FIVE. OH! TOO…

FIVE.

1. Newsletter slow clap goes to Manual High School’s RedEye for its story last week about a Kentucky State Police training slideshow, used until 2013, that quoted Hitler, including this from his Mein Kampf manifesto: “the very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” In a media briefing, Gov. Andy Beshear said an investigation had found that the slideshow had only been used once in 2013, describing it as an “isolated incident.” But in a follow-up story, RedEye reported that it had obtained a second KSP slideshow quoting Hitler and promoting “ruthless” violence. According to the RedEye report, it had been created in 2001 and last edited in 2011. Amid the fallout, KSP’s commissioner announced his resignation. 👏…👏 …👏👏…👏👏👏…👏 👏👏👏👏👏👏.

RedEye started in 2010, and I asked adviser James Miller, who chairs the school’s Journalism and Communication magnet, for other memorable moments from his students.

– “Scooping the local press on ‘The Purge.’”

– “A months-long investigation that found JCPS may have been violating federal law” (by having students sign up for their digital Backpack of Success Skills without parental consent).

– “Annual coverage of Red/White Week and the Male-Manual football game.” (No, those 2019 pics of unmasked kids in the crowded stands did NOT make me tear up a little!) (And Ramstock! 😭 — managing editor and Manual alum Mary Chellis Nelson)

2.

Bri texted me about our first-grader while at the Science Center last weekend. “Emilia wrote a worry and shredded it. She said, ‘I worry that COVID will not stop.’”

3. Haiku Review

He’ll Have Another
Senator for life
Wins by 20-point margin.
Slow, steady tortoise.

4. In 2006 I graduated from Ohio University, about a two-hour drive east from my hometown in the Cincinnati suburbs, and I started working as Louisville Magazine’s staff writer on Jan. 2, 2007. Two moments made me feel like a local: The first time I pronounced it Lou-ah-vuhl instead of Looey-ville, and when I finally learned to drive to our old downtown office, on the corner of Second Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, without stress while navigating the chaotic lights on Bardstown Road. Now, a “reconfiguration project” is transforming parts of Bardstown, with plans for left-turn lanes at most intersections and permanent street parking instead of rush-hour lanes.

I’m reminded of this from a 1954 issue of the mag:

“Take, for instance, the Bardstown Road lane lights. The system works this way: From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., southbound has two green lanes. Northbound traffic, coming toward town, is much lighter. It has one green lane. The remaining lane, marked with a flashing amber light…” — sad that others won’t experience this confusing rite of passage.

5. At both Carmichael’s locations I saw these window signs:

“Don’t let indie bookstores become a work of fiction.”

“Books curated by a real person, not by a creepy algorithm that wants you to buy deodorant.”

“Buy books from people who want to sell books, not colonize the moon.”

And my favorite: “Seriously, does anyone need an egg slicer by tomorrow?”