Kentucky » otoh

01:02:03 04/05/06

Posted by Tim at 20:47 on 2006/04/04

Apr 042006

In the last two days I’ve gotten threee emails with some version of this:

At two minutes and 3 seconds after 1:00 this Wednesday the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Then they add, “This will never happen again.” That part is particularly foolish to me. If you use a 12-hour clock (as opposed to a 24-hour clock) it will happen twice tomorrow. It will happen again in a hundred years — a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence perhaps, but hardly unique in the grand scheme of things.

But what I pointed out in my replies to each of these friends is that there are other cultures that write the date as day/month/year. That means that 04/05/06 is the fourth of May, not the fifth of April. Just that fast a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence will happen four times in a little over a month. I’m SUCH a kill-joy.

But this episode reminded me that I happen to know where I was at 12:34 on 6 May 1978 (when the time and date was [were?] 12:34 5/6/78). It was a Saturday and the first Saturday in May where I grew up means the Kentucky Derby. That is the only time I ever went and packed myself into the crowded infield. THAT is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Derby parties at home are much more enjoyable and you can see more of the races on TV than you can if you happen to squeeze in a spot anywhere within sight if the rail.

Reminds me of another time when I dreamed all night of the number five. The next morning I realized that it was May 5th. In the paper I saw that a horse named Five Star was running in the 5th race at the track. Well, I don’t need five bricks to fall on my head so I went and put $5 on it to win. And sure enough… the horse came in fifth.

Ba-DUM-bum!

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Modjeska

Posted by Tim at 21:15 on 2006/01/17

Jan 172006

I guess it’s because I don’t really like marshmallows; I never heard this story before. There is a candy that originated in the Louisville area called the Modjeska, a marshmallow covered in caramel. I was born and raised in Louisville, but I never knew it was a local thing. And the story is kind of cool.

There was a Polish actress named Helena Modjeska that starred in the U.S. debut of the Ibsen play “A Doll’s House” at the McCauley Theater in Louisville in 1883. (I have no idea how Louisville rated the honor.) A local candy maker met her and (stars in his eyes) asked permission to name a candy after her. He had recently created a treat he called the Caramel Biscuit. He renamed it and the Modjeska was born.

Production of the candy was taken over by Bauer’s Candies in 1889. Four generations later, the family-owned confectionery now based in Lawrenceville, Kentucky still makes Modjeskas and ships them all over the world.

I like that story a lot, but I’d still rather have a slice of Derby Pie any day….

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otohPhoto: Reflecting on Home

Posted by Tim at 10:01 on 2005/12/29

Dec 292005

The house reflected in my glasses is where my parents live, where they have lived for about 45 years, where I grew up, the only home I knew until I went off to college and then moved out on my own. I took five shots and this is the one I like best. I probably would never have tried this with my film camera; I really needed the immediate feedback from the digital to get the angle and exposure close to what I wanted. I had planned to get a shot where you can’t see my hands holding the camera, but I decided I like it better this way. Click on the image for a larger version.

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Spritz Cookies

Posted by Tim at 10:54 on 2005/12/28

Dec 282005

I think it’s always a good idea to get the family together in the kitchen. Food is a primal need and sharing it’s preparation may be more important than sharing its consumption. Kids learn to respect the power of hot surfaces, the importance of followng instructions, concepts of measurement and time, and cooperation. And cooking has the built-in incentive of something to eat when you finish.

In my family we have always made spritz cookies around this time of year. We aren’t sure where we first got the recipe; we all have hand-written copies of it now. I’ve seen recipes that use almond extract in addition to or instead of the vanilla. And sometimes they add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to the flour. The mixing is the most difficult part; the butter has to be slightly softened but if it gets too soft you’ll have a sticky mess. You need a cookies press and kids find that a lot of fun. (Okay. I think it’s fun too.)

Spritz Cookies

Ingredients:
(Makes 6 dozen cookies)

1 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups flour

food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

Set oven at 400°

Mix butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla

Mix in flour gradually

Add food coloring a few drops at a time

Press onto ungreased baking sheets

Bake for 7-10 minutes

Keep an eye on the cookies and remove them as soon as the edges start to brown. You may need to lower the oven temp to 375°. I like the cookies to stay soft so I tend to undercook them a little. Actually, one of my favorite things is to skip the baking altogether. Keep the raw dough in the refrigerator and eat a spoonful of that with a cup of hot tea or coffee. Mmmmmhhh. Yes. I know the danger of eating uncooked egg yolks. Some things are worth the risk.

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Freaky Co-inky-dink

Posted by Tim at 01:40 on 2005/12/24

Dec 242005

The drive between my two homes usually takes about 14 hours. Even though I always have tunes blasting the whole way and listen to a CB radio part of the way, driving that long can get pretty boring. And when I get bored I get even more weird than usual. Somewhere in Georgia this trip I was behind one of the new Volkswagen Beetles for a few miles. I started to feel like I was being watched. I didn’t have my camera within reach so I… um “borrowed” this image:

Do you see it? Can you hear it? It’s the Beatles! I’ve Just Seen a Face. And it’s on the Help! soundtrack. Maybe this will help:

Or maybe I’m way beyond help….

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Run for the Roses

Posted by Tim at 16:07 on 2005/05/07

May 072005

I grew up in Kentucky and there are some things I really miss about it now that I live in Florida: the hills of Eastern Kentucky, the changes of the seasons, (incredibly green springtimes, lightning bugs on summer evenings, fire-colored leaves in the fall), southern living, most of my family is still there, and the Kentucky Derby. I should note that, while Florida is geographically further south than Kentucky, most of Florida is not very southern. And sometimes it’s better for me to be several hundred miles away from my family. But that’s another story….

Today is Derby Day. My family is not “horse people.” I never really learned to ride, although I have been trail riding a few times. We never owned horses and certainly never sit on millionaire Row. But, most people in Kentucky don’t own horses (or get to millionaire Row). That doesn’t make us any less proud of the Derby. Besides, any old excuse will do for a party. In and around Louisville there are race-related activities for a week leading up to Derby Day.

Born in the valley
And raised in the trees
Of Western Kentucky
On wobbly knees
With mama beside you
To help you along
You’ll soon be a growing 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 –

One of my coworkers opined that horse racing is a boring sport. (He started with, “No offense intended…” of course.) Personally, I find baseball a lot more boring, but I understand why he might feel like that. A day at the races (or at home watching them on TV, which is a lot more comfortable and usually provides a better view of the actual races) means about two minutes of racing every hour or so. It’s more like a picnic with periodic injections of adrenalin.

At the track, they want to make sure everyone has time to place bets, they recondition the track after every race, they often have to reposition the starting gate as the races are not all the same length, and there’s the pomp and circumstance of parading the entries out for every race. Hey, people stand in line for two hours to take a three-minute ride on Space Mountain down here at Disney World. I’d rather be sitting in the shade sipping a cool beverage.

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 unknown
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 –

I won’t be able to watch the race live this year. I’m leaving in a few minutes to watch a play. (I’ll write about that in the next day or so.) But I’ll look for the replay on the news tonight. And I’ll spend a little time day-dreaming about my old Kentucky home.

Run for the Roses by Dan Fogelberg

A Night in Stars Hollow

Posted by Tim at 20:36 on 2004/11/30

Nov 302004

I watch Gilmore Girls. There. The dirty little secret is out. In fact it is on right now. What would motivate me to divulge this bit of D.O.M.-dom?

In the show tonight they mention a tradition of rubbing the toe on a statue of Dwight Woolsey. I checked on line and found that this is a very recent tradition. According to http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/98_03/talltales.html:

One of the most striking testaments to the mythmaking powers of tour guides is Theodore Dwight Woolsey’s toe. Some time in the last ten years, someone invented a “tradition” of rubbing the toe of the Woolsey statue on the Old Campus for luck, explaining that students employ this practice before exams. Similar traditions exist at many other institutions, but it’s difficult to find an alumnus over the age of 30 who has ever heard about President Woolsey’s toe. Nevertheless, tour guides spread the story diligently, inviting visitors to give it a try themselves. As a result, the statue, the rest of which is a dull gray-green, has a left toe that has been rubbed shiny, and the story seems for all practical purposes as old as the statue itself.

This struck me as odd because my Alma Mater, Eastern Kentucky University, Has a much longer tradition of rubbing the toe on a statue of Daniel Boone. According to http://www.library.eku.edu/collections/sca/boone.htm that statue was placed there in 1967. I first went to Eastern in 1977 and it was already an old tradition then. I have to assume it started soon after the old boy was placed there. (I didn’t research those “similar traditions at other institutions.” Some of them probably date back even further.) Those Yale posers! They even rub Woolsey’s LEFT toe, the same one is forward on Daniel and bears the polish of all those wishes for luck on exams. Or just to get lucky….