Wickland and Wickland

There are at least two historic estates called Wickland in Kentucky - the first and most famous is the one in Nelson County, on the outskirts of Bardstown.

It was built in 1813 for Charles A. Wickliffe, a Whig member of the Kentucky House of Representatives who later became Governor of Kentucky. The house has also been lived in by Charles' son Robert C. Wickliffe,(who was governor of Louisiana from 1856 to 1860) and by Charles' grandson J. C. W. Beckham. Beckham, who was born at Wickland, also went on to become a Governor of Kentucky (from 1900 to 1907).


The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels have a barbecue here every summer, and the Wickland Corn Maze Halloween event is held on the grounds every autumn. You never know what sort of horrific entities will jump out at you when you walk the corn maze, and the proceeds go to the local Future Farmers of America chapter.


Wickland is vaguely listed by some as a haunted house, but if anyone's given any specific data about this, I've missed it.

Kentucky's other Wickland is located in Shelby County, and was (rather unimaginatively) named after the first one. Charles Cotesworth Marshall, built it in 1901 and named it in honor of his wife, Elizabeth Wickliffe, who was the daughter of the aforementioned Louisiana Governor, Robert C. Wickliffe and was raised at the original Nelson County Wickland.


Wikipedia says it's in Shelbyville, but the closest major town to it is clearly Simpsonville, and if you want to be perfectly old-school accurate about it, it's in Veechdale. Remind me to drive back out there soon and take a photo.

Clostridium difficile

As the Courier-Journal reports, there's yet another scary new bug on the loose, and Kentucky is sixth in the nation for outbreaks of it:

Cheryl Keplinger nearly lost her life to a germ some doctors are calling the next big bacterial threat — Clostridium difficile. The 54-year-old Simpsonville, Ky. nurse suffered diarrhea for 19 days before being told she might need to have her appendix, gall bladder and part of her colon removed after she contracted the dangerous infection caused by bacteria known as C. diff...

Typically tied to hospitalization or antibiotic use, the infection is rising dramatically. As many as 3 million Americans a year suffer diarrhea, inflammation of the colon and other problems because of C. diff, which some doctors say is beginning to rival the staph infection MRSA as a deadly superbug...

A study in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control showed the state had the sixth-highest rate in the nation among hospitalized patients, with 21.8 per 1,000, compared with 10.7 per 1,000 in Indiana and 13 per 1,000 nationwide.

The Simpsons Connection

The exact location of The Simpsons has always been a deliberate source of mixed signals by the show's producers. Various locations for their town of Springfield have been given across the show's run, but in at least one episode - "Behind the Laughter" - their home state is given as being Kentucky.

For years, Kentucky's Springfield was highly regarded among fans as being the most likely candidate, because the citizens of Springfield in The Simpsons have a rivalry with another city called... Shelbyville.


And for bonus irony, very close to the city of Shelbyville, we have Simpsonville!


So, one might have thought Kentucky would be a shoo-in when 20th Century Fox held a contest in 2007 to determine once and for all which of our nation's Springfields would become "in canon" with the show. Not so. Springfield, Vermont won the contest. Since Springfield, KY had the lowest population of any of the competing cities, it seemed a bit unfair just to leave such an important decision to the masses.

It doesn't really matter anyway, because now that the hoopla of the contest is over, the show doesn't really seem to be acknowledging Vermont as its setting. Even in The Simpsons Movie, which the contest was designed to promote, Flanders comments that the city of Springfield sits at the four-way border crux of Ohio, Nevada, Maine and Kentucky. Simpsonian topography, therefore, will clearly never be able to be matched with our world.