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“I’ve always felt like the term ‘disruptor’ was just another way for someone to brag about not being careful with other people’s lives.”
Fark.com founder and CEO, Drew Curtis
Ina Garten’s Memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens
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What Sold, Where, for How Much?
UK’s College of Design hosted a September ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the Gray Design Building (formerly the Reynolds Building). The new facility houses CoD’s four programs, in addition to landscape architecture, creating the first space where all design students, faculty, staff and programs will be housed in one location. Designed by architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang, the project represents “adaptive reuse” — an approach to architecture that repurposes existing buildings for new purposes. “Extending the lifespan of existing buildings is one of the most significant ways we can limit our impact on the environment and broaden the creative potential of architecture,” said Jeanne Gang, founding partner of Studio Gang, and a MacArthur Fellow.
Versailles has broken ground on the new Highbramble Park Standardbred Racetrack.
Bluegrass Salt Room celebrated their one-year anniversary with a ribbon cutting.
CONSTRUCTION
The proposed senior living Flats at Woodland (Woodland Christian Church), was announced
more than a year ago, and a land disturbance permit has now been requested, suggesting construction preparation may begin soon.
CLOSINGS
The Blushery, open for three and a half years on National Avenue in the Warehouse Block, recently announced their closing, after deciding “not to transition to an event space and monthly pop-up structure as previously planned. Instead, we will be closing the physical storefront to pursue other opportunities. The online store will remain open through this transition.”
Fiabesca has opened at The Summit.
Plastic Surgeons of Lexington celebrated their new office with a ribbon cutting.
LEXINGTON’S HALLOWEEN HAPPENINGS 2024
“I myself am finding the whole thing rather intoxicating. Our little town, the site of an international event like this. You have no idea how much wrangling it took to get them here. I lobbied the coordinators for weeks. It was a lot of ouzo and karaoke.”
Taylor Doose, Gilmore Girls
Did you know that Lexington has been named a Top 10 Halloween Destination by USA Today and was featured in the Top 25 Best Halloween Festivals Across the U.S. by Oprah Magazine?
Even though we may well enjoy temps ranging from the 30s to the 90s over these next few weeks, Fall has officially arrived in the bluegrass. It might rain. It might snow. And there might be heat advisories. But tailgating is back, Keeneland is running, and the entire month is lit by Halloween happenings.
MON OCT 7
Matthew R. Sparks and Olivia Sizemore discuss and sign Haint Country: Dark Folktales from the Hills and Hollers, a collection of weird, otherworldly, and mystic phenomena―tales that have been recorded and documented for the first time. 7 pm. Joseph Beth Booksellers.
SAT OCT 12
Winchester’s Haunted Walking Tour is a spooky tour of Winchester’s historic streets. Hear tales of murder, mayhem, and ghostly apparitions while strolling through the original brick sidewalks of the Thomson neighborhood and downtown Main Street. Be prepared for a 2-mile walking tour that will last approximately 1.5 hours, and don’t forget to bring proper shoes and weather gear. Flashlights will be provided, 7:30 pm to 9 pm, Saturdays in October.
WED OCT 16
Ghouls, goblins and grizzly ghosts, it’s time for Fright Night Bingo. Enjoy a spectacular bingo night at the Kenwick Community Center with a spooky-theme! 5:30 pm to 7 pm
FRI OCT 18
Scarefest returns to the Lexington Center for the weekend, thru Sunday.
SAT OCT 19
“Carve n’ Chip In.” The public is invited to bring their own pumpkins to McConnell Springs Park where staff will have carving tools and stencils available to assist with carving your masterpiece to add to this year’s Jack O Lantern Trail.
SUN OCT 20
Lexington’s Halloween Festival downtown will culminate with the annual Thriller reenactment where several hundred zombies will dance, dawdle and drag themselves down Main Street to the classic Michael Jackson tune. Pedestrians can watch all along the parade route. Rain date is 10-27-2024
TUE OCT 22
It’s time for Pumpkin Drop-Off for the 2024 Jack o Lantern Trail at McConnell Springs. You may place your jack-o-lantern on the trail yourself, or you can leave it on the porch, and Parks & Recreation staff will place it for you.
Parks will provide the lights for the lanterns. Remember to pick up your Cricket Press Jack-olantern Trail 2024 poster and get the link to sign up for free admission to the trail when you drop off your lantern!
WED OCT 23
Looking for a spooky good time with family and friends? Get ready for an evening of fright and fun at the Kenwick Community Center’s Spook-tacular Celebration! There will be snacks, decorations, pumpkins, and special giveaways. Registration is free but is required for attendance. Be there or be scared! 6 pm to 8 pm
SAT OCT 26
For the grownups, check in at Belle’s Cocktail House from 4 pm to 8 pm for a spooktacular Halloween Bar Crawl. You’ll haunt the town, hopping from one eerie venue to the next in search of thrills and chills.
SUN OCT 27
The Lexington community is invited to carve pumpkins Oct. 27 from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. at Transylvania University’s Old Morrison. All pumpkins and carving supplies will be provided. Food trucks will be on site.
Register for a ticket for each member of your party who would like to carve a pumpkin. Individuals can request up to three tickets,
and each will be good for one pumpkin. Please arrive at the time your ticket is reserved to ensure you receive a pumpkin for carving. Pumpkins not claimed within the first half hour of the ticket reservation will be released to others for carving.
The PumpkinMania display will be lit for five nights — rain or shine — Oct. 27-31. On Friday, Nov. 1, the pumpkins will be collected by local farmers and used to feed farm animals, meeting the university’s sustainability goals.
MON OCT 28
It’s drop-in day at Artworks at the Carver School for Halloween Printmaking. Make your
Henry Clay’s Lexington
own Halloween prints from a selection of spooky precut linocut blocks, or register in advance to carve your own design. 2 pm to 5 pm.
WED OCT 30
Dress your dog up for a Howl-o-Ween Yappy Hour, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pleasant Ridge Park. Costume contest with winners in several categories include “Greatest DIY” and “Best Overall.” Donations go to Friends of the Dog Parks. Locally sourced food trucks, live music, frozen desserts, cold beer, hard cider, and activities will be available for you and your furry best friends.
THU OCT 31
Trick or Treat, 6 pm to 8 pm, Lexington.
SPOOKY MOVIES
OCT 4 Hocus Pocus, Masterson Station
OCT 11 Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire
OCT 12 Ernest Scared Stupid, Downtown Library
OCT 18 Corpse Bride Moondance
OCT 31 The Black Cat, Farish Theatre (downtown Library
It’s Not News
It’s a 25 year anniversary for Drew Curtis’s ‘startup’
“Iquit going on Facebook when I realized that every time I logged in I couldn’t remember anything I’d just read, and most of the time I also came away angry and couldn’t remember why. I realized that if Facebook were a restaurant offering up a similar dining experience, I’d never go back. All I miss by not going on Facebook is lost time, grief, and cat photos. I think everyone could do with less of all of those in their lives. Except for cat photos — those are great.”
So if you want to find Drew Curtis these days — other than his recent announcement of the 25th anniversary celebration for his news aggregator site, fark.com — don’t look for him on social media.
He says, “I prefer spending time with family and friends. I’m a fast-casual cyclist so I spend a lot of time riding around the back roads of surrounding counties, because being in shape just makes life easier, and it’s awesome being outdoors.”
The site remains his fulltime job though. “I do still spend most of my day choosing what links to post on Fark. So I’m still around on Fark in an ever-present ephemeral sort of way. My fingerprints are everywhere, even though I don’t pop into the comments much.”
Fark has always headquartered here in the bluegrass, part of a trend that’s been aggressively catching on in tech for the past decade — a migration away from the pricey coasts to remote work in affordable communities in the south and midwest.
Asked about the biggest evolution in the job, post-pandemic, he says, “I don’t travel anymore. I used to be in LA, SFO, or NYC at least once every two weeks, sometimes even more often.
I haven’t been to NYC in almost five years now. This is mainly because remote work is so widespread in tech now that the people I need to see aren’t in those cities anymore either. They live in Bozeman or Miami or, most surprisingly, Toronto, or wherever else they happen to be. I loved traveling, but it’s nice not having to do it.”
The
crux of the problem is AI companies started using the term AI before we actually had AI. We’ve got Derek from The Good Place, instead. So far.
Launched here in 1999, Fark.com is a news aggregator site delivering over 20 million impressions a month, where you might find user-submitted headlines like “tiny deer rampage across Pennsylvania,” or “what’s worse than being stung by a scorpion in a Vegas hotel room?”
The roots of Reddit, launched six years later in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, found inspiration in Fark, and both sites maintain a retro vibe today, with surging popularity among Gen Z. Redditors exchanged threads this past summer about how they saw “the internet being born.”
“Going back years before 1999, I had a knack for coming across weird news stories — which was an actual talent in the days of print and early digital,” Curtis says of the site’s origins. (A book about the first 25 years of Fark is on the way.)
“In the mid 90s,” he says, “I’d just email the stories out to my friends when I found them, but by 1999 I was finding so many that it seemed like I was sending too many emails. So I grabbed the domain fark.com and started posting them there instead of emailing everyone.
“Initially the idea was [that] Fark would be a central place for all things Not News. Over the next 25 years though, Not News somehow absorbed the entire news cycle. It was a happy accident. Well, for me anyhow, I don’t think it’s done the rest of us any favors.”
Stephen King wrote a jacket blurb for Curtis’s first book, saying, “I laughed so hard I almost threw up.”
Curtis said at the time, “everybody claims to want real news, but no one really does.”
Has that changed for the better or worse as we’ve added 24/7 news, podcasting, and AI to the media landscape?
Curtis says, “When I wrote my book in 2006 (It’s Not News, It’s Fark), I accidentally predicted a lot of what actually ended up happening, but even I was surprised by how far things have actually gone since. For example, when Fark started we were considered very edgy. Nothing’s changed on our end, but everyone else continued racing towards the bottom.
“One of my friends works for a mainstream news company which I will not name but you can pretty much assume it’s all of them at this point. He says they have multiple AIs reading both social media and other news sites 24/7 trying to figure out what’s trending —they even have one that reads Fark. Every morning when he comes to work he gets a huge document on Slack breaking down what the AIs think is trending, a dozen news stories he might consider writing that morning, and several sample paragraphs of those articles already written by the AI if he wants to use them. There’s also an option to just have it write the entire article for him, but the entire staff has been warned to carefully comb over what it writes because AIs hallucinate — a lot. Hilariously so in some cases. Just yesterday I read an article about a guy whose neighbor lived about 100 years down the road from him. Time traveler I guess.”
“To me the even greater question is if every news outlet is reading every other news outlet to try to figure out what’s trending, who’s flying the plane? No human is actually deciding what’s trending. Social media is of no use, it’s mostly bots screaming at each other.”
He adds, “It’s also not entirely clear if AI in general will ever be able to do anything useful at scale. There aren’t many good tests for AI capabilities. For example GPT4 can pass the bar exam at 90% percentile and well, that’s great, but how many bar exams are in its training data? Probably hundreds.”
Not to mention, he says, “the whole AI industry is stacked up with scammers who pivoted from crypto because —since no one can
empirically prove how good a given AI is — it’s really easy to drive a hype cycle. Just last week another nine figure valuation startup’s product was exposed as being just a wrapper around Claude 3.5 on the backend. This happens often.
“The crux of the problem is AI companies started using the term AI before we actually had AI. We’ve got Derek from The Good Place, instead. So far.
“Elon Musk thinks his Grok AI is going to replace all legacy news media, but what he’s really going to end up with is an AI that aggregates millions of other AI bots trying to counter-jam media narratives to overthrow governments, and repackages that as ‘news.’ A news media AI human centipede if you will. If you don’t know what that is, do NOT google that. Ask your kids. Then ask them how they know what that is, because you have failed as a parent.”
Curtis doesn’t claim to be a disruptor, explaining, “I’ve always felt like the term ‘disruptor’ was just another way for someone to brag about not being careful with other people’s lives. However, while I won’t claim ‘disruptor,’ I’m often about three years ahead of the curve. This keeps happening over and over again. It’s not actually an advantage, because if you’re the first person to see an opportunity, no one else sees it. There’s a sweet spot between when a new thing appears and when that new thing gains traction, I have yet to hit it.”
younger two in high school. But “empty nest in the 21st century isn’t the same as it used to be,” Curtis says. “We still hear from our oldest at least once a day. He’s back to join us for trivia night at the local bar every Wednesday. He and I still work out together at a gym twice a week. It’s a new world out there. No one’s ever far away.”
How did these two savvy tech parents handle screentime for their kids?
Curtis says, “When I was in fourth grade, a couple classmates of mine had parents that didn’t let them watch TV. At the time TV was the devil, as was radio decades before that and even books in the 19th century. Anything fun is bad, basically, at the time. Anyhow, not having TV didn’t help my classmates at all, it actively harmed them socially. They couldn’t join in conversations about what the rest of us had watched the night before. They were cut off from their peers’ cultural zeitgeist.
“The Internet is different obviously, because there’s dark stuff out there. I’m not saying we let them run wild, but whenever they found bad stuff, we’d talk about it. Digital parenting is mainly recognizing when your kid is being radicalized by algorithms — and I don’t mean dangerous ones, I mean stupid ones. For example, my middle kid popped up one day with an opinion about video game journalism — we put an end to that real quick. For those reading this who have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourselves lucky. You’re welcome to google it but I promise it will make no sense.”
As the site celebrates 25 years, he says, “ In general my path has been a strange and winding one. Fark is at an interesting crossroads right now for a few reasons. One good thing is Gen-Z loves Fark and they’re just now hearing about it -—they’re half our daily audience now.”
As for watershed moments, when he knows he’s made the right choice, he says, “I’ve made many right choices that ultimately made Fark less successful, and by less successful, I mean not a billion dollar publicly traded company. I’m fine with that, I sleep well at night knowing I’ve managed to go 25 years without enabling genocide in a single foreign country. Not many other social media platforms can say that. In fact, none of them can say that.”
BONUS LIGHTNING ROUND
Name two things on your nightstand.
DREW: One million charging cables and a lamp I never use because screens produce their own light.
What are you reading?
DREW: I’m in an unintentional book club. It wasn’t supposed to be a book club, we just wanted to pretend it was one and just drink instead. The problem was people started picking excellent books that the rest of us regretted not reading after the fact. So now, we read the books. And drink.
The last book we read was Neuromancer, which I haven’t read since the mid 80s. It is amazing not only how much Gibson got right about the future we live in, but how much he still continues to get right. He even predicted algorithms that would act like narcotics on the human brain, like Instagram and Tik Tok. He was way ahead of his time.
Favorite thing to eat in Lexington?
DREW: Anything from SRO. The menu changes weekly.
You revealed in a 2010 talk the secret to all media: “write good content; make it easy to share; don’t suck.” Is it still that simple?
DREW: It’s still a prerequisite but it’s not the whole ballgame anymore. AI is really throwing a wrench into things. Now that anyone can write an AI scraper, entire news organizations are springing up out of nowhere that do nothing but read everyone else’s material and rephrase it. Original reporting is in danger of not cash flowing, even moreso with Google writing AI summaries of articles instead of sending traffic to the original author. We’re going to end up with AIs hallucinating at each other at this rate.
You’ve long predicted the imminent demise of mass media. How’s that going?
DREW: Nailed it.
Curtis and his family still live just outside Lexington, as he and his wife Heather are headed for empty nest syndrome, with their oldest son now a freshman at UK, and the
He adds, “And sign up for TotalFark, keep us going another 25 years.”
Fark’s 25th anniversary celebration is scheduled for Saturday October 12, 2024 at Lexington’s Lyric Theatre. Tickets are available via eventbrite.
Drew Curtis and son Chase photographed at Ace’s 2007 Best of Lexington celebration.
ads@aceweekly.com
STAGE EKU
Musical Theatre Presents Cabaret in the Black Box Theatre.
MOVIES Spy Kids, Farish Theatre (downtown Library)
STAGE
READ A.S. King discusses and signs Pick the Lock 7 pm Joseph Beth
TNL Rebel without a Cause, Pavilion
MOVIES Hocus
Pocus 6:30 pm Masterson
PUSH Physical Theatre adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel, Dracula, EKU’s Center for the Arts at 7:30 pm. 7 8 10 11 12 6 1 3 4 5 2
FAMILY Fire Prevention
Festival 2 pm Masterson Station Park
MOVIES Pan’s Labyrinth, Farish Theatre (downtown Library)
READ Matthew R. Sparks and Olivia Sizemore discuss and sign Haint Country: Dark Folktales from the Hills and Hollers, 7 pm Joseph Beth.
Station Keeneland’s 2024 Fall Race Meet opens Friday, October 4, and continues through Saturday, October 26. No racing on Mondays or Tuesdays.
COMEDY Leanne Morgan’s first book, What in the World?, is out now, and she’ll appear in the new Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon movie, You’re Cordially Invited. She performs at 7 pm, Rupp Arena
CONCERT ZZ Top 7:30 pm Norton Center
TNL Vinyl Richie, Pavilion
FEST The Moonshiner’s Ball kicks off for the weekend, at the Rockastle riverside.
READ Erin Chandler signs Bluegrass Sons 4 pm, A Likely Story (Midway)
HORSE Barrels & Brews 5 pm to 7 pm Kentucky Horse Park
MOVIES
Ghostbusters: Frozen
Empire 6:30 pm Moondance
FEST Mary Queen Fall Festival, Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary
This year’s Big Blue Madness ushers in a new era, with new coaches for both the men’s and women’s basketball program, Rupp Arena.
MOVIE Rocky Horror anniversary screening with Barry Bostwick (Brad), 8 pm Louisville Palace
GOLF
Pumpkin Patch Classic, 8:30 am and 2 pm, Tates Creek Golf Course
MOVIES Pan’s Labyrinth 2 pm Farish Theatre (downtown Library)
FEST
This is Thriller Head downtown for the annual Halloween Festival, then stay for Thrilleer. Zombies will dance, dawdle and drag themselves down Main Street.Pedestrians can watch all along the parade route.
WALK Lexington Walk to End Alzheimers 1:30 pm KY Horse Park
COLUMBUS DAY, the second Monday in October, is one of 11 official federal holidays. No mail delivery. The Fed is closed.
HUMOR Humor writer and cheerful misanthropist David Sedaris (The Santaland Diaries) returns to Lexington for an evening at the Lexington Opera House. 7:30 pm
DRINK
West Sixth Beer Garden
COMEDY
David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show), hits town for his standup tour, (definitely) an 18 and up show, and a phonefree event. 8 pm, Lexington Opera House.
Kenwick
Spook-tacular Celebration 6 pm Kenwick Center
Pop Up, 4 pm to 8 pm, Woodland Park
CONCERT Sam Bush 7:30 pm Kentucky Theatre
MOVIES Cameron Crowe’s Heartbreakers Beach Party Tom Petty documentary in theaters, Cinemark Fayette
FEST
Hop over to Mt. Sterling for Kentucky’s Oldest Festival, October’s Court Days, Oct 18 thru Oct 21.
Enjoy 500+ vendors, live music, food, crafts, and yes, a mullet contest!
COMEDY
Jeff Dunham will be returning to the stage with his cast of colorful characters, 5 pm Rupp Arena.
COMEDY Bored Teachers, Lexington Opera House
HOLIDAY
Trick or Treat, 6 pm to 8 pm.
MUSIC A Celtic Music
MUSIC Music at the Mansion, 6 pm Marriott Griffin Gate
HOLIDAY Kenwick
Haunted House 6 pm Kenwick Community Center
COMEDY Eddie Izzard, Taft Theatre (Cinci)
PETS Yappy Hour Howlo-Ween 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pleasant Ridge Park.
MOVIES The Shining, Farish Theatre (downtown Library)
MUSIC Buena Vista Social Orchestra 7:30 pm Lexington Opera House
CONCERT The Avett Brothers will perform at Rupp Arena, 8 pm.
BALL UK will take on Auburn at Commonwealth Stadium.
TRAFFIC Concerts + Home Game + last day of Keeneland = significant traffic impact.
13 20 14 22 16 17 18 19 23 24 25 27 28 29 30 31
Halloween 7 pm Farish Theatre (downtown library)
AROUND THE CORNER
ELF, the Musical, EKU Center for the Arts
NOV 2
NOV 8
NOV 23
Kentucky Book Festival
Jelly Roll, Rupp Arena
Junior League’s Holly Day Market
(continues thru Nov 24)
NOV 24
Canadian Brass, EKU Center for the Arts
Lauren
Virginia Albert, Harrison Carroll Brown
It was a Dark and Stormy Night…
It was enchanting to meet you
All I can say is, I was enchanted to meet you
This night is sparkling, don’t you let it go I’m wonderstruck, blushing all the way home
—Taylor Swift, “Enchanted”
Lauren Virginia Albert, a Sayre and Butler grad who later studied at the famous Second City and the Groundlings, has always been ahead of her time — a girl who really knows how to make an entrance.
This would include her precipitous arrival 33 years ago, well ahead of schedule. As mother of the bride, Jenny Albert, described the birth of her daughter in her welcome toast to the September wedding guests, “two months early — and the size of a fryer chicken.” She confessed later at the reception, “maybe half a fryer chicken.”
A longtime executive in biotech and a PhD Emory grad, the groom, Harrison Carroll Brown, welcomed friends to the rooftop rehearsal dinner the evening before, where everyone could see he was “enchanted” by this one tiny “chick,” all grown up — wearing her mother’s impeccably tailored wedding dress from nearly four decades earlier.
The Reverend Doctor Charles Halton began the ceremony by reassuring the dearly beloveds, “every relationship deserves a second chance, and sometimes a third.”
As guests raised a collective questioning eyebrow, he laughed as he clarified that he was referencing the couple’s second date shortly after meeting in Atlanta in the summer of 2022… which involved an unfortunate bout of food poisoning.
The two persevered, however, agreeing that no relationship should end on such a scarring note. They soldiered on to a third date. By the
fourth date, magic had long-since replaced the nausea, and an engagement followed a year later in August 2023. Though the couple didn’t share the exact moment they knew this would be forever with the wedding guests, the father of the bride, Lexington architect Steve Albert, was happy to share his.
“Harrison was spending one rainy and thunderous night at our house, here in Lexington, on his way to a speaking engagement in Cincinnati from Atlanta.”
The rain was pouring down … the groundwater level was rising … the sump pump was going full force in the basement, when the power went out. And the sump pump works on electricity.”
BY
PHOTO
CLAIRE MARIE AND CO
The backup water pressure pump kicked in, but the water continued to rise, and it couldn’t keep up. It was no match for the storm. The backup needed a backup.
Steve ran for the gas generator in the garage, and Harrison followed him, unprompted, into the storm —so the two could drag the heavy equipment around back, before snaking the cord over the deck, through the living room, and down into the basement.
As he toasted to “love, laughter, and happily ever after” for the newlyweds, Steve laughed at the memory of the stormy night. “We fired that generator up … the water was pumped out and the basement was saved. THAT is when I knew that Harrison was a KEEPER!”
(In addition to knowing his way around a sump pump, the groom has also been innovating in the lentiviral and AAV gene therapy spaces for over a decade.)
Both father of the bride and mother of the bride know a thing or two about keepers — having celebrated their 38th anniversary the Sunday before Lauren and Harrison’s September wedding. Jenny confessed in her welcome toast, “Steve remembered. I forgot.”
Just as she’s always known how to make an entrance, Lauren is a bride who also knows how to make an exit.
Although there’s no (known) photographic evidence, the highlight of the evening came late in the festivities when the bride hit the dance floor in her stylish pre-ceremony silk pajamas for Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted.”
She and the groom had briefly retired downstairs to give their dancing feet a rest, when she heard the first few notes of the song she had especially requested to wind down the evening. The only hitch was that she had already swapped her sophisticated Anne Barge wedding gown for a far more comfortable pajama top while she took a breather. Getting back into the intricate dress would require more time than the length of a song.
“Just throw on your pajama bottoms,” Harrison suggested, always the problem solver. And she did, squeezing in one more perfect entrance, and one more perfect exit from an enchanted evening.
The couple will make their home in Cincinnati.
PHOTO BY MARY CATHCART
Keepers: Lauren Virginia Albert was a Sayre goalie in high school, and once played an entire half with a broken finger, not wanting to let her teammates down. Harrison Carroll Brown was a championship swimmer in both high school and college, before going on to receive his PhD and pursuing a successful career in biotech.
DESIGN
BY CHRISTINA BURTON EVENTS
FLORAL BY STEMS
PHOTO BY CLAIRE MARIE AND CO
PHOTO BY CLAIRE MARIE AND CO
ACE EATS OUT
Is there more to food life in October than an abominable surfeit of candy corn? Of course.
There’s caramel apples followed by trips to the dentist.
There’s also burgoo, chili, and tailgating, even if it is 93 degrees outside.
IN THE NEWS
The New York Times has listed their Top 50 Restaurants in America, and Louisville chef Lawrence Weeks’s North of Bourbon has made the cut. Lexington readers know him from his tenure as executive chef at Honeywood, where he also introduced CurryCurryKatsu, a westernized Japanese sandwich shop that operated as a ghost kitchen out of Honeywood. (Weeks was profiled in Ace’s Annual Chef Series, The Fridges of Fayette County, in 2021.) The NYT writes, “Weeks is among a growing cadre of chefs breathing fresh life into New Orleans Cuisine with restaurants outside Louisiana.” North of Bourbon is the only Kentucky spot listed in 2024. No Kentucky eateries made the list in 2023.
Weeks is among a growing cadre of chefs breathing fresh life into New Orleans Cuisine with restaurants outside Louisiana.
BIRTHS
Tolly Ho has completed its move down the street, and is now open in the former Bad Wolf Burgers location at Foreman Avenue.. (Bad Wolf went back home to Leestown.) The new location will not be open 24/7.
OBITS
Longtime Frankfort staple Jim’s Seafood & Steaks will be open through Sunday, October 13. The space will then be in transition for a purported sale to Buffalo Trace.
The long empty Lee’s Famous Recipe structure at the corner of Red Mile Road and Versailles Road has been demolished. The site will potentially become a gas station. Lee’s on Richmond Road remains open.
TRANSITIONS
Beau’s Cafe has added dinner service (in addition to breakfast/brunch/lunch).
COMING SOON
At the groundbreaking for Versailles’ Highbramble Park Standardbred Racetrack last month, a restaurant was announced for the site. Opa’s Icehouse Meat Market & Biergarten will be a Texas Hill Country-inspired venue where you select your meats from the “Show Pit,” then it’s sliced on the Butcher Block.
Ace’s Read It and Eat It
Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir
BY INA GARTEN
(Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House)
“How bad could that be?”
Ina Garten was the hero everyone needed when, mid-pandemic quarantine, she stirred up a little fun on instagram with a recipe for a cosmopolitan mixed in a lifesize martini glass.
The post earned her more than three million views, and the thanks of a thirsty and exhausted generation. She originally rejected social media as someone who was too busy for it before eventually conceding, “if I don’t go in the pond, I’m not gonna know what the pond is.” She now has 4.6 million instagram followers, and she’s found it both “unexpected,” and “important” to her business.
The iconic food celebrity was already at work on her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, when the pandemic struck, giving her a little unexpected extra time at her laptop, during which she also produced her 13th cookbook, Go To Dinners.
And her success story — the farthest thing from rags to riches — has been well told, many times.
She met husband Jeffrey while he was at Dartmouth. The two married young and both went on to careers in Washington, where she worked as a budget analyst for nuclear energy policy (under the Ford administration, and then Carter), and he wrote for the Secretary of State.
Bureaucracy taught her that she didn’t want to be part of a slow-moving government’s “larger process.” She wanted to “ be the process.”
Jeffrey famously encouraged her to “do something you love,” and perhaps more famously, “don’t worry about the money.” (He went on to become a Dean within Yale’s Business School, and continued to teach after he retired.)
In 1978, she discovered an NYT ad for the specialty food store, Barefoot Contessa, in Westhampton Beach, where she’d never even visited. She’d taught herself how to cook via Julia Child, but admits “I’d never worked a day in the food business.” (The name of the shop was a nod to an Ava Gardner movie.)
She and Jeffrey took a trip to the Hamptons (she reflects now that he was probably humoring her) and the rest is history. She knew on the spot, “I didn’t want to write papers about enriched uranium; I wanted to bake cookies.”
She paid $20,000 for it ($5,000 under asking), and later opened a second shop, before selling the business when she turned 50 in 1996.
She says, “I’ve always been happy to jump off a cliff and figure it out on the way down.”
In the third professional act of her career, she became the author of 13 bestselling cookbooks, and the popular host of Barefoot Contessa and Be My Guest. She’s won five Emmys in addition to James Beard awards. She strenuously resisted a career in television, and multiple offers, before eventually acknowledging what a positive impact it would have on cookbook sales.
The memoir shares a little more dish than she’s previously divulged publicly. Spoiler alert: she had a painful childhood, and she and Jeffrey once “paused,” or separated, briefly. The book is conversational and chatty and exactly what you’d expect from her onscreen work.
Although Garten got her big break appearing on Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart wouldn’t be caught dead suggesting “storebought is fine.” Ina Garten will. She’ll say it with a wink and a nudge of privilege that makes it clear she doesn’t expect you to pop into the Disco Kroger; she knows she can trust you to go to the appropriate specialty store to pick up the $20 pint of ice cream, along with the $50 pie or cheesecake.
In last year’s 60 Minutes interview where she candidly confessed to being a nervous cook, she took the cameras along on a visit to one of her favorite bakeries in the Hamptons, owned and operated by two local women, who use local ingredients. When the interviewer suggested, “this is all lovely, but the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich is $20 dollars, a lobster roll is $38…” Garten interrupted her to deadpan unapologetically, “First of all, it’s organic, it’s local, and things are expensive here.”
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ROB BREZSNY’S FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): During some Wiccan rituals, participants are asked, “What binds you? And what will you do to free yourself from what binds you?” I recommend this exercise to you right now, Aries. Here’s a third question: Will you replace your shackles with a weaving that inspires and empowers you? In other words, will you shed what binds you and, in its stead, create a bond that links you to an influence you treasure?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If I had to name the zodiac sign that other signs are most likely to underestimate, I would say Taurus. Why? Well, many of you Bulls are rather modest and humble. You prefer to let your practical actions speak louder than fine words. Your well-grounded strength is diligent and poised, not flashy. People may misread your resilience and dependability as signs of passivity. But here’s good news, dear Taurus: In the coming weeks, you will be less likely to be undervalued and overlooked. Even those who have been ignorant of your appeal may tune in to the fullness of your tender power and earthy wisdom.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the coming days, I invite you to work on writing an essay called “People and Things I Never Knew I Liked and Loved Until Now.” To get the project started, visit places that have previously been off your radar. Wander around in uncharted territory, inviting life to surprise you. Call on every trick you know to stimulate your imagination and break out of habitual ruts of thinking. A key practice will be to experiment and improvise as you open your heart and your eyes wide. Here’s my prophecy: In the frontiers, you will encounter unruly delights that inspire you to grow wiser.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Now is an excellent time to search for new teachers, mentors, and role models. Please cooperate with life’s intention to connect you with people and animals who can inspire your journey for the months and years ahead. A good way to prepare yourself for this onslaught of grace is to contemplate the history of your educational experiences. Who are the heroes, helpers, and villains who have taught you crucial lessons? Another strategy to get ready is to think about what’s most vital for you to learn right now. What are the gaps in your understanding that need to be filled?
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The English language has more synonyms than any other language. That’s in part because it’s like a magpie. It steals words from many tongues, including German, French, Old Norse, Latin, and Greek, as well as from Algonquin, Chinese, Hindi,
Basque, and Tagalog. Japanese may be the next most magpie-like language. It borrows from English, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and German. In accordance with astrological possibilities, I invite you to adopt the spirit of the English and Japanese languages in the coming weeks. Freely borrow and steal influences. Be a collector of sundry inspirations, a scavenger of fun ideas, a gatherer of rich cultural diversity.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here are my bold decrees: You are entitled to extra bonuses and special privileges in the coming weeks. The biggest piece of every cake and pie should go to you, as should the freshest wonders, the most provocative revelations, and the wildest breakthroughs. I invite you to give and take extravagant amounts of everything you regard as sweet, rich, and nourishing. I hope you will begin cultivating a skill you are destined to master. I trust you will receive clear and direct answers to at least two nagging questions.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): On those infrequent occasions when I buy a new gadget, I never read the instructions. I drop the booklet in the recycling bin immediately, despite the fact that I may not know all the fine points of using my new vacuum cleaner, air purifier, or hairdryer. Research reveals that I am typical. Ninety-two percent of all instructions get thrown away. I don’t recommend this approach to you in the coming weeks, however, whether you’re dealing with gadgets or more intangible things. You really should call on guidance to help you navigate your way through introductory phases and new experiences.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I knew a Scorpio performance artist who did a splashy public show about private matters. She stationed herself on the rooftop of an apartment building and for 12 hours loudly described everything she felt guilty about. (She was an ex-Catholic who had been raised to regard some normal behavior as sinful.) If you, dear Scorpio, have ever felt an urge to engage in a purge of remorse, now would be an excellent time. I suggest an alternate approach, though. Spend a half hour writing your regrets on paper, then burn the paper in the kitchen sink as you chant something like the following: “With love and compassion for myself, I apologize for my shortcomings and frailties. I declare myself free of shame and guilt. I forgive myself forever.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Be HEARTY, POTENT, and DYNAMIC, Sagittarius. Don’t worry about decorum and propriety. Be in quest of lively twists that excite the adventurer in you. Avoid anyone who seems to like you best when you are anxious or tightly controlled.
Don’t proceed as if you have nothing to lose; instead, act as if you have everything to win. Finally, my dear, ask life to bring you a steady stream of marvels that make you overjoyed to be alive. If you’re feeling extra bold (and I believe you will), request the delivery of a miracle or two.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Nineteenth-century Capricorn author Anne Brontë wrote *The Tenant of Wildfell Hall*, which many critics regard as the first feminist novel. It challenged contemporary social customs. The main character, Helen, leaves her husband because he’s a bad influence on their son. She goes into hiding, becoming a single mother who supports her family by creating art. Unfortunately, after the author’s death at a young age, her older sister Charlotte suppressed the publication of *The Tenant of Wildfell Hall*. It’s not well-known today. I bring this to your attention, Capricorn, so as to inspire you to action. I believe the coming months will be a favorable time to get the attention and recognition you’ve been denied but thoroughly deserve. Start now! Liberate, express, and disseminate whatever has been suppressed.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): What is the most important question you want to find an answer for during the next year? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to formulate that inquiry clearly and concisely. I urge you to write it out in longhand and place it in a prominent place in your home. Ponder it lightly and lovingly for two minutes every morning upon awakening and each night before sleep. (Key descriptors: “lightly and lovingly.”) As new insights float into your awareness, jot them down. One further suggestion: Create or acquire a symbolic representation of the primal question.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Scientific research suggests that some foods are more addictive than cocaine. They include pizza, chocolate, potato chips, and ice cream. The good news is that they are not as problematic for longterm health as cocaine. The bad news is that they are not exactly healthy. (The sugar in chocolate neutralizes its modest health benefits.) With these facts in mind, Pisces, I invite you to re-order your priorities about addictive things. Now is a favorable time to figure out what substances and activities might be tonifying, invigorating addictions—and then retrain yourself to focus your addictive energy on them. Maybe you could encourage an addiction to juices that blend spinach, cucumber, kale, celery, and apple. Perhaps you could cultivate an addiction to doing a pleasurable form of exercise or reading books that thrill your imagination.
CHI St. Joseph, Lexington seeks Medical Technologist II in Lexington, KY. Req’s Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology, 3 years Med Tech exp., and MT certification (ASCP, AMT, or HEW). Apply to marty.keith@commonspirit.org.
Account Executive opening November 2024, contract/1099 position. Minimum of three years experience in outside sales, preferably in an I.T. /managed services/ design/media setting. Proficiency required in SalesForce or comparable CRM platform. Email resume to BrandBossSouth@gmail.com.
HOME AND GARDEN
House Hunters?
Bluegrass Realtors reports that the number of residential properties available in the region has steadily risen throughout the year and, in August, climbed to the highest level since July 2020. Total inventory reached 3,419 properties, a 23% increase over the 2,789 homes available last year and up 2% from the previous month. August was the third consecutive month with inventory remaining over the 3,000 mark and the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year improvements.
New listings were flat from the previous month, but properties coming to market jumped ahead year-over-year by one percent. August saw new listings at 1,647 compared to 1,643 last year and have increased annually since February of this year, or seven consecutive months. Year-to-date, new listings have increased 6 percent, to 12,413 this year, up from 11,724 last year.
“Heading into the Fall, buyers have more housing options with the rise in inventory,” says Randy Newsome, president of Bluegrass Realtors®. “And interest rates continuing to drop is adding another bonus for buyers, giving them more purchasing power in their house hunt.”
HG CALENDAR
OCT 5
The Ultimate Home Show is scheduled for Oct 5 at the Oleika Temple on Southland Drive.
SAT OCT 12
The City of Lexington, along with the Bluegrass Regional Transfer Station, is offering Fayette County residents a free trash disposal day for non-hazardous household waste. Fayette County residents can dispose of up to one pickup truck load of non-hazardous household waste at this event. Residents can also bring items in a car or SUV. Items normally serviced through the city’s curbside collection program will be accepted without charge. Construction and demolition debris as well as yard waste and large outdoor items will be accepted at the regular gate rate during the event; they do not qualify for free disposal. 6 am to 1 pm, Bluegrass Transfer Station.
SUN OCT 20
Join your fellow plant enthusiasts for a plant swap and shop at Blue Stallion Brewing. Bring a few plants, cuttings, or plant accessories that you’d like to trade, sell, or give away for free. Food and locally brewed craft beer will be available for purchase.
THU OCT 31
Kentucky residents, farmers and businesses who generate less than five percent of their revenues from tire sales are able to drop off unwanted tires for free at the City’s Tire Roundup, at the old landfill pad at 1631 Old Frankfort Pike. Please enter the site through the front gates. You do not need to reside within Fayette County to participate. Thursday, Oct. 31 and Friday, Nov. 1 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m; Saturday, Nov. 2 from 8 a.m. to noon at 1631 Old Frankfort Pike (enter and exit via main gate entrance –follow the posted signage).
Guidelines for dropping off:
• Drop off is free to residents and eligible businesses.
• Tire retailers, scrap/salvage yards and recycling businesses are not eligible to participate.
