Krampus the Cat

Oh no, not another JSH blog! Yeah, but this one's all about the bestest kittycat in the whole world, see.

Wave of Military Murder

The national newsmedia has been abuzz about the bizarre incident at Fort Hood, Texas, in which a Muslim psychiatrist went on a shooting spree. Although early reports stated that there were definitely two shooters - possibly three - that datum seems to have vanished and they've now changed their story and are insisting that Nidal Malik Hasan was a lone gunman.

Then, in Oak Grove, KY, a Fort Campbell military husband and wife were found dead in a murder-suicide. Police said the man had apparently shot his wife, then shot himself with a handgun.

The Oak Grove incident isn't an isolated one. We've reported here previously about the ongoing wave of suicide at Fort Campbell, of which this tragedy is just a part. According to news sources, Fort Campbell averaged one confirmed suicide per week last winter. Maybe even more deaths are actually unconfirmed suicides, because there are a considerable number of deaths that are now being reinvestigated.


Earlier this year, Fort Campbell soldier Steven Green was sentenced to serve five consecutive life sentences. Green raped a 14-year-old girl, then killed her and her entire family, then set fire to their house, then tried to blame it on Sunni Islam terrorists. Fortunately, he was far too stupid to be able to properly keep his story straight.

And then there's Billi Jo Smallwood, who has been charged with setting fire to her home on the Fort Campbell post in hopes of killing her husband and making it look like an accident. He survived, but two of their children died in the fire.

And how about Pvt. Nicholas Mikel who opened fire on a group of his fellow soldiers training at Fort Campbell? In April 2006 he was convicted of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.


Or Hasan Akbar (given name Mark Kools), a 32-year-old Muslim soldier who was stationed at Fort Campbell and was made miserable by a nonstop barrage of anti-Muslim sentiment around the base. By the time he shipped out to Iraq, he had become driven so insane by the verbal abuse that he finally snapped one night while entrusted to guard a Humvee filled with ammo. He stole a carton of hand grenades, activated each of them and lobbed them into the tents where his officers were sleeping. Some who escaped the blasts were fired upon by Akbar with his standard issue AK-47.

Akbar was sent back to Kentucky to be court-martialed, and imprisoned in the brig at Fort Knox. He was subsequently sentenced to death by lethal injection.



And don't forget Fort Campbell's 21-year-old PFC Barry Winchell, who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat because he admitted to being gay. Pvt. Calvin Glover was convicted by a military court and sentenced to life in prison for beating Winchell to death with a baseball bat last year. Winchell’s roommate, Spc. Justin R. Fisher, was sentenced to 12½ years in prison for his role in the killing.

Michelle Benecke, the co-director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said that Fort Campbell soldiers she spoke to all admitted that "anti-gay harassment and threats are as common as the uniform", but anyone who complains then becomes harassed themselves. Some have hinted that there have been other murders like Winchell's, but that they've been swept under the rug, covered up and made to look like accidents or "friendly fire".


Fort Campbell, home to the Black Helicopters of the 160th Spec-Ops "Night Stalkers", clearly seems to be stressing its inhabitants to the snapping point. But the Fort Hood incident shows that the problem is nationwide. In Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the whole first third of the film is devoted to how the psychological cruelty and abuse of the drill instructor (R. Lee Ermey) in basic training leads to one of his soldiers finally going berserk and shooting him, then taking his own life. Life imitates art?


Meanwhile, court testimony was recently given regarding an earlier shooting in North Carolina wherein a soldier opened fire on two Special Forces commandos. His defense was that he thought they were "roleplaying".

Alpine Motel / America's 1st Oil Well

The Alpine Motel sits on Big Hill Mountain (this is Cumberland County, not the Big Hill Mountain in Madison County) looking down on Burkesville.

The motel itself is an interesting sight, with its vaguely neo-Swiss architecture and design, and part of its view is also historic: it overlooks the site of the first-ever oil well in America. Funnily enough, the oil was struck by accident in 1829 - they were actually drilling for salt and were disappointed to get oil instead. Eventually they started to collect the gushing oil, but they still weren't getting the point - they botted it and sold it as a medicine-show elixir called "American Medicinal Rock Oil", claiming it to be a cure-all.

Fountain Run

Fountain Run is a small - very small - town (the sign says population 342, but the last census said 236) which sits exactly at the three-way intersection of Allen, Monroe, and Barren Counties. Of the three, Monroe is the county that officially claims it.

Using the sign for target practice seems to be a major local pasttime.

Mother sues Louisville Slugger over son's death

A woman whose son died in 2003 after being hit with a baseball is now suing Louisville Slugger, the manufacturer of the bat that hit the ball.

Debbie Patch's teenage son Brandon was pitching for the Miles City Mavericks when a ball hit by a Helena Senators batter struck him in the temple, resulting in a fatal injury. The batter was using a Louisville Slugger bat.

She believes that the Hillerich and Bradsby Company were aware that their aluminum bats created a high probability of injury and blames them because the bats are designed to hit a ball with extreme force. Well, heck, that's what Baseball is - hitting balls with extreme force with cylinders of wood and metal. Baseball isn't softball, nor is it wiffleball.

She believes the company should have placed a warning label on the bat.

I believe some things are so obvious that they don't require a warning label. It goes without saying that all sports carry an obvious risk. Where would one put the warning label during a football game, I wonder?

Kentuckian pro baseball player Ray Chapman was killed by an errant baseball during a Yankees-Indians game in 1920, even before the days of high-performance aluminum bats. No matter what kind of bat is used, the game is inherently dangerous.

We're increasingly entering a hyperlitigious world where the right to sue is becoming a speculative game, like daytrading or playing the Lottery. At this rate, we'll soon end up in a world where all food carries a warning that you might choke on it if you eat it. Where doorways carry a warning that unusually tall people might bonk their heads at the top. Where cars carry a warning that you might get smushed if you walk in front of one that's going real fast. Where stairways carry a warning that you might get hurt if you fall down them. Where steaming-hot coffee carries a warning that you shouldn't spill it all over yourself. (Oh wait, someone already did that.)

I certainly sympathize with Mrs. Patch for her terrible loss, but blaming a Louisville Slugger bat for an accident is not the solution.

Paramount Joe

Ashland's Paramount Theatre opened in 1931 as a silent movie house, and in 1971 was reincarnated as the Paramount Arts Center. For many years there's been a gradually building set of rumors about the place being haunted by a spirit dubbed "Paramount Joe", and the most common explanation given is that Joe is the ghost of a construction worker who committed suicide on the premises in 1939.

The Billy Ray Cyrus video for "Achy Breaky Heart" was filmed here in 1992, and Billy Ray was very interested in the legend of Paramount Joe. During his time at the theatre, Billy Ray engaged the invisible Joe in conversation numerous times, seemingly more serious than joking.

Before he left, he autographed promo photos for everyone there, including Joe the ghost. Years later, when a manager decided it wasn't necessary to have Joe's autographed photo on the wall, the ghost knocked every other picture and poster off the walls during the night in retaliation. Or at least that's what it says on several online sources.

You can find the Paramount Arts Center at the corner of 13th and Winchester, downtown Ashland.

Kentucky Crinoids

Recently beheld some excellent large rocks in Jefferson County - not going to reveal where since I haven't harvested the best specimens yet - filled with all manner of fossilized prehistoric aquatic yummies, including molluscs, worms, coral, and (mostly) crinoids from the Ordovician period. Click on the images for larger versions.



As Wikipedia's Crinoid page notes, "Some thick limestone beds dating to the mid- to late-Paleozoic are almost entirely made up of disarticulated crinoid fragments." And that's what we have here. One may also note on their Ordovician Period page that most of the fossil examples shown from this period are from Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. This area must be an Ordovician hot spot for some reason (as would be evidenced by the Falls of the Ohio's famous fossil beds).




The stems of these prehistoric Crinoids are actually a series of separate cell-like segments held together by tissue, nerves and ligaments which were threaded through the central hole. This material often rots away before the segments themselves, leaving a pile of tiny disarticulated discs. In Europe, these were actually collected and strung like beads, variously called "Fairy Money", "St Boniface's Pennies", "St. Cuthbert's Beads", and "Star Stones".

Edward Troye

The grave of Kentucky artist Edward Troye, spotted in Georgetown Cemetery.

Troye was born July 12, 1808 in Switzerland and died July 25, 1874 in Georgetown, KY. Primarily known as a painter of Kentucky racehorses, Troye also did many religious paintings inspired by a visit to the Holy Land, as well as portraits of people such as Rev. Joseph C. Stiles and General Winfield Scott (the latter portrait currently hangs in the U.S. Capitol Building).

Secret Messages in Water

Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto will be in Louisville on November 10 to take part in the 14th annual Festival of Faiths. The Festival, designed to foster understanding and cooperation among all faith traditions, is held in the Henry Clay Building, The Crane House, the Cathedral of the Assumption, and other locales.

Emoto is known for his controversial claims that the power of human thought and intention can affect the microstructure of water, and that "positive" intent brings fractally beautiful crystalline structure to that water when frozen into ice ("Negative" intent allegedly leads to water that looks ugly, amorphous and random under a microscope).

Emoto isn't the first in the New Age world to posit the power of intention over matter. Similar concepts have long been suggested by Christopher Bird in The Secret Life of Plants, Amit Goswami with his philosophy of Monistic Idealism, Rupert Sheldrake and his "Morphic fields", L. Ron Hubbard (who used to hook his e-meter up to tomatoes to communicate with them!), Lynne McTaggart, the Institute of Noetic Sciences (founded by NASA moon explorer Edgar Mitchell), and even Wayne Dyer have all dabbled in this subject. But Emoto seems to have put it all together in a way that's resonating with more and more people - his books have sold millions of copies, and he's developed quite a fan-base following around the world.

Emoto's lecture will be in the Henry Clay Building, November 10, at 6pm. For more information, consult the Center for Interfaith Relations website.

The Morrissey Building

This abandoned building, The Morrissey, once consisted of Bosler's Fireproof Garage, Kentucky Typewriter, and some other spot that looks to have been a deli at one time. It's located at 429 S. 3rd Street in downtown Louisville and is rumored to be earmarked for destruction in the near future.





I saw the door open yesterday and hoped that someone was in there that I could talk to about the possibility of leasing the place, and thus save it from being demolished. No one was around, alas.









The Falls City Theatre Equipment Co. building, also empty, is right next door. See more images of both buildings on Deatonstreet's flickr.









Taken from the rooftop:

High Five!

Nowadays, when someone says "High Five!", there's a very good chance they're making a Borat reference. But it wasn't always so. According to louisville.com:

"It will forever be recorded in etymology books that the late University of Louisville basketball player Derek Smith popularized, if not coined, the term "high five" during the Cards 1979-80 championship season. Whereas the gesture itself started decades before, the origin of the phrase — says none other than the Oxford English Dictionary — took hold in 1980 and found its first print use in an October 1980 issue of Maclean’s Magazine. Smith, it should be noted, did take credit for inventing the language."

Sure enough, a glance at Smith's findagrave page declares him the creator and the originator of the term "high five" not once but twice in the same short paragraph. (Turn to page 209 in your copy of Weird Kentucky for a closer look at Smith's larger-than-life full-body-pictorial gravestone.)

Problem is, there are many sites online, like Outsports, that name baseball star Glenn Burke as the creator of the High Five.

And then there's a site called National High Five Day which says:

"I received an email two weeks ago. It came from Victor Sleets, a resident of Eminence, Kentucky. Mr. Sleets had been introduced to National High Five Day by a friend who thought that based on his unique family history, he might be interested in the holiday. I spoke in detail to Mr. Sleets and his father Lamont on the phone, and based on what they told me about their family’s history, I have no doubt that the true history of the High Five can finally be revealed.

Victor’s father, Lamont Sleets Jr, known to his friends as Mont, is one of the greatest basketball players in Murray State University’s history. Twice named to the Ohio Valley All-Conference team, Mont’s true legacy has not been recognized until now: Mont Sleets invented the High Five as we know it today."

Wow, so maybe the High Five was invented in Kentucky after all? As Borat would also say: "Not!"

The National High Five Day page gives an explanation for Sleets' creation of the term and I have to say it has the same convoluted, reverse-engineered ring to it as when people of today, lacking an explanation for how a Kentucky town got its weird name, simply make something up. Sleets' explanation for how he supposedly invented the High Five is so ludicrous and unlikely-sounding in so many ways and on so many levels, I'm not even going to bother recounting it here.

How do all these wacky rumors begin, anyway? I can personally tell you that as a child growing up in the early 1970s, we were already doing the High Five gesture amongst ourselves, as a distinct separate gesture from the hand-slapping "gimme five" kind of hipster affectation. And it was known as the High Five, by that name, even then.

Wikipedia points out that examples of the High Five can be seen in 1966 footage of Dean Martin and Louis Armstrong, and in a 1941 Abbott & Costello movie during a song-and-dance routine called "Gimme Some Skin, My Friend", just to cite two way-prior examples.

I'm not certain why anyone even cares who created the High Five, or why Kentuckians seem to be so eager to lay claim to it. But that's just another instance of what makes our Kentucky so unusual.

Perhaps I'll start insisting that I'm the guy who started everyone saying, "I feel you, man". (It's on the internet so it must be true!)

Thomas Merton's Epiphany

Kentucky's most well-known Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, was French by birth but traveled all around the world and attended school at Cambridge and Columbia before settling down to a monastic life at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani near Bardstown. Merton was world famous as an author and poet, as well as an international spokesman for social justice issues and interfaith relations.


On March 18, 1958, Merton was standing at the corner of Fourth and Walnut in downtown Louisville when he suddenly had an epiphany, a satori, a mystical revelation. As he described it in his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun."

Walnut Street has since been renamed Muhammad Ali Boulevard, and the four-way intersection he was standing at when he had his revelation is now renamed "Thomas Merton Square", encompassing Meidinger Tower, The Seelbach Hotel, National City Bank, and The Hertz-Starks Building.