Kentucky Curiosities : Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff
by Vince Staten and Liz BaldiFormat: Trade Paper
Pub. Date: 2002-11-01
Publisher(s): Globe Pequot
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Summary
One day a year Kentucky is the most famous state in the union. That's Kentucky Derby Day, the first Saturday in May when the annual Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs. On that day, Kentucky is the home to fast horses, beautiful women, and great whiskey. For the other 364 days it is home to fast women, beautiful horses, and people recovering from too much whiskey. This duality -- hey, we're important today; but tomorrow we're nothing -- is a perfect reflection of a state of great contrasts. Kentucky is the home of the most famous people in the world, Muhammad Ali. It is also the home of the most infamous, Charles Manson (his boyhood home is in Ashland --unmarked, of course). Novelist Robert Penn Warren was a Kentuckian, as was gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Illinois may have Land of Lincoln on its license plates, but Kentucky was where Honest Abe was born. He just moved away rather quickly. These contrasts extend down to our counties: you can't buy a drink in Bourbon County (it's against the law to sell alchohol there) but you can in Christian County. Kentucky is one giant curiosity.
Author Biography
A syndicated columnist and author of ten books, including Unauthorized America: A Travel Guide to the Places the Chamber of Commerce Won't Tell You About (HarperCollins), Vince Staten has appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman," "Dateline NBC," "Today on NBC," and NPR's "Morning Edition." His varied career encompasses writing, lecturing, teaching, and co-owning Vince Staten's Old Time Barbecue in downtown Prospect, Kentucky.
Reporter Liz Baldi has written for Kentucky Monthly and other publications. She now lives in Texas.
Table of Contents
| About the Authors | vi | ||||
| Introduction | vii | ||||
|
1 | (36) | |||
|
37 | (30) | |||
|
67 | (28) | |||
|
95 | (52) | |||
|
147 | (24) | |||
|
171 | (35) | |||
| Index | 206 |
Excerpts
Up All Night at the Coffee Museum
Louisville
Some strive for greatness; others have greatness thrust upon them. In Kentucky, we just take what we can get. That's why we dedicate little back-pocket museums to matters of small consequence.
Which brings us to the Coffee Museum. You might think that, say, Brazil, would be the perfect location for a Coffee Museum. But you're thinking about production. We're talking consumption here. At one time Louisvillians drank more coffee per capita than any other city in America.
We lost that crown long ago. See, our typing doesn't even shake anymore. But during our coffee binge we produced our own coffee king, Jon Conti, who sold more coffee than any coffee manufacturer not on a coast.
Part of being a coffee king means collecting all the paraphernalia that goes along with coffee so Conti acquired quite a collection of mugs and pots and filters. You can see it all at the Jon Conti Coffee Museum.
The Jon Conti Coffee Museum is at 2309 Beuchel By-Pass. Take the Bardstown Rd. exit, exit 16, from I-264. Turn left on Beuchel By-Pass, 1.5 miles from the interstate. The Museum is another 2.3 miles on the right.
Louisville
Some strive for greatness; others have greatness thrust upon them. In Kentucky, we just take what we can get. That's why we dedicate little back-pocket museums to matters of small consequence.
Which brings us to the Coffee Museum. You might think that, say, Brazil, would be the perfect location for a Coffee Museum. But you're thinking about production. We're talking consumption here. At one time Louisvillians drank more coffee per capita than any other city in America.
We lost that crown long ago. See, our typing doesn't even shake anymore. But during our coffee binge we produced our own coffee king, Jon Conti, who sold more coffee than any coffee manufacturer not on a coast.
Part of being a coffee king means collecting all the paraphernalia that goes along with coffee so Conti acquired quite a collection of mugs and pots and filters. You can see it all at the Jon Conti Coffee Museum.
The Jon Conti Coffee Museum is at 2309 Beuchel By-Pass. Take the Bardstown Rd. exit, exit 16, from I-264. Turn left on Beuchel By-Pass, 1.5 miles from the interstate. The Museum is another 2.3 miles on the right.
Excerpted from Kentucky Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff by Vince Staten, Liz Baldi, Liz Serrano
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