Friday 27 April 2012

Week 18:Kentucky

"Spread your wings for New Orleans
 Kentucky bluebird,
 Fly away..."
 - 'Message to Michael',
 Dionne Warwick


As our train rolls off down the track my first thought was that Kentucky has a lot of similarities with its southern neighbour Tennessee. You know: country music an' all.

But then I started to think. And actually, Kentucky has lots of unique identifiers. There's the cuisine - the wings mentioned above could well be hot wings. The famous Kentucky Fried Chicken (made to the Colonel's secret recipe) originates here, and we can wash it down with bourbon. They have - rather annoyingly for a United fan at present - their blue moon of Kentucky, their bluegrass music and their actual blue grass: poa pratensis. This Kentucky bluegrass shimmers across the landscape, cropped by thoroughbred horses. So there are estates stocked with the finest mounts in the Western hemisphere and the solid presence of Fort Knox (home to at least part of the U.S. gold reserves): this could well be a very wealthy state. Not what I first imagined at all.


Before we spread our wings for New Orleans there's the minor issue of three films to watch. This week I shall be checking out:

  • Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
  • The Insider (1999)
  • Racing Stripes (2005)

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