Corn Pops on Stalk

According to a story in the News-Enterprise, a Hardin County farmer is reporting corn has been popping while still growing on the stalk in his cornfield.

"Star Mills farmer Patrick Preston sent a photo of the burst kernels that look like partially popped popcorn to the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.

Hardin County Extension agent Doug Shepherd told The News Enterprise he's never seen popped kernels before."

So is this a global warming thing? Or a genetically-modified Monsanto thing? Or just an isolated freak of nature?

Pirate Treasure in Kentucky

An article in the Hardin County News-Enterprise pointed me to an interesting-sounding book I wasn't aware of: Robert Prather's The Strange Case of Jonathan Swift and the real Long John Silver.

In it, Prather makes the case for the semi-mythical pirate Jonathan Swift and the semi-mythical pirate Long John Silver being one and the same man, and suggests that Swift may have buried his fabled treasure (and concealed a gold/silver mine) somewhere on his thousands of acres of property he owned in Kentucky.

(We're speaking here, of course, of the Jonathan Swift who is said to have discovered a vast gold/silver mine somewhere in Kentucky, not the Gulliver's Travels author.)

Prather suggests the Swift cache sits near the Hardin-Breckinridge county line, in the middle of an “X” formed by the towns of Eastview, Westview, Centerview and Grandview.

Furthermore, Prather points out an old newspaper article from 1902 that mentions a goldmine near Easy Gap, just a few miles from the area in question.

Wikipedia says:

"Tradition holds that he [Swift] was an established Indian trader, but some historians came to believe he was a pirate who preyed on Spanish merchants and made his frequent trips into the wilderness not to retrieve his treasure, but to hide and coin it. A resident of Laurel County, Kentucky named William Reams held that following Swift's visit to the mine in 1769 – the last trip recorded in the journal – he and his accomplices agreed not to claim any of the treasure they had hidden in the area until 1790. When they did return, Swift was overcome by the sight of the wealth and killed the other members of the party while they slept. Following this action, he was struck blind and unable to recover the treasure."

Henry Harvey Fuson's 1939 History of Bell County, Kentucky, on the other hand, pooh-poohs the whole notion and does so in a rather disingenuous manner:

"The mountain people in the past have been good subjects for the creation of this folk-tale, since no mines have been found that we can trace to Swift. They lived for a century far from railroads in a wilderness of mountain country. They made a living, a bare living in many instances, by the hardest of work. People in this condition dream of wealth and luxury.

The story of Swift fell into fertile soil of their dreaming minds and became fixed there as a fact. After it became fixed, and no mines could be found, then reasons were invented to account for not finding the silver. Hence, dark caves with heaped-up silver guarded by demons, great kettles of silver deep down in the ground protected by a league of devils, and many other stories grew up around this tradition. What better modern folk-tale could we have?"

(For those who find significance in synchronicities for their own sake, you may be intrigued to note the promixity of Swift's alleged buried treasure site to that of Fort Knox. Likewise, you may note the fact that the Long John Silver's restaurant chain is owned by the Kentucky-based Yum! Brands.)

Jim Bunning

I'm going to miss Jim Bunning. After a long and distinguished career in Kentucky politics, he recently announced that he will not seek Congressional re-election in 2010, thus ending one of the weirdest political careers in memory.

Bunning, who was born and raised in Southgate, KY, had a quite respectable career in pro Baseball, pitching for the Tigers, Phillies, Pirates and Dodgers between 1955 and 1971. He ended up in the Baseball Hall of Fame with a Win-Loss Record of 224-184, an Earned Run Average of 3.27, and 2,855 strikeouts. Might have been for the best if he'd retired on his sports glories.


National Journal voted him the second most conversative Congressman, second only to Jim DeMint, the guy who stated that single mothers who live with their boyfriends shouldn't be allowed to work in the education system.

Bunning was always more than a little peculiar, but in recent years he's grown more and more loopy, to the point that his own party is increasingly wary of him. As Mary Jacoby wrote in Salon just before the 2004 election:

It's no secret in Kentucky that Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican who was expected to coast to reelection on Nov. 2, has been acting strange. Over the past few months, Bunning has angrily pushed away reporters, exchanged testy words with a questioner at a Rotary Club and stuck to brief, heavily scripted remarks at campaign events, delivered in a halting monotone. The former major league baseball star now travels the Bluegrass State with a special police escort, at taxpayer expense. His explanation? Al-Qaida may be out to get him.

During that same campaign, Bunning described his Democratic opponent Daniel Mongiardo as looking "like one of Saddam Hussein's sons." At first Bunning denied having made the statement and admitted it only after it was made clear to him that he had said it on tape. Even then, he only made an apology for his remarks after considerable public pressure.


In February 2009, at a dinner for the Hardin County Republican Party, Bunning predicted that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would probably die within nine months. Bunning later sent out a press release apology. (The press release misspelled the Justice's last name not once, but twice.)

In an April 2009 poll, Bunning’s approval rating was at an all-time low of 28 percent, but he vowed to run for another term. Amid rumors that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was not pleased at that prospect, Bunning lashed out in a series of irrational rants to reporters.

Despite previous assurances that he was in the race, Bunning has finally bowed out and will retire in 2010. However, even in his announcement of such, he couldn't help but let his conspiratorially cranky side out again:

"Over the past year, some of the leaders of the Republican Party in the Senate have done everything in their power to dry up my fundraising," Bunning said in a statement. "The simple fact is that I have not raised the funds necessary to run an effective campaign for the U.S. Senate. For this reason, I will not be a candidate for re-election in 2010."

On the other hand, the 2010 election is still a long ways away. Something tells me we haven't heard the last of Mr. Bunning....

The Hardin County Graverobber

This is an article from Elizabethtown's News-Enterprise that I saved a few years back, and used to have featured on the old Unusual Kentucky website back in the day:

"Convicted grave robber dies, is cremated"
By BRIAN WALKER

The death of an elderly Rineyville woman who was convicted of grave violation for swiping items left at the graves of numerous children has brought a small piece of closure to some families.

Lois Bonnell Dupuis, 80, died Sunday at Hardin Memorial Hospital and was cremated.

She was convicted of stealing hundreds of stuffed animals, wreaths, toys and trinkets left on the resting-places of babies and small children by their families and friends.

But Dupuis herself will not have a grave marked with flowers, candles or other gifts left by mourners. The only relative listed on her obituary is a nephew who is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence.

"I hate it that someone passed away," said Kevin Young. Items were stolen numerous times from his daughter Alexus Nicole Young's grave. "But maybe there is some peace for us knowing that maybe something won't happen to her grave anymore."

Kevin and Jamie Young have visited their daughter's grave at least once a week since she was stillborn in March 1999. He said they always went to spend time with her, but there was also the added fear they'd find something missing.

He said he and other parents who were victimized began to mark the items left on graves with their names and other information for identification purposes.

"We'll still do that," he said. "Because she's not the only person who has ever done this."

Donna Heaverin, whose daughter Madison Adair Heaverin died after 56 minutes in July 1999, said she feels some relief with Dupuis' passing.

"I'm not glad she died, but now maybe I won't worry so much," she said.

Heaverin said all of Madison's stolen gifts except a wind chime were found in Dupuis' home and returned by authorities.

Dupuis served several stints in jail in the last five years, twice for four months each, for the crime of violating graves, a misdemeanor.

Despite her claims in court that she was not a threat to commit further crimes because of her age and health, Dupuis was also convicted for stealing license plates and vehicle registration decals from stores and car lots in Jefferson County in 2002.

A search of her home by the Hardin County Sheriff's Office in the spring of that year yielded 422 items stolen from graves, mainly from Elizabethtown Memorial Gardens Babyland.

Sheriff's Detective Bob Hornback said at the time that Dupuis was known to frequent other cemeteries and that the house "was quite full of trinkets."

Although she claimed she couldn't get around well, several families visiting cemeteries caught Dupuis running away and fleeing in a van when confronted with stolen items in her hands.

Major Bob Baker with the Sheriff's office said in 2002, despite her age, "she can run like a deer."

Long recognizing the theft problem at Elizabethtown Memorial Gardens, Baker said the sheriff's department spent more than 100 hours watching the cemetery, even setting up surveillance equipment to catch the thief.

It is also unclear when, if ever, Dupuis had a driver's license. Searches of driving records found no record of anyone by her name.