It's All About...

Girl Scout Cookies

Oh, heavens. The Girl Scout cookies are here.

Mark Cornelison/Herald-Leader

This photo, shot last week at a warehouse on Nandino Way, tells you just how many peanut-butter-chocolate-striped-butter-cookie calories are floating around this area.

One word: yum.

Now, our local Girl Scout Council sells cookies from Virginia-based ABC Bakers, which  gives us Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Patties and Thanks-A-Lot. Louisville-based Little Brownie Bakers -- the cookies I sold as a wee scout -- are the Samoas and Tagalongs.

Little Brownie also is the maker of my new favorite cookie: the All About! I like to think this cookie and I  have some kind of cosmic connection.

Plus, as Cheryl Truman says, banana pudding is half the reason to live in the South. They have a recipe here for All About banana pudding.

The regular ordering period is over. I was conveniently out of the country while it was going on, which kept me from being too much of a glutton. But the cookie booth phase of sales started last week, and if you know a Girl Scout, she can probably track down a box or eight for you. Check out GirlScoutCookies.org to search for local sales.

Cheer: Once!
Rich Copley is so right when he said in his Oscar blog that I was likely doing a happy dance for Once. The little movie that could won an Academy Award last night. I was almost brought to tears by the thank-yous from Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. (What? They were earnest.) You can watch the speeches here.

Kentucky Music Hall of Fame inductions

Pablo Alcala/Herald-Leader & Kentucky.com

Live from the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony...

    While much of Kentucky hid from the slick roads and freezing rain, women in high heels and men in black ties headed into Lexington for the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
    The inductees were country crossover artist Crystal Gayle, singer and TV star Florence Henderson, jazz and soul musician Les McCann, writer and producer Norro Wilson and country singer Dwight Yoakam.
    McCann and Henderson didn’t attend the ceremony, but Gayle was to perform with her sisters Loretta Lynn and Peggy Sue, Billy Bob Thorton recorded a video for Yoakam and George Jones prepared his congratulations for Wilson. A tribute to saxophonist Boots Randolph, a 2004 inductee who died in 2007, started the show.
    Lexington Center’s Bluegrass Ballroom was filled with black tuxes, crushed velvet dresses and sparkling, shining shoes soaked by water and salt.
    “We had a few calls from people saying they couldn’t come, and a few calls from folks asking if they could get tickets,” said Robert Lawson, the Hall of Fame’s director.
    Eight hundred people had tickets for the event, scraped their cars and held up their hems to use their tickets, which cost $125 to $200.
    Inside the ballroom, Dwight Yoakam soundchecked with musicians, singing to a crowd of servers in black uniforms while they scattered salt and pepper shakers on white-clothed tables with red rose centerpieces.
    He swaggered out of the ballroom in scuffed white boots, tight blue jeans, a heavy trench coat and signature cowboy hat and into a lobby just starting to fill with guests.
    They waved for him to stop for photos. As he started to walk away, Mount Vernon Mayor Clarice Kirby jumped over and wrapped her arm around his back saying, “Please, just one.”
    “I didn’t care if I had to beg,” Kirby said.. “I didn’t even tell him I was the mayor.”
    There was little star-gazing as crowds arrived, but the inductees' dinner tables were swarmed by media and camera-toting fans who hovered over their sequins and salads.
    “Isn’t she cute?” a woman whispered, waving for Gayle and Lynn to lean into each other.
    Country artist John Michael Montgomery, wearing head-to-toe black, said he jumped at the chance to introduce Yoakam, but attends the ceremony to see his Kentucky cohorts get some attention.
    “We’ve had tons of talent come out of this state,” he said. “I gotta brag a little bit about that.”

Click below for a list of past Hall of Fame inductees...

Kentuckians on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

ABC

A two-hour episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that aired Sunday helped out a Louisville family, plus the entire University of Louisville marching band.

Patrick Hughes, who is blind and uses a wheelchair, plays trumpet in U of L's marching band. The house rebuilt by scads of volunteers and the EMHE crew was more accessible for him and a better fit for his family. (At the end of the episode, we heard that the family's mortgaged was paid off, and then some, too, which is particularly impressive.)

The crew also rebuilt the marching band's practice field, creating a level, green field and a adding new lights. Fancy.

ABC

Lexington artist Jessie Dunahoo was featured on the episode in segments that told how the 75-year old man, who is blind, deaf and can't speak, creates artwork based on touch. Here's a Herald-Leader article written in 2000 about the artist. He works out of the arts studio Latitude in Lexington, which saw its name splashed across the television when it aired.

Missed it? Watch the full episode here.

 

Super Fat Tuesday

It's Mardi Gras, Super Fat Tuesday and that means Paczki Day!

A brief intro: these doughnuts are a big, fat tradition in Polish communities like Hamtramck, near Detroit. Pronounced poonch-key, or something like it, they have somewhere from 400-1,000 calories and more bad-for-you stuff than I want to acknowledge.

I can't say that Central Kentucky is rich with the heavy, fat-sugar-deliciousness, but you can find boxes and boxes of them at Meijer. (Makes sense, right? Michigan-based chain serves of Hamtramck-based delicacy.) They're the Big Mac of pastries, and the fact that they're available only a few days of the year makes them all the more precious, like eating an entire box of Girl Scout Samoas.

The doughnut pictured above was shot at the Herald-Leader before the hungry masses of journalists descended upon them. My personal feeling is that paczki should be glazed and prune-filled, but powder was all I found, and I actually want people to eat them, so custard-filled they are.

If you find them anywhere else, do the public some good and say so in the comments. Of course, I found this recipe for paczki in a Michigan newspaper --  some sick part of me is  tempted to remake it will applesauce, whole wheat flour and organic fruit-filled centers.

But wait. It's Fat Tuesday. Nevermind.

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Listen: I'll be dishing on three songs on Spaceship of Fools tonight on WMMT 88.7 FM.
They're three songs I listened to on repeat while in Iraq, not including an Iraqi-styled remix of My Number One, which was blaring often from our office speakers most nights.
Not within easy listening distance of Whitesburg? Stream it here.

A true story of rabbits, guns, friendship and family -- on KET.

Last weekend, the national PBS audience got a look at a KET-produced documentary: The Everlasting Stream, a film about Walt Harrington's hunting trips in Barren County with his father-in-law and a few unlikely pals.

Full disclosure: Harrington was once a faculty member in my MFA program, which is to say I worship at the Altar of Walt. I haven't met him, but he's a former Washington Post reporter with a heady list of works I'd happily recommend to you.

Anyway! The film was based on Harrington's memoir, The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family. (You can read the first 70-some pages of it free. Thanks, Google!) There's a short clip and an interview with Harrington on PBS' Web site. Check it out here.

If you missed it this weekend, you can watch it at 9 p.m Nov. 22 on KET1 or 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. Nov. 21 on KET2. Hoping to watch from outside the area? Check your local listings.

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Relax: Kynt and Vyxsin are still safe!
Louisville's Gothtuckians came in fourth on last night's episode of The Amazing Race. They weren't much of a focus on the show, which required the racers to travel to Africa, learn a bit of the local language, milk a camel and -- gah -- drink it. YUM. Click here to catch up on the episode.

KY girl gets gold star on Kid Nation

Kennedy, kid and a gold star/CBS

This post is a bit late, but if you haven't been keeping up with Kid Nation, it'll be news to you.

One of the pioneers from Kentucky was given the highest honor in Bonanza City when she was awarded the gold star on last week's episode. (Really, it's a big deal: it's worth $20,000.) Kennedy, from Ashland, took the stage during the town's talent show and made a complete fool of herself with a rap-and-dance routine. The kids loved it, and most importantly, it helped Kentucky's other pioneer, Savannah from Letcher County, to brighten up after homesickness set in.

When the council decided who had earned the gold star that week, they turned to Kennedy, for her fearlessness and selflessness, but also for her pure art and entertainment value.

Kennedy and Savannah/CBS

You can watch a clip of the talent show, the announcement that Kennedy won the gold star and the phone call to Kennedy's mom. (You can also read my Q&A with Savannah by clicking here.)

Watch the next episode at 8 p.m. Wednesday on CBS, when the green district argues that it should be renamed the gold district, thanks to its many gold stars. CBS also promises a "shocking announcement."

Is KY the home of the high five?

A deep, important investigation in today's Herald-Leader was inspired by this shirt from WHY Louisville:

Could Kentucky be the home of the high five?

Alas, our investigation was inconclusive. We'll file it away with Chicken or the Egg and How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop?

But this much we know is true: Kentucky seems to pop up a lot in the lore surrounding the high five. Last night, before he'd even read the story, a sports editor pointed out that the 1978 Lafayette boys basketball team was fond of it. Sports stars and musicians are all on record slapping each other five. We will never know who really invented it, but this idea that the University of Louisville basketball team popularized it is entirely possible.

That said, here's all the other stuff you need to know about high fiving:

• National High Five Day was April 19 this year.
  • National High Five Day has its own documentary. About 11:30 long.
• There are many varieties of the high five. And it really is a science.
• Feeling lonely and unappreciated? Here's a virtual high five.
• High five etiquette is actually kind of a big deal.

Deal or No Deal: She got close to the million!

In case you weren't watching, Kentucky-native-Ellen-bride-budding-actress Alecia Whitaker won more than $300,000 on Deal or No Deal last week. She could've had the million! It was hers for the taking! But hey, if I were her, I would have taken a few hundred grand and some primetime air any day.

Want to see more? Here's a video from NBC's Web site featuring  Alecia and UK grad-hubby Jerrod Pace: "Let's go to Italy and let's make some babies!"

Look at that anticipation! EEK!

I'm rock-climbing or something crazy like that today. Check back tomorrow!

Review: Hillbilly: The Real Story

Last weekend, as Ken Burns' much-buzzed-about documentary The War began on PBS, The History Channel debuted a special that came a little closer to home: Hillbilly: The Real Story.

With Flatwoods native Billy Ray Cyrus narrating, the show documents some of the history and traditions of Appalachia, from settlement to stock car racing to snake handling. It's typical History Channel in its depth, mixing quick mentions with more developed topics. It's never exhaustive or academic, but mostly respectful and fair of mountain dwellers who "developed their own sense of America." Rather than focusing only on the best-known stereotypes, for instance, one segment points out that only about 2,000 snake handlers remain in the region, and most people in Appalachia don't want to be identified as such.

Eastern Kentucky is featured prominently when the history shifts from moonshine to marijuana, calling the drug "Kentucky's No. 1 cash crop."

A Q&A with Kentucky's Kid Nation star.

Update: Did you watch Kid Nation on Wednesday night? What did you think? Tell me down in the comments.

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The most controversial and curious show in this Fall's batch of new television will debut at 8 p.m. tonight on CBS. Kid Nation got quite a bit of buzz when TV writers first heard about the concept, but as the big day neared, everyone from angry parents to entertainment unions was criticizing the show.

Here's how it worked: Forty kids ages 8-15 were dropped in a deserted New Mexico town for 40 days. Their charge? Build a society all their own, with economy, government and all. The town lacked many of the comforts they're used to, like, say, toilets. But at the end of each episode, the kids gathered together to discuss what was happening, and to award one child a gold star -- literally, a star made of gold, worth about $20,000. They could leave if they wanted to, but there was no elimination procedure.

Two of the 40 children were from Kentucky. There was 12-year-old Kennedy, who lives in Ashland. (Her mother, Tammie Womack, wrote an opinion piece for the H-L, explaining why they allowed their daughter to have the experience.)

Savannah, a 10-year-old from Partridge, was another pioneer. Her father applied to be on Survivor last year, but when casting agents called, they were looking for the daughter, not the father. (Mining applications for other shows seems like standard procedure now; you might recall that David and Mary Conley of Stone were selected for The Amazing Race after David applied to be on Survivor.)

Savannah told me on Tuesday that the family thought it was a joke, but as the calls kept coming in, they decided to listen. Her favorite memories of the show, she says, she's not allowed to share right now.

Read on to learn more about Savannah, her favorite chore in Bonanza City and the worst part about being away from home for six weeks. (One word: outhouses.)