to period. And most of the people there didn't have titles like State Representative, State Senator, State Central Committee Member, or Precinct Captain - most of them were simply the one majic commodity everyone is seeking - Voters. All types, all colors, all ages, and more than a few Republicans - all told between Eight and Ten Thousand. And that's the ones that got in before people were turned away.

Election Day is May 20th.

331. Pentecost and how it relates to today

Be forewarned, this is a religiously entrenched entry, but it is about living together mutually respecting each others differences and similarities.

Today in the calendar of the Church, the Feast of Pentecost is celebrated, marking the 50th day past Easter, and according to Scripture and tradition, the date of the founding of the Church as it was on this day that the Holy Spirit, the third entity in the Holy Trinity was sent down by Jesus upon his disciples. Pentecost, like many other Christian celebrations, finds its roots in other older tradition, that of the Jews, marking the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai on the 50th day after their departure from Egypt. There is something called shavout, which I will admit I do not understand which is analogous to Pentecost. And, it is likely the Jewish feast is itself based on some older tradition. There really is nothing new under the sun.

But I like Pentecost for other reasons. I am a fan of the Arthurian Romances, the stories handed down over the years pertaining to a semi-mythical leader from 5th century Britain - King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and especially Prince Merlin, who was said to have been born upon the Autumnal Equinox, as was I. King Arthur's annual big backyard party, complete with fatted calves, lots of wine, jousting tournaments, and the eventual search for the Questing Beast and the Holy Grail, was held each Pentecost. It was on the Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday as it is called in old Britain, that Arthur held a Plenary Court inviting all the knights and ladies, kings and princes, and other petty officers from throughout the land to his court. There they could visit, catch up on old news, find out who is a new father or mother, and learn any other news from both the neighboring kingdoms as well as the foreigners across the Channel or the Irish Sea.

But there is another even more important reason I like Pentecost, and one which is important in today's multicultural, multiracial world - the readings assigned to it in the Lectionary, the Church's three year cycle of Bible readings.

This morning I attended the 8:30 AM mass at Holy Family. Arriving about 8:00, there were great clouds and strong winds, appropriate weather for today's first reading taken from the Book of Acts.

Acts 2: 1-11
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God."

My point here is this. Even 2000 years ago, men (and women, even though they aren't mentioned) of different cultures, races, and ethnicities found themselves living, working, playing, and probably procreating with each other on a regular basis. They spoke different languages, they lived by different codes and mores, they followed different leaders, and they ate different foods. But, on this occasion at Jerusalem as the Holy Spirit descended upon this motley crew of seemingly different people, the Spirit didn't divide them into groups of white or black or brown or yellow, or of rich or poor, or of gay or straight, or of men or women, or of Obama-followers and Hillary-followers, or Democrats or Republican or Libertarians, or even of blog-readers and blog non-readers. The God of Abraham and Isaac and David and Isaiah and of Jesus and Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, and even of Paul (about whom I have reservations) - this God draws no lines in the sand. We are all one people, the people of God. Paul himself makes this argument to the people of Christ about 20 years after Jesus' death writing in the Book of Galatians, at Chapter 3, Verses 28 and 29:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendant, heirs according to the promise.

I don't really like quoting Paul a lot. I complain often that the Christianity preached by some modern-day right-wing Christian people is too based in some of the prejudices of Paul and not based enough in the simple words of Jesus Christ, who reduced all of the law (which is to say all of the Old and New Testaments) into Two Great Commandments, first to love God, and then to love each other.

It is this very simple theology, whether one wants to call it Christianity or any other name, that assures me that my very liberal beliefs about people, my acceptance of others from different races, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, religions, and even political philosophies, puts me clearly on the right side of God. I believe that.

And in these closing days of this year's presidential Primary season, when I hear code words on talk radio here and there, when I see cartoons depicting one or the other candidate with exaggerated features, or when I get emails questioning someone about their ties to Muslims while simultaneously attacking the same person over the views of their very Protestant (former) pastor who served in both the United States Marines and the U. S. Navy, it is in these times I am thankful that the words from the Book of Acts tells us the Holy Spirit doesn't discriminate. Perhaps, to be good Christians, or more broadly, to be good people, we shouldn't either.

330. Briefly, KDP event last night.

Everyone else was live blogging, so this is admittedly not the freshest news. But, I did have fun.

Arrived early to crowds of volunteers and staffers being kept from the room until way too late.

There was a large anteroom for candidates to greet the guests. I was there to work John Yarmuth's table. As it turned out, the anteroom activity was mostly the candidates and their supporters greeting each other. We were placed about 150 feet out of the general route of the arriving guests and very few made the journey over to the sidelines.

Worked the John Yarmuth table with Lisa Tanner, Shannon White, Jessie Phelps, and Brandon Jewell. Lisa came over early and worked setting the table up which was really nice, so she left early. Orange balloons. The John Yarmuth campaign owns the color orange. I think that was Dan Borsch's idea in 2006. John eventually visited our table and we had a nice chat.

Met and spoke with Heather Ryan, Democratic candidate for Congress in the 1st. Her table was to John's right. At the Democratic Women's Club table to our left were Joyce, Mary Allgeier, and Dottie Winfield. I've known Mary and Dottie since high school having gone to school with their sons. KDW President Diane Wood was there briefly and I took all their pictures.

Harry Johnson was working the Fischer table. Harry and I go back to the 1979 Lieutenant Governor's primary.

I spoke brielfy with Mrs. Press of Lexington about the evening. She is always interesting and delightful.

Several of the several candidates for Jefferson District Judge were there although Shellie Santry easily made the best impression with her large lavender sign in the corner. Met her husband, who is from Philadelphia, then Boston. Says he loves living in Louisville.

Chatted with Cathy Yarmuth who is the best candidate spouse ever.

Then we went into the big hall. I did not buy my way into the expensive seats, although I did try to sneak in, but to no avail. Had a good time meeting and greeting out front. Eventually my friend Keith Dickerson arrived - for the record he is not the Keith Dickerson who made the papers yesterday. That one was white and 35 - this one is African-American and 24.

Saw all the media, most of whom were blogging. Listened to Wanda Mitchell-Smith's long prayer about union. She mentioned union seven times. She is a Union leader. She did not invoke the Son's name at the end of her prayer but rather made it all-inclusive. I don't think God really cares how we end our prayers as long as we pray, but a lot of progressives make a big deal about it, as I have here.

DuPont Manual High School sent a chorale group which sung the National Anthem and My Old Kentucky Home. That was good.

Chatted a little with Jon Hurst. We'll get together after the Primary, the end of which is finally coming into sight. Chatted a little with Aniello Alioto, who is working for Obama and Lunsford. I saw Lunsford briefly. And Lynn Fischer, sister of Greg. I did not see Cassaro or anyone from his campaign. I met a tall woman named Stephanie who works for Congressman Chandler and so I made a joke about Chandler's Chief of Staff Denis Fleming, for whom I was a paralegal in the 1990s. God only knows what else I said. She was with Aaron Horner and a few others on a smoke break. But, I digress.

Jennifer Moore, Dan Borsch's girlfriend and simultaneously Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party began the night. No wait, David Tandy was up there for a while but I have no idea what he said. Then my congressman spoke but he was interrupted by some very rude Clinton supporters, which was uncalled for.

Then maybe Jennifer spoke again. I had a two beers and part of a Bloody Mary. What was I thinking? Keith had red wine. I even bought Harry Johnson a Bloody Mary. Again, what was I thinking? While I was at the bar, they read out the names of the State Central Committee. Jimmy Morphew (of Paducah) and I were standing out front chatting about the 1st CD at the time. When our names were called, we clapped for each other.

I did not see many other State Committee members there, although they may have been in the more expensive seats. I saw Jeremy Horton, who was very busy with headphones and a walkie talkie, and Millie Diehl, and Jimmy Morhpew. That was it. I know Tim Longmeyer was in there but he is still upset with me that I found fault in the way he has ran the Jefferson County part of the KDP reorg, so we didn't chat.

Eventually, we left. I was tired and I still had work to do in the Ken Herndon campaign before getting to sleep.

One final thought - strictly my opinion with no basis in actual knowledge. I didn't get a chance to see my friend Jerry Lundergan who in all likelihood arranged this whole thing. He saw a chance to help the Party raise money and agreed to bring in his good friend Hillary Clinton to help do so. She had been here before at his behest and for the same reason, as had the former President, her husband Bill Clinton. For all the Lundergan haters out there, and there are several, Jerry is a good guy. He may have a rough personality and you may not like him. But for four years, while there was a Republican in the Governor's Mansion, through whatever means, he personally kept the Kentucky Democratic Party open and alive and viable enough to help elect Steve Beshear in 2007. Lundergan's very good friend Greg Stumbo helped in that effort as well. So, if, as I believe, that Jerry had a large part in last night's affair - here is my thanks to him.

One final thought - His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro was there for about 15 minutes. (Did you get that Paul? - fifteen minutes. No doubt he was off to a soccer game or something more important).

329. Playing Hookie, An Impromptu Family Reunion, and other comments

Today was a beautiful, if somewhat breezy, day - a good day to play hookie (hooky?) from the office, and that is what I did. I had already planned to attend to some family business in Frankfort, so off I went to Kentucky's capital along I-64, where the widening project is coming along between the Weigh Stations and Waddy (or Waddy-Peytona for those of you who aren't aware these are two different places, the former an actual village a little south of I-64, the latter an intersection where the Elmburg Pike crosses the Old Louisville Road near Shelby County's recently built Heritage Elementary School. Eventually the interstate is to be widened all the way from Louisville to Frankfort. Eventually, given the state of affairs of the affairs of the state, may be a long wait, but the first steps have been taken.

After disposing of the family business, I made my way over to the Kentucky Democratic Headquarters, to see someone I had previously emailed about viewing some paperwork therein. Due to some scheduling conflicts, that paperwork-viewing didn't happen. There is some grand planning taking place at Headquarters as Friday, May 9th (pointed out to me in a phone call as being a mere 48 hours away) is the date scheduled for a big Kentucky Democratic Party fundraiser in Louisville, to be held downtown at the Convention Center. As an aside, I am old enough to remember when saying the words "the Convention Center" referred to a building on Muhammad Ali Boulevard between Armory Place and Sixth Street, back when Muhammad Ali Boulevard was still called Walnut Street. But, I am not of an age to remember the building alongside Armory Place actually being called The Armory, which for years it was. That building is now called The Gardens. The fundraiser is being held a few blocks to the northeast at 4th and Market streets. But, I digress.

While at HQ for my non-paper reviewing meeting, I struck up a conversation with the two women volunteering at the front desk, Hazel and another one whose name I have since forgotten. I didn't mention to them the aforementioned paper-viewing plans, but rather paid for two tickets to the aforementioned fundraiser scheduled this Friday in the aforementioned Convention Center. As I understand it, there are levels of financial participation, from the $10,000.00 level on down to the $50.00 level, the level upon which I will be participating. The higher the ticket value you purchase, the closer you will be to two bottles of wine, some dessert, Jerry Lundergan, Jon Hurst, and the Guest of Honor, New York Senator Hillary Clinton. At the $50.00 level, my seats may well be out in the middle of the Clark Memorial Bridge a few blocks away, but, as is sometimes lamented in these situations, it is for a good cause.

Before I left HQ, I also filled out one of those "I wanna be a delegate to Denver" forms, telling the two volunteer ladies I didn't really want to go, I just wanted to say I wanted to go. One of them, the one whose name escapes me, asked about the weather on my drive up which led to a conversation about how it is always windy at Democratic Headquarters, something I know to be true based on 35 years of visits. I remarked to her that across the street the Sunset Memorial Cemetery was also similarly typically windy. I mentioned my grandmother being buried there, and she assented in my suggestion that the cemetery was indeed a blustery place.

Upon leaving Headquarters, without viewing any papers or speaking to anyone in charge other than the two ladies, I made my way over to the cemetery. Buried therein are my grandparents, their parents, several of their brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws, all generally in the same area. While I was visiting the graves, first one car, then another pulled up behind mine and I noticed they were noticing me, and noticing in particular that I was standing generally in the same area they would be standing if they had beaten me to the area. Eventually emerging from the first car were my grandmother's first cousin, Mary Margaret Collins Jackson, her daughter Nancy who lives in Lexington, her granddaughter-in-law who is another woman whose name I didn't catch, and that young woman's child, Dominic Filipini, a resident with his parents and grandparents of Florida. Emerging from the second car was Mary Margaret's husband Jim, residents of Versailles.

Mary Margaret's father, Earl Louis Collins, and my great grandmother, Rachel Scott Brawner, were half-brother and sister, although we generally disregard that half business in our family. In common lingo then, me and Dominic Filipini, the young boy from Florida, are sixth cousins. A true genealogist would correct me on this pointing out that he is my third cousin thrice removed and I am his fourth cousin twice removed. In any event, including the deceased upon whose graves we were standing, there were five generations of us there, all descendants of Annie Choate Brawner Collins, who is herself buried downtown in the Frankfort Cemetery.

Eventually we all hugged and departed the confines of the decedents of our family. From there I made my way downtown, passing the Obama for President Frankfort HQ recently opened on Main Street, opening in the building next door to where my great-great grandmother Annie Choate Brawner Collins raised all those children. I met with my friend Aaron Horner for a cup of coffee at the Kentucky Coffeetree Coffeehouse, having of cup of the Peru blend brewed by Erec the barista. We chatted on the sidewalk about horseracing, roadtrips, Pat Riley (yes, THE Pat Riley), schedules, and a little politics. Former State Senator Lindy Casebier stopped by for moment and chatted as well, telling us of his connection with THE Pat Riley. One of Frankfort's street characters, a man named Tom, stopped to tell us he had enjoyed three coney-island dogs from the vendor on Saint Clair Street and was on his fifth cup of coffee from the coffeeshop, although his cup is one which, given the generosity of the coffeeshop, never runs dry. A Nicholasville-based R J Corman train came through from the west (which would mean it had probably passed through Waddy) to the east (toward Lexington) down the center of Broadway, headed for the pre-Civil War tunnel which Aaron suggested he might want to explore sometime. It was dug through in 1849 and is seen in the image below. I remember going through it several times as a teenager, which was a long time ago.

Finally, I departed my favorite capital city and made my way back home along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, where the beautiful but breezy day, has given way to some slight rain showers and an overcast sky.

Happy Trails.

328. Not much longer.

Edward G. Robinson was always one of my favorite actors. In Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 classic The Ten Commandments, he portrayed Dathan, a role expanded from just a few biblical mentions in the Book of Exodus into one whose raison d' etre was to be a thorn in the side of Moses. Dathan repeatedly asks Moses "How long?" "How long must we wait?" He would have felt right at home asking those questions during the current Democratic Presidential Primary, which seems to have been going on a long time, perhaps starting shortly after the Parting of the Red Sea.

"How long?" you ask. Today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina may bring some resolution. No, I'm not predicting an upset by either United States Senator against the other. Obama will win North Carolina; Clinton will win Indiana. After today, six primaries remain, and they will likely split as predicted, three for the Senator from New York; three for the Senator from Illinois. How then will today's very predictable outcome bring some resolution?

The Obama camp has been making the argument that Clinton can't win given the delegate count. They do not bother to say they can't either. But, the truth is, they can't either, barring some dramatic downfall of the former First Lady. As always, there are powers-that-be lurking in some erstwhile smoke-filled backrooms worrying about how to resolve the apparent deadlock as they approach the end of the line. And, there isn't any divine power lifting up a staff parting the waters of the Red Sea, drowning the non-believers anywhere on the horizon. Or is there?

Two superdelegates, one from Tennessee, the other from California, may hold the key, or Moses' proverbial staff. One is an environmentalist Nobel Prize winning nerd, the other an outspoken grandmother who wields more power in her gavel than any other woman in the history of the Republic. And after tonight's no-surprises of an election in North Carolina and Indiana, those two may just become the talk of the town.

Maybe. Maybe not.

327. A Brief Derby Entry

Suffice it to say, my horses lost. I sent bets out on Derby Day with my friend Jessie Phelps who was there with her beau, Brandon, in the infield. None of my three finished in the money. Here is the chart for the race:

Pgm Horse Win Place Show
20 Big Brown 6.80 5.00 4.80
5 Eight Belles 10.60 6.40
16 Denis of Cork 11.60

$2 Exacta (20-5) $141.60
$2 Trifecta (20-5-16) $3,445.60
$2 Superfecta (20-5-16-2) $58,737.80

My horses ran 6th, 16th, and 17th. There is always next year. A horse named Big Brown won the race by nearly five lengths. The filly Eight Belles placed second 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Denis of Cork, spelled Catholic-style with one "n", which ran third. Big Brown's win was tragically overshadowed by Eight Belles, which immediately after the race broke both her front ankles and was then euthanized on the track. It was a very sad ending to what had been a picture perfect day and a very strong performance by both Eight Belles and the winner Big Brown.

The 135th Running of the Kentucky Derby is set for May 2, 2009.



Just before the finish, that's Eight Belles on the left and Big Brown on the right.

326. My Derby Bets

Exacta Box with Gayego, Colonel John, and Bob Black Jack.

Across the Board bets on all three horses.

Happy Derby.

Happy Derby

See you Sunday or Monday.

*****

Born in the valley and raised in the trees
Of western Kentucky on wobbly knees
With mamma beside you to help you along
You'll soon be a-growin' up strong.

All the long, lazy mornings in pastures of
Green, the sun on your withers, the wind in
Your mane, could never prepare you for what
Lies ahead. The run for the roses so red.

And it's run for the roses as fast as you can.
Your fate is delivered. Your moment's at hand.
It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of
Chance. And it's high time you joined in the dance.
It's high time you joined in the dance.

From sire to sire, it's born in the blood. The
Fire of a mare and the strength of a stud. It's
Breeding and it's training and it's something un-
Known that drives you and carries you home.

And it's run for the roses as fast as you can.
Your fate is delivered. Your moment's at hand.
It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of
Chance. And it's high time you joined in the dance.
It's high time you joined in the dance.

Written, sung, and recorded by Dan Fogelberg in 1980, and released on The Innocent Age album in 1981.