These are a few of my favorite things...

I'll admit that I probably complain a bit too much about the place that I live. This occurred to me yesterday afternoon as I was driving down I-265 toward home. The sky was a bright autumn blue, the air was crisp, and the hills were (alive with the sound of music? Nahhh...) breath-takingly beautiful. So, without further ado, a short list of my favorite things about Kentuckiana:


WNAS Radio:
Airing live since May of 1940, this is the oldes student-run radio station in the world. It airs from both New Albany, the first public high school in Indiana, and from Floyd Central High School (my alma mater).


Harvest Homecoming:

A street fair held one weekend in early October every year, this would be your only chance to have pumpkin ice cream, chicken and dumplings, funnel cake and just about anything you could imagine on a stick. (However, the thought of deep-fried Snickers bars makes me want to vomit.) It's worth it to go on a Friday night if only for a rousing game of "Spot The Mullet"


Lynn's Paradise Cafe:

The best day to go is either Derby Day (see below for information) or, my personal favorite, New Year's Day, in which there is a giant pyjama party and mimosas and bloody marys for $1.50 each.


Hawley-Cooke:

Hawley-Cooke was bought out by Border's last year. It had formerly been the first privately-owned bookstore in Louisville. The staff was personable and extremely knowledgable, and it was a joy to shop there. When Border's bought it, they respected the history of the place by keeping up articles and memorabilia about Hawley-Cooke, and paid attention to what the customers really wanted by keepingmany of the original staff. It's still fun to shop there.


Kentuckiana:

An area-unique name developed by advertisers in the 1950s, this is the only area name that really caught on. (Perhaps obviously, it's a contraction of the two state names and refers to the multi-county area surrounding Louisville/Jefferson County. Personally, I would have preffered Indiyucky. Somehow, that didn't catch on.) Other areas might have their "tri-state area" or whatever-valley, but we have this. Plus, it's less surrounded by controversy than "Louisville" (see below).


Churchill Downs:

It actually came as a surprise to me that people even just one hundred miles away have never heard of the Derby or the Oaks, have never been to a Derby Party (a fact that Chris is probably thankful for!), and have never had a mint julep or Derby Pie (see below). The Oaks is run on the first Friday of May, and is run by three-year-old fillys (female horses). The winner receives a $500,000 purse and a garland of lilies.


The Kentucky Derby is run on the first Saturday of May by one-year-old male horses. (Smarty Jones, the horse that one the 2003 Kentucky Derby, was the first gelding (castrated horse) to win in over fifty years.) The winner of the Derby receives a trophy, a $1,000,000 purse, and a garland of roses in the winner's circle. The horse usually eats the roses while waiting to have his picture taken.

(Some might be interested in the fact that the Kentucky Derby is the first of the horseracing Triple Crown. The second is the Preakness Sweepstakes in August and then there's the Belmont in October. The following year is the Breeder's Cup, after which the winning horse(s) are sold for breeding and put out to pasture. (Oh, to be a horse.) No horse has won all three races in many, many years (I can't find how many right now) because of the difference in the racetracks.)


The other festivities (the Hat Parade, the Infield crazyness, the millions of dollars worth of fireworks at the pre-Derby festival) are too extensive to mention.

Derby Pie:

Nobody knows what's really in it, and no one can really make "Derby Pie" other than the Derby Pie makers themselves. It's a sweet pie made with pecans, sugar, semi-sweet chocolate, and bourbon, with a cookie crust on the top andbottom. It's perfection, and it's worth putting up with three of my major food allergens (eggs, sugar, and tree nuts) for.


Louisville, Looeyville, Luhville:

Okay, at this point, the controversy is actually quite funny. People who've never been to the area call it Louisville (pronouncing the 's'). Much like the 's' in Illinois, it's not pronounced by anyone except the extremely gauche. People who've lived here for a couple of years pronounce it Looeyville, but people who've been here for 4+ years say Luhville/Lu-uh-vll. The trick is to not open your mouth at all.