On the most recent episode of CBS’s Undercover Boss, William C. Carstanjen worked “undercover” at Churchill Downs. In the video below, he learns that his “boss” has an angel named Megan – a daughter he recently lost. If this video doesn’t choke you up, check your pulse.
Unfortunately, the video cuts off before the sweetest part. Each episode of Undercover Boss ends with the big reveal, when employees discover they’ve been working with the boss. The boss in question generally tries to do what they can to make life a little better for these employees. Great stuff.
Willaim Carstanjen bestowed raises, promotions, and he even stepped up employee security. In the case of the jockey valet in the video below, Carstansjen named a memorial race at the track after his much beloved daughter. The grieving father was also invited to come to the winners circle, and bring any family members he chose to and present the winner’s trophy.
And they say there’s nothing good on tv anymore. Horse feathers.
Click HERE to see a video that actually shows the father’s reaction.
Many people officially start thinking about Spring and Summer with the Bassmaster Classic. For me, it’s official when Baseball’s preseason begins! Maybe that’s because I do more eating fish than Darryl Worley will be playing Feb. 19 (today) at the Bassmaster Classic prior to the opening-day weigh-in in Birmingham.
ESPN put together a great article/interview with Darryl Worley in which he talks about fishing on Kentucky Lake, the Grand Ole Opry, and giving back. Darryl Worley is our kind of people and he’ll definitely make you want to visit his hometown of Savannah, Tennessee AND get out on Kentucky Lake for a little fishing. Read the interview by clicking the following link: Darryl Worley and the Bassmaster Classic: Kentucky Lake, Fishing, and Giving Back
Be sure to watch the Bassmaster Classic on ESPN.
What an outstanding year our UK Ladie’s Basketball team is having. I am SO proud of the players, coaches, and everyone involved in turning this program around. They’re 
currently ranked 17th in the country, but that’s sure to rise. Last night, the UK women’s team beat 19th ranked Georgia 64-48 and extended its home winning streak to 16 games. A’dia Mathis and Amani Franklin each scored 15 points.
Last night’s win avenged a 61-60 overtime loss to Georgia in January and stretched the Wildcats’ SEC win streak to eight. It was Georgia’s first loss to a ranked opponent this season.
It has been so frustrating – I look every night, hoping to find the ladies on television. Something should be done about it, really. How cool would it be if there were an ESPN channel ALL for women’s sports?! Nothing but women’s softball, basketball, tennis, golf, pool, figure skating, gymnastics, and so on. Then those of us who are dying to follow teams like UK women’s basketball (or UConn’s amazing season…. well, every season is amazing for the lady Huskies – it’s funny ESPN keeps telling us about their wins and I’m always like, “Show us their wins!“).
If we can’t have an ESPN channel for female athletes to call home, couldn’t one of the many ESPN channels show more ladies hoops? Honestly, you should see some of the men’s teams they show each night – teams I never even heard of! Don’t get me wrong, I love men’s college basketball to distraction and I don’t miss a UK game (or U of L when I can find them on) – I’d just like to see the girls, too, you know.
Irregardless of how unfair and frustrating it is, I am super proud of this team and its coaches, head coach Matthew Mitchell and his staff: Kyra Elzy, Matt Insell, and Shalon Pillow. With all of the (VERY understandable!) excitement about John Calipari, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Joker Phillips, the cheerleading squad (sheer domination) and our outstanding basketball and football teams – the ladies and their remarkable success is being overshadowed. These girls don’t belong in the shadows! I just wanted to go on record as saying I’m extremely proud of all that they have done, are doing, and will continue to do.
In other UK womens’ basketball news, signee Jennifer O’Neill (a 5-6 guard from Saint Michael Academy and Bronx, N.Y.) has been selected to play in the super prestigious 2010 McDonald’s All-American High School Basketball Game on March 31, 2010 in the Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio! This game, of course, features the top 24 high school players around the country – representing teams from the East and West. And, get this, it will be aired on ESPNU at 5:30 p.m. EST. Thank you, ESPN! Jennifer O’Neill will play for the East.
O’Neill, a consensus national top-30 player, becomes Kentucky’s first incoming freshman to earn McDonald’s All-America honors. Another sign of a program that has been turned around but good.
The UK women’s basketball play their next game at Vanderbilt Sunday night.
The women’s SEC tournament begins in early March – I hope they have the largest turnout of any team there. If you can go – GO and wear UK blue from your head to your toes! Give this team the support and recognition they deserve. They might just shock the world.
One of the things we Kentuckians are most proud of is celebrated in the slideshow above – our beautiful horses. Enjoy the beauty of an adorable colt at the beginning of the slideshow, followed by horses grazing on beautiful horse farms from Frankfort Pike and Paris, Kentucky. Then the slideshow moves on to the greatest horse race in the world, The Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs! Finally, we appropriately end on a statue of the legendary Man O’ War, born at the Nursery Stud in Lexington, Kentucky, shortly before midnight on March 29, 1917.
Maybe the little beauty at the start of the slideshow is dreaming of becoming the next great legend!
The gorgeous, gorgeous pictures used in this slideshow are courtesy of Kentucky Tourism.com.
Although I was born and raised in Madisonville, Kentucky, it never ceases to amaze me.
Since moving away, we’ve lived in the Henderson area, Louisville, Wichita (Kansas), Rantoul (Illlinois), and on Pensacola Beach, Florida. We currently live in Owensboro Kentucky and have for some time.
We frequently visit Madisonville – the place, in the words of Montgomery Gentry, “Where I was born…where I was raised… where I keep all my yesterdays…”
A few days ago, I was working online from our home when my husband called me from his office. It seems he had to go to Madisonville to check a building site and wanted to know if I’d be interested in riding shotgun and eating at Foxy’s Barbecue.
I’ve lived in Owensboro (BBQ Capital of the world!) long enough to jump through hoops for barbecue, so I promptly threw aside what I was doing online and threw on a favorite sweater.
This was the first time I’d been inside the new restaurant and I was very, very impressed. It looks fantastic – very cozy and very comfortable.
More importantly, the food was outstanding. As a rule (in my experience – personal dining as well as dining out while reviewing restaurants), most barbecue restaurants have a weakness – whether it’s the potato salad, coleslaw, fries, onion rings, sauce, or pork. You know – somewhere that they drop the ball and seem to not care if that item is as good as the rest or not.
I can’t find Foxy’s weak spot. I suspect they don’t have a weak spot.
I’ve eaten barbecue from here to Kingdom Come – including infamous restaurants in Nashville Tennessee – yet just about every single one of them has a weak spot. Then, here you have a barbecue restaurant in humble little Madisonville, Kentucky and they’re like, “Weak spot… what’s that?” Beautiful.
The pork is wonderfully smoky and full of delectable flavor. It’s JUST how I want my barbecued pork to taste. The pulled pork sandwich was sheer perfection. The sauce was equally delicious. In fact it was so good, I was searching around for things to dunk into it.
The potato salad was superb, exactly how potato salad should taste – like a summer picnic. If you read any of my writings on any of my sites, you know that I’m all about sides at restaurants. Sure the meat is important, as is the bread. The desserts? Supremely important! But I’m crazy mad about sides. You know one of the reasons? It’s where you can tell JUST how important a restaurant’s customers are to them and JUST how passionate the cook is about his/her food. Trust me, it’s in the sides.
Think about it – if a cook is only half-heartedly into what they’re serving, where will they slack off? Not the meat – it’s considered the star of the show. Usually not the bread (important co-star, you know) – and definitely not the dessert. Most restaurants realize that the dessert is the last thing a customer eats and the last impression they’ll have. That’s why so many desserts are so spectacular and why I have to walk each and every day. Sometimes twice.
If a restaurant is going to slack off anywhere, it’s in the sides. Of course the great restaurants wouldn’t even consider such a thing.
And that’s what you must understand about Foxy’s – Foxy’s is a great restaurant. Not only did the potato salad blow me away, my husband’s coleslaw was exceptional too. When we’re eating someplace that I’ll be reviewing for this site – we’ll order a little bit of everything, so I can have a really well-rounded idea about what the menu entails. I always order baked beans, if they’re on the menu – because they’re a personal favorite. LOVE baked beans! These particular baked beans made me want to stand up and dance. A lot of times you order baked beans in restaurants and they taste like someone opened a can of Pork ‘n Beans and heated them up for you. There are a few where I’m certain they did just that.
Foxy’s baked beans taste like baked beans are supposed to taste. It’s as though they were made to be the star of the show. Truth be told, that’s what makes Foxy’s so special – each item stands on its own, as though it’s the main event. You can taste Foxy’s passion for food and pride in their name in each and every bite.
They don’t just say, “This is a BBQ place, let’s focus all of our attention on the barbecue… just throw some mustard in some potatoes and open up a few cans of beans.“ Fortunately for their diners, Foxy’s has too much pride in their food and respect for their customers for that.
The servers and the hostess could not have been any friendlier. They were what I call, “Mayberry Friendly.” I love friendly, smiling, warm hostesses and servers – people who seem genuinely happy to be doing what they’re doing and happy to see guests. That makes a huge impression on me. These vital individuals also reflect well on the restaurant. I’m convinced that workers actually reflect the managers and owners. Friendly, warm people draw in and want to surround themselves with friendly warm people. Grumps? They don’t mind other grumps and people lacking personalities never notice if one’s missing in another person.
Foxy’s obviously knows more than the average restaurant… which is why they’re way above average. After seeing AVATAR, I have a new favorite word – one that is my highest praise, and that word is “Outstanding.” Foxy’s is Outstanding in every way.
I purposely saved the Loaded Potato Soup for last for a perfectly good reason. If I got to thinking about this soup earlier in the review, I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on anything except the memory of each bite.
How do I even begin to describe it? I work with words all day, every day. I string them together for Self Help articles, I make them play nice together for reviews of restaurants, books, kitchen and office gadgets, office supplies, and kitchen appliances. I write articles for 16 different websites and blogs and never, ever find myself at a loss for words. Yet this soup has me stumbling and stalling, searching for adverbs that are up for the task. It’s usually around this time that I make up words. But I won’t do that to you this early in the year.
The Loaded Potato Soup at Foxy’s is stupid good. Make that stooooopid good! It’s ridiculously, perfectly, deliciously, amazingly perfect. Stoooooopid good. Thick and creamy with big chunks of potatoes, topped off with real bacon (not bits, pieces, or pebbles), chopped green onion, shredded mozzarella cheese and shredded cheddar cheese. It’s mind boggling delicious and you simply MUST have some as soon as you possibly can.
Don’t wait until you’re in or near Madisonville, Kentucky to pay a visit to Foxy’s Barbecue Restaurant – just go. I don’t care where you live, it’s worth the drive.
Foxy’s is located at 301 East Center Street. Visit their website (Foxy’s Barbecue in Madisonville Kentucky) for more information as well as a menu. Best of all there are pics of a personal hero of mine who visited Foxy’s – Coach John “I brought the magic back” Calipari.
When you go to Foxy’s (and why haven’t you left yet), tell them you read about their restaurant on Genuine Kentucky and that the writer has a big ole crush on their restaurant. Big ole stoooooopid crush.
So, are you as excited as I am about UK Basketball this year?! I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to bleed blue again – my veins (as well as the program) had been clogged up for a few years.
We’re pulling out all the stops in our house – the entire place is slowly becomming blue and white… like the good old days.
I’m loving the UK gift bags at Kentucky Collectibles. Throw a red bow on them and you’re good to go with Christmas wrapping. My favorite bag may be the one above, but there are others. There are also countless other UK goodies, you’ll have to go to the site and check them all out. They’ll blow you away.
Wildcats Logo -Fathead Wall Decal
Buy at AllPosters.com
I’ll take one for the home office, one for the living room, one for the kitchen, one for each bathroom, one for the garage….
Barren River Lake Info:
The name “Barren,” in Barren River Lake, can be traced back to the days of the early pioneers. They called the area that is now Barren River Lake State Park “The Barrens.” Why? Because the area often appeared barren thanks to Indians who periodically burned the vegetation to provide grasslands. These grasslands attracted grazing buffalo. Given the fact that this is a personal favorite animal, I’m going to pretend that the Native Americans were interested in the buffalo solely as pets.
Archaeologists prove that there were apparently several large Indian settlements near Barren River.
Fishermen (and women) absolutely love Barren River Lake. With an abundance of largemouth, smallmouth, white, and hybrid striped bass, bluegill, channel catfish, crappie, and rough fish, few go home empty handed.
Barren River Lake State Resort Park is located in a prime location for tourists: near Kentucky’s famous cave area, which includes Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest cave system in the world!
To read more about Barren River Lake State Resort Park, read our review HERE. You’ll also find valuable information and up to date news on Kentucky State Parks Web Site (this link will take you directly to Barren River Lake State Resort Park’s page).
Lake Barkley is, without a doubt, one of Kentucky’s crown jewels. If you want to see a Kentuckian sit a little taller, just mention Lake Barkley. Like UK Basketball, Mammoth Cave, and Kentucky Lake – we’re understandably proud.
Below are some bits and pieces of Lake Barkley trivia that you might not have known.
- Lake Barkley has 57,900 acres of water and 1,004 miles of shoreline.
- Lake Barkley was named for the 35th Vice-President, Alben Barkley.
Prior to the Vice Presidency, Barkley served in the U. S. Senate from Kentucky for over twenty years. Alben Barkley was born in a log cabin near Lowes, Graves County, Kentucky. He worked his way through college as a janitor. After passing the bar, he practiced law in Paducah, Kentucky. - Alben Barkley coined the term “Give ‘em hell, Harry” as President Truman was leaving Washington on his “whistle-stop” train across the country. Barkley was popularly known as “the Veep” thanks to his young grandson, Stephen M. Truitt. Stephen preferred the shortened name to “Mr. Vice President.” When Alben Barkley told the press about his grandson’s phrasing, the newspapers printed it, and the title stuck. Alben Barkley’s successor as vice president, Richard Nixon, declined the nickname, saying that it had been bestowed on Barkley affectionately and, therefore, belonged to him. However, the term didn’t die, and it’s used to this day.
- Construction of Barkley Dam began in 1959 on the Cumberland River.
- Lake Barkley’s Maximum depth is 68 feet.
- Lake Barkley’s Minimum depth is 12 feet.
- Lake Barkley is known for its Stripers as well as its Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass. Other fish in Lake Barkley include Crappie (Black and White), Redear Sunfish, Sauger, Blue Catfish, Channel Catfish, Striped Bass, and White Bass.
For more information about Lake Barkley:
Download Lake Barkley Vacation Guide (PDF)
The Village Between the Lakes (Grand Rivers)
Green Turtle Bay (Resort and Marina on Lake Barkley)
Michael took some fantastic pictures recently when he and a few friends teed it up on the golf course at Barren River Lake State Resort Park. According to him, the golf course offers a challenging test of golf in a relaxing setting.
When he writes a review on his golf blog, I’ll link to it from within this post.
Enjoy!
