Wedding Bells

Mark Reese and Patty Brand are to be married today in the Gazebo at 14OO Willow. They picked David Aram up at the airport last night but I haven't heard anything since. David will be giving the bride away. Yardhog will be "best man." Immediately afterwards there will be a reception at the Pee Wee Reese Room at the Audubon Country Club. It should be a wonderful evening.
     A bizarre mistake in the entertainment section of today's Courier. Gordon Brisker, who died two weeks ago, is listed as playing with the Dick Sisto trio tonight at the Seelbach. Maybe they are having a seance.
     My class at KSR last night went beautifully. The prisoners read their papers on the first two chapters of Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg Ohio." And there was passion in their prose. It's amazing to hear their reactions to Anderson's classic stories.
     KSR looks like the "land of broken convicts." Going through the security check yesterday I had to wait while two prisoners in wheel chairs were processed. One held his artificial limb in his lap while a guard removed his hand-cuffs and chains. There must be some mindless bureaucratic rule that all prisoners, even the disabled must be handcuffed. Out in the yard men limped past me on crutches and walkers. One man in a wheel chair asked me what I taught. When I told him he said," My wife has a Masters Degree in literature from the University of Kentucky." A strange sad world.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

A huge hurricane is bearing down on New Orleans and the Gulf as I write this. Our weather is moderate as it has been all summer. The Showcase Cinema Complex on Bardstown Road closed yesterday. An article in the Courier this morning quoted one man who remembered viewing the baseball drama "Field of Dreams" and upon leaving the theater spied an older man wiping away tears. What made the event memorable was that man was Pee Wee Reese. Mark Reese and Patty will be in Louisville in the next few days to be married in Cherokee Park. D is making all the arrangements. I  hope the hurricane doesn't arrive before they do.

PARASKEVIDEKATRIAPHOBIA

According to an article in the Courier, that word was coined by  a psychotherapist to define "the clinical fear of Friday the 13th." The dreaded day went fine for the Hog. I purchased a new Trek bicycle to replace my ten year old Schwinn and as of today logged 52 miles.
     I just returned from a 4 hour ride that took me from Saint Matthews to Cox Park to Waterfront Park, then Portland to the lily pad pond in Shawnee Park. It's been a couple of years since I made that trip and I'd forgotten just how far it is.
     Riding a bicycle works on the mid-section. Flattens and tightens the stomach, the body's center. I haven't lost any weight this summer but my stomach is tight as a drum.
     My luck hasn't been bad just hilarious. Yesterday I opened a fortune cookie and got a misprinted fortune. "There's no greater pleasure than seeing your lived ones (sic) prosper."
School hasn't even started and I'm already having to read bad sentences.
     Picked up a beautiful book half price at CarMical's yesterday. A bio of Marie Laveau the New Orleans Voodoo Queen published the University of Mississippi Press.
     The weather continues to be heavenly. I've never experienced an August like this in my life time.

MUSIC CRITIC?

Jeffrey Lee Puckett wrote in the Courier Journal today that the late Mary Ann Fisher sang in the 1970s with Ray Charles and was one of his Raelets. Wrong on both counts. Fisher was a featured singer in Charles 1950s band. She performs a solo piece on one of his early Atlantic albums. She had a romantic relationship with Charles and she was never a member of his back-up singing group the Raelets.
In the 1970s she was living and performing in Louisville. Yardhog will never forget the night at the old Downs Supper Club on 4th Street when she encouraged and complimented his singing.
To borrow a quote from Roland Kirk, "WHY DON'T THEY KNOW!"