New Glyndon Hotel Photos

An anonymous tipster emailed me some photos showing Richmond's Glyndon Hotel in its current state: gentrified, cleaned up, remodeled, renovated, and whitewashed.



Let's just be real quiet for a few minutes.

The Danes

Monday, December 1, 1997. Heath High School, Paducah, KY.

Michael Carneal - then 14 years of age - brought a .38 handgun to school and gunned down the school Christian prayer group, killing three and wounding five more. He then placed his pistol on the ground and said, "Kill me, please".

The day before, Carneal had bragged to everyone that "something big is going to happen on Monday".

Carneal had a history of having been bullied by other students. According to an essay by Mark Ames in the SoMA Review:

Many schoolyard shooters very consciously saw their massacres as rebellions, however poorly expressed or thought through. Michael Carneal, who slaughtered three students in a high school prayer class in West Paducah, was found to have downloaded the Unabomber's manifesto as well as something called "The School Stopper's Textbook: A Guide to Disruptive Revolutionary Tactics; Revised Edition for Junior High/High School Dissidents," which calls on students to resist schools' attempts to mold students and enforce conformity. The preface starts off, "Liberate your life—smash your school! The public schools are slowly killing every kid in them, stifling their creativity and individuality, making them into nonpersons. If you are a victim of this, one of the things you can do is fight back." Many of Carneal's school essays resembled the Unabomber manifesto. He had been bullied and brutalized, called "gay" and a "faggot." He hated the cruelty and moral hypocrisy of so-called normal society and the popular crowd. Rather than just complain about it all the time like the Goths he befriended, he decided to act.

But the story began to get a bit more complicated than the "Revenge of the Nerds" scenario, when Carneal gradually opened up to interviewers and admitted that he had once been controlled by a group of entities calling themselves "The Danes".

Wha? The Danes? Yup, that's what it says right here, the Danes. Here's what the Louisville Courier-Journal said on 9-11-08:

He says now that he had been warned not to reveal them and feared the therapists themselves may have been Danes.

Much of the information about the Danes is in sealed court files and Carneal's lawyer declined to go into detail about them.

"I felt that ... everybody I met might be a Dane," Carneal told a psychologist in 2004 who asked him why he hadn't initially said anything about the delusions. "Even though I didn't tell you, the talking in my head said, 'You told him too much, we're going to kill you now.'"

And LEO Weekly:

In 1998, several psychiatric experts who examined Carneal noted peculiar patterns of behavior leading up to the shooting. For example, the defendant explained that he always showered quickly and covered all of the heating vents in the bathroom to prevent people from watching him, and that he often feared there were people hiding under his bed and peering into his window.... The inmate eventually described hallucinations involving a group of tormentors he called “the Danes,” people he believed were trying to harm him.

Sounds nuts? Maybe so. And yet, the official position of the original prosecutors in the case is that Carneal was examined extensively and found to be perfectly sane and competent.

So... is he, or isn't he? And was he or wasn't he?

And, most importantly, were the Danes real or weren't they?

I'm not quick to believe it was a post-MKUltra mind control experiment, but on the other hand, nor do I instantly and unquestioningly accept the idea that his many experiences with these people were all entirely hallucinatory.

Murder at Lexington Green

From the Associated Press:

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A man was shot and killed Thursday in the parking lot of a busy shopping area, and the suspected gunman held police at bay for hours outside a nearby hospital before surrendering.

Witnesses told police the suspect appeared to know the man killed in the parking lot of a bookstore at the Lexington Green shopping plaza. Police wouldn't discuss further what led up to the afternoon shooting and declined to say how many shots were fired.

Toby Ray Lasure, 31, of Lexington, was charged with murder in the shooting and also will face further charges related to a chase afterwards, police spokeswoman Ann Gutierrez said.

The Fayette County Coroner's office identified the victim as Christopher Tolliver, 31, of Lexington. He was pronounced dead at University of Kentucky Hospital.

Gutierrez said after police arrived, the suspect fled in his car to the parking lot of a mental health facility about six miles away. He was holding a gun to his head while talking to negotiators on a cell phone but surrendered after a three-hour standoff, Gutierrez said. The hospital was put on lockdown for several hours.

Actor William Shatner, who owns a farm in central Kentucky, happened to be shopping at the bookstore when the shooting occurred.

"My car is here, that's all I know," he told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "I just want to get my car and go home. It happens where I come from; it doesn't happen here."

Bourbon Falls

We recently unearthed this antique bourbon bottle that, astonishingly, still has most of its label intact after its long strange meandering mission into time. The label has swipes of mud on it, suggesting it was recovered in a bottle dig, but also has "1.15" written on it in grease pencil, as if it's spent some time on a flea market shelf somewhere along the way.

Bourbon Falls? Never heard of the stuff, but thankfully, the Earth is populated by some hardcore whiskey historians who have many of the pieces of the Bourbon Falls puzzle easily retrievable online.

As you can barely read on the red ribbon graphic at the bottom of the bottle's label, Bourbon Falls was a brand name of Heaven Hill Distilleries, just up the road a piece in Bardstown. According to whiskeymerchants.co.uk:

1783 -- William Heavenhill is born "during an Indian raid which was being waged, under the cliffs near Rowan Creek" at the site of present day Heaven Hill Distilleries.

A group of Bardstown-area investors and the five Shapira brothers, David, Ed, Gary, George and Mose, found During 1934 Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., originally known as “Old Heavenhill Springs” distillery. The company had 12 employees at the time of its founding.

Barrel #1 was filled on December 13.1935 Bourbon Falls is the name on the company's first label.

kybourbon.com lists all subsidiary brands and lines of Heaven Hill, and sure enough, there's Bourbon Falls. But just because they're still the brandholder, does inclusion on this list mean they still make it, I wondered? I went to Heaven Hill's own site and noticed they have a section titled "Other Bourbons" that states:

Heaven Hill Distilleries, as the second largest holder of Bourbon in the world, also offers a number of other well-known and historic American Whiskey brands. Some of the larger labels include the Heaven Hill Bourbon family, Cabin Still, J.W. Dant, Echo Spring, Mattingly & Moore, J.T.S. Brown, T.W. Samuels, Kentucky Deluxe and Kentucky Supreme.

No mention of Bourbon Falls, but if they keep the flame alive on these other historic brands, even in microminimus quantities, there may yet be hope.

And then I found this. Looks like if you wanna get the real old-school Bardstown hooch, you gotta go to Japan. There's your global economy.

Frogland

A number of online directories list something called "CC Range", that hosts something "Frogland", that purports to be a miniature golf course in Hopkinsville. Scour the web as I may, I can't seem to find any detailed information or photographs.

Soon as it gets warmer, can you say "road trip"?

I did check Google Maps, and sure enough, I can see what clearly appears to be a miniature golf course, although I was kinda hoping for enormous towering fiberglas frog statues, Gatlinburg-style. I don't see any evidence of such on the aerial view, alas.

Pale Blue Light

This was reported last week to Kentucky MUFON:

"Saw a pale blue light about the size of a quarter in the top right hand side of my drivers side window. Looked directly at the object and it lasted about a second felt like a lifetime and it was gone. No Direct way to tell size or distance due to lack of surrounding objects. What was odd was how the light went away it didn't fade or change direction it was stationary the whole time. It just was gone. I am not a believer of Aliens but this freaked me right out. Wonder if it is some kind of military object or something I dont know just would like to know if someone else saw something tonight."

Unfortunately, the submitter gave not even the most rudimentary info about the location for where in Kentucky this incident occurred.

A similar large blue circular light was spotted in Bucks County, Pennsylvania four weeks ago (and is pictured above).

Kentucky to Insist on American-made Flags

After all these screwball anti-constitutional Kentucky laws I've had to report on lately, it does my heart good to see that Kentucky's finally pushing a new piece of legislation that I can really get behind.

Long-overdue new rule: no more American flags made in China.

WKYT says, "The bill has sailed through two legislative committees and the Senate without a single "no" vote. It now heads to the House floor where Speaker Greg Stumbo is predicting unanimous support. Gov. Steve Beshear also supports the measure. Beshear spokesman Jay Blanton said the governor plans to sign it into law when it arrives in his office."

What I find mind-boggling is that we never had set a standard about this in the first place. I mean, even without considering China's track record for horribly dangerous imports (toxic plastic toys, poisoned pet food, etc.), why on Earth would we as Americans have our flags manufactured anywhere else but here in the USA?

The Duct Tape Bandit

In August 2007, Kasey G. Kazee, 24, wrapped his head like a Mummy with gray duct tape and then, feeling powerful in his new secret super-villain identity, proceeded to rob Shamrock Liquors in Ashland, KY.

"Kazee allegedly indicated to a female clerk that he had a knife and threatened to harm her if she didn’t give him the money out the cash register. The clerk complied and the robber turned and left," The Daily Independent reported. "Before he could make his getaway, though, a Shamrock Liquors employee, Craig Miller, tackled him in the store’s parking lot. Miller and several other men who came running over from the Foodland store next door detained Kazee until the police arrived."


According to the store's manager, Kazee only got away with $15.

In May 2008, Kazee was sentenced to ten years in jail for the robbery that spawned scores of YouTube parodies and international ridicule. Dubbed "The Duct Tape Bandit" by the media, he's provided much hilarity for those who can laugh at our sick sad world.

Spinelli's Pizza

Are there any restaurants in Louisville even more visually interesting than the delightfully garish Lynn's Paradise Cafe? Yes, there is: the terminally hip Spinelli's Pizza, located at 614 Baxter Avenue.




One wall is completely wallpapered in comic book covers. The bathroom is a masterpiece of graffiti. The floor is an exquisite mosaic of various tiles and ceramic fragments. There's a mechanical fortune teller, and a cadillac with a dining booth inside it. All this in a building that looks like something out of the Simpsons come to life. And then there's that stylin' Iron Maiden delivery van.




Oh yeah, and if it matters, the pizza is the best in town. Seriously. If you like New York style/Philly style, there's no reason to eat anyone else's filthy pizza. (Well, except Arni's, but that's over the falls in Indiana.)

Secret Shopping Center Cemetery

In Louisville, near the corner of Breckenridge and Dutchmans Lane, directly behind Red Lobster and directly facing Books-A-Million, there is a large parking-lot island circled with dense hedges.

Many have parked here, driven past, walked by many times over the years and never stopped to notice that this square of hedges has a gate on one side. A gate that leads inside to a hidden cemetery.



What surprises me most is how visually interesting all of the graves are. In some cemeteries you could trudge for half an hour and still not find a stone with anything really worthy of being photographed, but here every marker has real character and attributes that make it special.


Although it seems moderately maintained, one of the stones has tipped over (apparently long long time ago) and no one ever saw fit to stand it back up. Now it's practically merged with the ground. The other stones are all in decent condition, although one is slightly askew from its base.



See it aerially on Google Maps here.

"Don't Ride My Ass"

Can you really say "ass" on a vehicle? I think that's great. Of course, I had to ride his ass to get close enough to take this photo.

Floracliff

The Floracliff Nature Preserve, located in southern Fayette County, is an amazing 287-acre haven for wildlife, especially known for its varied collection of wildflower species. But what interests me most about it is an enormous weird mineral tufa.

According to naturepreservesky.gov:

"Floracliff also harbors a significant geological feature. Below Elk Lick Falls is a tufa formation, which resembles a frozen waterfall. It is considered one of the best tufa formations in the eastern United States. Similar to stalagmites in caves, tufas are formed when minerals within dripping water are deposited on a surface. Travertine is the primary mineral composing this tufa. The formation is 61 feet high and 8-12 feet in diameter. The rich flora, ravines, cliffs and waterfalls of Floracliff make it one of the more scenic areas in central Kentucky."

Upcoming events at Floracliff include:

March 7: Volunteer Day - in which volunteers from the public are invited to assist in removing exotic and invasive plant species from the preserve.

March 28: Pollinators with Blake Newton - Kentucky Entomologist Blake Newton hosts an educational program about pollinators and their relationships with the spring wildflowers.

April 4: Medicinal Wildflowers with Ciara Lockstadt - Experience the spring wildflowers in bloom and learn about their historical and present day medicinal uses.