Hillcrest Victorian Mannequins

This goodly group of rather Victorian-looking mannequins are on display in someone's upstairs veranda window on Louisville's Hillcrest Avenue - yes, that Hillcrest Avenue, the one known for its over-the-top Halloween yard displays.

Lunar Eavesdropping in Louisville

One from our blog Revelation Awaits an Appointed Time:


There's a great page on the Otter Creek-South Harrison Observatory website about Louisville resident Larry Baysinger, an amateur radio enthusiast who managed to tune in to Apollo 11's live radio feed in July 1969.

Louisville Courier-Journal writer Glenn Rutherford wrote an article about Baysinger's historic accomplishment in the July 23, 1969 issue. Rutherford's article is reprinted on the Observatory's website, and mp3 files of some of the best parts of the astronaut dialogue that Baysinger recorded are offered as well. Furthermore, the site documents the original 50s/60s source materials that Baysinger was working from to achieve his reception of NASA's signals, including pdf files of relevant parts of CQ magazine.


Skeptics who doubt that Baysinger really managed to pick up these signals with such relatively primitive equipment should take note that his recordings feature Aldrin and Armstrong's voices uninterrupted by the cross-talk from the PAO and others, as heard on all terrestrial recording sources of the same dialogue.

State Police: Sparkman a Suicide

The official verdict is in: Bill Sparkman, the census worker recently found dead in Clay County with the word "fed" written across his chest, killed himself and staged it to look like homicide so his son could collect the insurance money. Or so the Kentucky State Police believe.

According to State Police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski, Sparkman's wrists were bound loosely in front of his body, allowing considerable mobility. Duct tape held his glasses in place, and his mouth was taped shut and stuffed with a rag.

Curiously, Rudzinski said Sparkman was not blindfolded, despite previous eyewitness accounts to the contrary. Even odder to me, now they're saying he actually wasn't in Hoskins Cemetery as originally stated from day one. Now they're saying he was actually in a clearing nearby.

"No defensive wounds were located on his body," Rudzinski said. "And a rag was found in his pants that was consistent with other rags scattered at the scene, including the rag that was in his mouth. The victim's clothes were found undisturbed in the bed of his pickup truck, which was also recovered at the scene." Rudzinski also reported that the autopsy indicated that the letters spelling "Fed" were written from the bottom up, as someone might do when writing on themselves.

From the official KSP report:

The investigation indicates that Mr. Sparkman died of asphyxiation/strangulation at the same location where he was discovered in Clay County, Ky.

Despite the fact that Mr. Sparkman was found hands, feet and mouth bound with duct tape, rope around his neck and the word "FED" written on his chest, analysis of the evidence determined Mr. Sparkman's death was self-inflicted. A thorough examination of evidence from the scene, to include DNA testing, as well as examination of his vehicle and his residence resulted in the determination that Mr. Sparkman, alone, handled the key pieces of evidence with no indications of any other persons involved.

Witness statements, which are deemed credible, indicate Mr. Sparkman discussed ending his own life and these discussions matched details discovered during the course of the investigation. It was learned that Mr. Sparkman had discussed recent federal investigations and the perceived negative attitudes toward federal entities by some residents of Clay County.

Without raising any red flag of conspiracy theory, let me just say that I'm inclined to think there's a little more to the story than we are being told. Just because no one's DNA was found at the crime scene is meaningless - criminals do wear gloves and stuff in this forensically conscious age, you know. And the whole "letters written from the bottom up" thing makes no sense to me. I stood in front of a mirror, imagining "What would Sparkman do?" and my first impulse was to start the letters at the top, not the bottom.

Finally, I'm puzzled that they claim to have "witness statements" (plural) in which Sparkman divulged his whole secret plan to others before carrying it out. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In fact, if this was a suicide staged as murder, it's a really, really, really stupidly done one. And from all accounts, Sparkman was a very smart man.

I'm just sayin'.

Carl Hurley Lane

Kentucky comedian Carl Hurley now has a street named after him in London, KY.

The former Eastern Kentucky University professor, perhaps best known for his best-selling book We Weren't Poor - We Just Didn't Have Any Money, recently had "Carl Hurley Lane" dedicated in his honor, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of Weaver's Hot Dogs on London's Main Street.

Hurley, who was born in East Bernstadt, is world renowned for his gentle, easygoing rural storytelling style, an example of which can be seen on YouTube by clicking here. He's been a regular on the Grand Ole Opry and Renfro Valley, and is currently finding popularity with a whole new younger audience on XM Satellite Radio.

Cat Killer Faces 12 Years in Prison

On December 14, Russell Swigart of Highland Heights, KY will be sentenced in Kenton County Circuit Court for killing two cats under the new "Romeo's Law".

In October, Swigart (pictured below) admitted to burglarizing the home of Bridgett Wright and stabbing her two cats, "Mr. Frank" and "Piggy", to death. Reportedly, the psychopath then heckled Wright about it via text messages.

According to nky.com:

"In addition to the crimes for which he is accused in this case, he was accused and convicted of several similar incidents inflicting animal abuse and death as well as stalking and abuse against women in Columbus, Ohio, (and) Wauseon, Ohio," Wright wrote the judge in the case.

A Wauseon, Ohio, woman, who told prosecutors she lived with Swigart in the late 1990s, said he repeatedly abused her and once held her at knifepoint.

The woman told prosecutors Swigart came to her home after she ended their relationship, "placed her pet cat in a shoe box and sealed the box closed with tape. He then shot the box, with the cat inside, with a shotgun, killing the cat," according to the affidavit.

The woman said Swigart then forced her to look at her dead cat "and threatened that he would do the same to her," according to court records.

Another woman, who said she had a brief relationship with Swigart in Columbus, told prosecutors he "unlawfully entered her apartment and harmed her dogs" after their relationship ended. She said Swigart told her "he had hurt the dogs so badly that he had 'left them at death's door.'"

The woman said Swigart also boasted of killing a female roommate's cat, according to court documents.

"Romeo's Law" is so named for a labrador named Romeo, who was cruelly beaten by a man named Ronald Shawn Turner in Pulaski County. Neighbors witnessed the incident, caught it on tape, and reported it to the police. Turner was only convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to only four months in jail.

But thanks to the new law, animal abuse is now a Class D Felony in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which had previously been one of the least pet-friendly states.

There's a memorial page to Mr. Frank and Piggy here.

Lightbulbs from Hell

The other day I received an offer in the mail from Louisville's utility company LG&E, offering me free energy-saving lightbulbs as a gift. I was all excited until I realized they're the toxic CFL bulbs filled with deadly mercury. The health hazards can be considerable if one breaks in your home - and who among us has never accidentally broken a lightbulb?

For more details, check out my column at Louisville Mojo and learn more about these dangerous bulbs that the EPA classifies as "hazardous waste".

Abandoned Swimming Pool

This rectangular concrete pit, found in a densely wooded area somewhere between Louisville's Calvary Cemetery and St. Agnes Parish was apparently once a swimming pool. But why? For whom?



These days, it seems to be functioning strictly as a landfill/trash dump. I wonder what urban-archaeology cool treasures are fermenting at the bottom...

Coming Soon: CentrePointe

One of my favorite old blocks in Lexington used to be here at the corner of Limestone and Main, and now it's all been torn down to make way for what will become the tallest building in Kentucky. It's called CentrePointe. Dumb name. But I'm prepared, against all odds, to give it the benefit of the doubt... for now. But to paraphrase Gavin Elster, all the things that spell Lexington to me are disappearing fast.

Warren County Hirsute Girl

From the New York Times, September 17, 1877: a report originally published in the Franklin Patriot about a 4-year-old Warren County girl who allegedly was normal for the first two years of her life, but then began secreting a bizarre and foul black liquid from her skin, followed by a thick growth of hair all over her body excepting the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. With these strange mutations, it was also reported she acquired amazing strength, being able to carry around her 10-year-old sister with ease.

Hirsutism is a relatively common condition, itself being a symptom of many different diseases, but the only other time I've ever heard of black sweat (aside from the Prince song) is from reports about the mysterious Morgellons Disease.

Dance of Death in Northern KY

Franz Liszt's Totentanz ("Dance of Death")is a symphonic piece for piano and orchestra, based on the Gregorian plainchant melody Dies Irae, but with dynamic stylistic innovations that approach atonal avant-garde. Liszt began work on the piece in 1838 and completed it in 1849; then tweaked it further in subsequent years.

Michael Chertock, faculty member at UC's College-Conservatory of Music, will perform "Totentanz" on piano with James R. Cassidy and the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra this weekend:

8 p.m. Saturday at Florence Baptist Church at Mount Zion

3 p.m. Sunday, Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington.


This Gregorian Chant-inspired program also includes Requiem by Maurice Duruflé, featuring the KSO Chorale and the Cincinnati Choral Society. Duruflé wrote it in 1947 as a tribute to his father. The piece, composed for mixed choir with mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, exists in three different orchestrations: one for organ alone, one for organ with string orchestra, and one for organ and full orchestra.


Also on the bill for the evening: Aaron Jay Kernis’ Musica Celestis, inspired by the fascinating life of the 12th-century clairvoyant Hildegard von Bingen (pictured above). Hildegard is described by Wikipedia as "a Christian mystic, German Benedictine abbess, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, channeller, visionary, composer, and polymath."

Tickets are $28 for A section seating and $23 for B section seating. B Section seating is further discounted for Seniors ($18) and students ($10). 859-431-6216 or visit the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's website.

The Cult of Beer

I recently visited that peculiar, signless, "mystery bierhaus" in Butchertown, on the beat for Louisville Mojo, and filed a report on the idiosyncratic bar that seemed more like a secret society whose password I didn't know. (Maybe I should have said "Fidelio".) Click here to read the article!

The Cumberland Moonbow

There are only a handful of places in the world where one can see a genuine moonbow - Victoria Falls, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, is one such place where moonbow fans flock to view the phenomenon. And Cumberland Falls, near Williamsburg, KY is another.

What is a moonbow? It's a rainbow produced by moonlight rather than sunlight. They're relatively faint compared to rainbows, and they're always in the opposite part of the sky from the moon. The human eye doesn't often clearly see vibrant colors in moonbows, but they're very evident when long-exposure photographs are taken.

I used to think a rainbowy ring of light around the moon was a moonbow. Technically speaking, it is not. That would be a corona, a light-diffraction phenomenon produced by clouds or mist. Moonbows tend to be 22-degree-angle halos, formed during very rare circumstances, most often near waterfalls but not necessarily.

(Photo above by flickr user Bryce Fields.)