By: John Carlson— One quick glance at our kitchen counter and it became obvious: I was in deep doo-doo. See, I was on a diet. It seems I am always on a diet. But sitting there under a clear plastic cover was two-thirds of a Concannon’s Bakery carrot cake. Nancy had bought the cake that morning to feed the literarily-fertile ladies of her female book club, Women Of Mystery Books, aka WOMB. The point is, suddenly my diet seemed doomed,…
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By: John Carlson— In my younger years, I was never much of a napper. As far back as kindergarten, I have vague memories of being in class as our matronly teacher, Miss Alexander, passed out our milk cartons and graham crackers, and I’d think, “Yo! Sweet, toots!” Well, way back then I probably didn’t actually think of Miss Alexander as “toots.” Probably I thought something more like, “Ooh, goody gumdrops!” But as enthusiastic as I was about milk-and-cracker time, I…
By: John Carlson— History books teach us when our Founding Fathers were considering the animal to best symbolize the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin recommended the turkey. OK. Good enough, Ben. You could have picked worse. I have a soft spot for turkeys myself. Granted, it’s especially true when they are baked and sliced, with the slices piled between two pieces of rye bread generously slathered with mayonnaise. Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone thinking our forefathers erred in…
By: John Carlson— When superstar English clothing designer Karl Lagerfeld died recently, he left an estate worth one-hundred-fifty million pounds … … to his cat. Hearing this, I was so flummoxed I could barely think straight. I would NEVER do anything that stupid! This is mostly because I am not what you would call “a cat person.” Also, I am not what you would call “a person who has any money.” But what if somebody else left one-hundred-fifty million pounds…
By: John Carlson— If it’s possible for a man to passionately love a place – and I think it is – then except for my own home and every White Castle in America, I love the Indianapolis Motor Speedway most. As an IndyCar racing fan, for me it’s Mecca, especially as the month of May approaches. It’s not like I’ve been to a lot of Indy 500s. I’ve been to maybe ten. And I probably haven’t always been what Speedway marketers…
By: John Carlson— For my sixty-ninth birthday later this year, I considered asking Nancy for a $250,000 red Ferrari. Silly me. Now I just want to be enrolled in the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, which is coming up sometime soon out in Las Vegas. Oh sure, my first thought was it sounded fun, but I should probably skip it. There wouldn’t be any other geezers my age there anyway. But then I thought, wait a minute, there’d probably be…
By: John Carlson— Last week, Nancy and I went to the Delaware County Farm Festival. It’s an annual, two-day event that is near and dear to our hearts, because we actually met at the farm festival back 1880. No, wait. I mean 1980. Itjustseems like a hundred-and-thirty-nine years ago. I’m not going to tell you this year we had to fight countless numbers of fanatical farm festival fans to get in, because we didn’t. Still, for a city slicker born-and-raised,…
By: John Carlson— After two hundred hours of training, our daughter Katie recently earned her certification as a professional yoga instructor. She’s been the Public Information Officer with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department for a number of years. While she’s already teaching, her goals now include offering stress-relieving yoga sessions to deputies and other first-responders who, trust me, can undoubtedly use them. Another relative named Nancy has been practicing yoga at least twice a week, and occasionally seven days a…
By: John Carlson— 3/13/19 Story update from John Carlson is below. For anybody who read my column about the end of Bybee Pottery last Friday (see column below) and wished they had the opportunity to buy some, I have good news. I was wrong. Well, sort of wrong. Yes, the historic Bybee Pottery shop in Waco, Ky., that had opened in 1809 did close its doors to the public in 2011. What I hadn’t counted on, and didn’t know about,…
By: John Carlson— Not long ago, Nancy and I drove south to visit our son and daughter-in-law in one of our favorite places, Nashville, Tenn. This trip just served to highlight the wide range of attractions there. Yes, I like a whiskey-fueled romp through a Nashville honky-tonk as much as the next tourist, just so long as I don’t have to dance or otherwise move my feet. But this trip, we started off at the Frist Art Museum, where a…