FIVE. OH! TOO…

FIVE.

1. We wanted every single one of these 26 women to be on the cover. So they are. Yep, this issue has 26 different covers. Post a pic of your copy on social media with #LouMag and let us know which cover you got! And please let us know who we’ve missed.

2. The next issue, which should hit mailboxes next week, also includes more than two-dozen people from the city’s urban-design community talking about what Louisville could look like in the future. It reminded me of a piece from 2012, with thoughts about Louisville in 2020 regarding business, education, entertainment, food, health, social services, sports, transportation and urban design. In the past two newsletters I shared several of the 2012 predictions, and here are some of them from Edward Lee (food), Patrick Piuma with U of L’s Urban Design Studio (transportation) and developer Bill Weyland (urban design).

Lee
“What will we be drinking? Bourbon will always be a mainstay, of course, especially as it keeps getting more popular worldwide. But I hope it doesn’t go the way of vodka, where you start finding every candied flavor under the sun. Honeyed bourbon is already a step in that direction, I’m afraid.”

“Our restaurant scene gaining real national stature won’t happen by accident. If you look at a city like Charleston, S.C., probably 15 years ago, that’s where Louisville is right now. Back then, Charleston had a couple of good restaurants, but for the most part it was not recognized nationally. Yet there were certain people and corporations that made a willful commitment to bring in great chefs and open great restaurants.”

“Why have honey from Provence when you have the best sorghum in the world grown in your backyard?”

Piuma
“When I moved here from Philly over a decade ago, light rail seemed like something that was going to happen. We can’t forget the importance of developing a modern transit system, especially if we hope to realize our potential as a major American city. We already know we’re good at moving goods, but we can get better at moving people.”

Weyland
“It is absolutely critical that we create denser communities in response to energy issues; they need to be much more walkable.”

“We’re going to fill in some of these parking lots, which is going to make our streets more walkable and interesting to the eye. If you walked down West Main Street 20 years ago, there were parking lots scattered all through there; too many teeth had been knocked out. You walk down that street today and it is solid from Second Street all the way to Ninth.”

3. I couldn’t not watch — and this gets stranger every time I type it — A Recipe for Seduction, the Lifetime “mini-movie” from KFC.

Eleven takeaways, in honor of 11 herbs and spices:

-According to the opening credits, this is “a film by Jean.” Ya know, Jean. Jean! I-recognize-you-by-one-name-only Jean! Our Fellini. (Or it’s a production company.)

-Apparently a “mini-movie” is 16-minutes long including opening and closing credits.

-I’m telling ya, that jingle-y-yet-threatening music suggests a dead body facedown on the stairs.

-DID YOU SEE HOW THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER?!?! Yeah, Billy Garibaldi III is def sleeping with Bunny, aka Bunster, aka his gf Jessica’s mom.

-Salt-and-pepper-haired Mario Lopez introducing himself to Jessica as “Harland Sanders, the new cook” makes me think 2020 wasn’t so bad after all.

-I need “Beat It, Crouton” on a T-shirt.

-OMG, no! Not Lee! Jessica’s BFF Lee can’t be the dead one on the stairs!

-Aaaaaaaaaaand that lighting made me think of Saw.

-Lee to the rescue!

-Mario Lopez still has those Slater dimples.

-CLIFFHANGER = SEQUEL?!?!?!

4. Need to spend more time with no-apostrophe Thats What They All Say, the new album from Louisville rapper Jack Harlow, so I can find all of the local lyrical Easter eggs, like the one the world heard on Grammy-nominated “Whats Poppin”: “eating fettucine at Vincenzo’s.” So far I’ve noticed “Hometown Hero, tell ’em add a mural” and “girl I’m at the 21c” and, my favorite, “turkey on ciabatta from the deli, shout to Morris.” (Which is one spot that seems pandemic-proof — the woman who answered the phone at the deli had heard the line but was too busy to talk.)

I’d listen for more over the holiday break, but my busy schedule is packed with more parties than ever, so I’ll have to wait —

Just JOSHin’. Imma spend this holiday locked in.

5. We used to run a fun bit in the magazine called Where Am I? Just a small pic, and readers would guess where it was taken. I’d like to resurrect it in the newsletter, so here’s the first Where Am I? we published, in 2014.

Do you know this location? Let me know, and I’ll give you props in the next newsletter.