LEO Weekly March 25 2020

COVID-19 + BESHEAR GETS IT! (PAGE 4) + MENTALLY ILL (PAGE 6) + GOOD WORKS (PAGE 10) + JOHN YARMUTH (PAGE 11) + GUNS (PAGE 12) + MUSICIANS (PAGE 20) + RECORD SHOPS (PAGE 21) LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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LEO Weekly is published weekly by LEO Weekly LLC. Copyright LEO Weekly LLC. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed herein are exclusively those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Publisher. LEO Weekly is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express permission of LEO Weekly LLC. LEO Weekly may be distributed only by authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) is a trademark of LEO Weekly LLC.

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ON: EDITOR’S NOTE, MCCONNELL FIDDLES WHILE WE...

Where’s your daddy? The House is in a two-week recess in the middle of this mess. Throw some of the shit on him as well.

—John S Milliken III He’s self quarantined after coming in contact with someone who tested positive. ... His results are negative but he’s doing his part by working from home, as he should. —Dawn Emerson Dawn, no use in feeding the trolls. —LEO Weekly Looking forward to January when Chuck Schumer takes Moscow Mitch’s job. —Kevin Ridgeway

ON: DAN CANON, IS THIS MOTHER NATURE’S HARD RESET, OR DO WE GET ANOTHER CHANCE?

One day you will sit around with grandchildren explaining why the most disruptive pandemics only happen under Republican administrations. —Larry Carter I love reading your posts, Dan. I usually get a laugh AND they make me think. Thank you! — Tiffany Fox Exactly what I have been thinking... And it is biblical in a way, of course back then they had prophets who spoke about the wrath of God; today we have scientists, we use a different language to describe it. But the thing which we are trying to describe might be exactly the same. —Ma Ze Nice wit. I started as a skeptic and was then won over.

—Chris Melella

ON: THORNS AND ROSES, GOV. ANDY’S ROSE FOR DECISIVE ACTION

I think it remains to be seen who is crazy, and who is sober and responsible. If Beshear’s decision to lay off a third of Kentucky for a month proves not to be justified by over-full hospitals, then he gets all the blame for all the job losses. ... —Barry Cooper Actually, if our Kentucky hospitals are not overflowing, that is how we will know if Beshear’s actions were effective. The whole idea is to slow down transmission to a level our hospitals can handle. ... —Deirdre Seim

ON: SAVAGE LOVE, CAN’T FIND A WORD THAT DESCRIBES MY KINK.

Every time one of your articles touches on the asexual spectrum, you’re incredibly dismissive. This is a gaping, ignorant hole in what is usually a fairly open-minded column. Get your shit together. If you can talk about all the kinks in the world, you can do some research to better understand something which you clearly don’t understand, or respect, at this point. — Abby Marie

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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EDITOR’S NOTE

BESHEAR GETS IT

By Aaron Yarmuth | ayarmuth@leoweekly.com CAN WE ALL AGREE that priorities for the 2020 global pandemic must be: 1. Saving lives 2. Rescuing the economy so people keep their jobs, can find work and not lose their homes and savings 3. And everything else necessary to return Kentucky and the nation to some semblance of normalcy.

Gov. Andy Beshear gets it.

Kentucky Republicans don’t.

Republicans in the General Assembly still think their legislative agenda matters — once again reaffirming them as the party of quasi-science, quasi-expertise and intolerance. Unfortunately for them, this pandemic forces them to face two unavoidable realities: science-based health advice and time.

Apparently upset that the coronavirus is getting in the way of his plans, Republican Speaker of the House David Osborne proposed a bill to change the state constitution to make sure the GOP has time to pass its conservative wish list. More on that in a moment.

The legislature has until April 15 to pass a two-year budget, otherwise the

UNDERCOVER

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government shuts down and the state adds another crisis on top of the global pandemic.

Because the Senate’s budget has significant differences from the budget passed by the House — $500 million less for funding the teachers’ pension fund — there is serious work left to resolve the differences.

Three weeks normally should be enough time to address their differences and other legislation. Yet, in this particular global crisis, the experts are advising that everyone practice social distancing and stay at home if possible.

That includes legislators.

But there they were, traveling to Frankfort, gathering for meetings, hearings or votes on issues not related to the coronavirus or the budget.

Beshear declared a state of emergency March 6, after the first case of coronavirus was reported in Kentucky. Four days later, the Republicans in the House passed two abortion bills (HB 67 and HB 145).

On March 17, Beshear closed the Capitol to the public to prevent large crowds and meetings — following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Republicans continued to meet, hold

hearings and votes. After all, they had to address serious issues facing distillery gift shops (SB 99) and “shampoo and style services” (SB 177) later that week.

Because Beshear gets it, he and Democratic leadership have implored Republican lawmakers to focus solely on passing the budget and any coronavirus-related emergency relief bills, and to abandon all other, non-essential legislative work.

Only on March 19, after a day of regular business, including votes, did Republican leadership — an oxymoron if ever there was one — announce that it was amending the schedule to adjourn for one week.

Because the Republicans still have a lot of “critical” bills to pass, Osborne requested that Beshear agree to an open-ended special session beyond the session’s last day to address the remaining legislation.

Beshear refused.

In response, Osborn introduced a bill to amend the constitution to allow the legislature to call its own special legislative session (HB 647) — a power only the governor has.

(What is even more ridiculous is that such a bill, if it were to pass, would ultimately have to go before voters …in the fall!)

So, while Kentuckians rally around Beshear and each other, Republicans are hard at work trying to change the constitution, so that they can pass divisive, ideological legislation. One such bill is the voter ID bill, SB 2, which passed in the Senate on March 19.

If it became law, it would mean Kentuckians without government-issued photo IDs, such as a driver’s license, would be forced to go to a county clerks office to get a photo ID if they want to vote.

When asked if he would sign SB 2, if passed, Beshear responded, “Think about the world we’re living in right now. Our clerks offices are closed. How somebody would go in and get an ID right now in the middle of a healthcare crisis, and that be dependent on them voting … that’s a little silly.”

Not all of the Republican leadership is oblivious and Machiavellian. Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams has indicated he is willing to consider mail-in ballots.

To be fair, Beshear’s refusal to concede a special session to Republicans may be a politically strong move because it stifles their bills for now. But it’s not motivated by politics — don’t be so cynical. Democrats have a long list of their own bills and even Republican bills they would love to see at least get a vote: medical marijuana, legalized sports betting and direct shipment of wine for god’s sake! … but none of that matters right now.

As Beshear said of SB 2, “Our world has changed since this bill was filed. It would be nice if our General Assembly acted like the world had changed.” •

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MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

LEO MOVES ONLINE ONLY... FOR NOW

By Keith Stone | kstone@leoweekly.com WE KNOW you are getting pretty chapped enjoy this collector’s issue and then follow by all of this obsessive handwashing, so us at leoweekly.com starting today. And sign LEO has some good news and some goodish up for our newsletter there to stay current. news for you.

You will find all of the alternative reporting on Kentucky and Louisville news you’ve You won’t have to worry about washing ink off of your hands when you read the next come to (fill in the blank) from LEO, comLEO because this is the last printed edition plete with our analysis, political punditry until at least April 15. and a microscope on music, arts, theater, comedy and all other entertainment.

For the next few weeks, LEO will be It just won’t be in print. online only.

But wait! There is more!

The decision for LEO to go online temWe also will publish online a PDF flip porarily was not an easy one, of course. book that looks like the paper, with all of This is the first time LEO will not the ads, etc. The only difference is that it produce its scheduled physical issue since it was founded in 1990 by our dear leader, won’t rub off on your fingers. You will still now a congressman, John Yarmuth. (Please get your New York Times crossword puzzle read his trenchant words on page 11 in this (a full page’s worth!), Savage Love and issue and look for more in the future.) cartoons from Jen Sorensen and Undercover We are not the first Commentary.

We are resolute We are resolute in or only alt-weekly that our commitment to the virus has driven in our commitonline. A few are even continue to provide you taking indefinite Coroment to continue with an alternative to nacations, suspending The Courier Journal and to provide you publication entirely. other news outlets in town (and free, at that).

It comes down to with an alternaSo, how might LEO economics and health.

Alt-weeklies tive to The Courier change as online only? provide, um, different This move allows us Journal and other to toss aside the weekly views on their communities. We find different format and bolster news outlets in news stories or different what is already a robust ways to tell them. We town (and free, at online presence at work to not be the local leoweekly.com that). newspaper or TV staExpect us to be faster tion. Another bedrock (by days even!). Expect feature is our heavy focus on celebrating, the same quality long-form stories but also reviewing and previewing events, happenmore shorter stories, listicles and op-eds and ings and all manner of things to do. photo packages that chronicle Life During Now, there are no events, happenings and Corona.

We will continue to measure and report any manner of things to do, unless you do the impact of this… this thing on Louisthem by yourself. In your house. With your cat. Together but alone with family, perhaps. ville’s outsized music and theater scene. And Consequently, there also are few or none will provide you ways to help support them of those places to advertise their events, hap- until the siege is over.

Same thing with our food culture — see penings and other manner of things to do.

Most importantly, we at LEO do not want page 15 for LEO photographer Kathryn Harto encourage you to gather for any events rington’s photo package of how restaurants until it is safe to do so. (But, wow — let’s are taking their businesses to the curb.

One last thing... pause for a moment to imagine the orgies We feel bad (not) for you LEO haters of gluttony and hedonism that will happen because you will have to find something when everything comes back!) else to line the imaginary cat litter pans and And, what’s more: How can you find your LEO at that bar or coffeehouse or while start the fanciful fires you boast about (as if we cared). We suggest instead using all the you dine alone if none are open? toilet paper you have undoubtedly hoarded. • So, until LEO returns to print — please

KEEPING LOUISVILLE WEIRD like a cat beard

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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CORONAVIRUS AND MENTAL ILLNESS

AN OPEN LETTER FROM THOSE OF US IN BETWEEN

By J.P. Lebangood | leo@leoweekly.com THERE ISN’T MUCH that we can write about how this pandemic operates. Either people understand what we’re up against and the necessity of social distancing, or they don’t.

We need more tests.

Right now, the focus is on helping the most financially vulnerable people in this crisis. There is a part of this group that I know quite a bit about. They are the people who experience dysfunctional lifestyle patterns due to atypical neurological functioning. You probably know them as the “mentally ill.”

For people who fight the battle against depression, anxiety, addiction, ADHD and a many other conditions that disrupt daily activity and functioning, the prevailing and ongoing goal is to work our way back to “normal.” We spend hours in therapy and training to build coping mechanisms and habits that will allow us to participate in mainstream society: holding a job, paying our bills, maintaining and cultivating healthy relationships, fighting and controlling impulses that could land us in jail or the hospital or the grave.

This is our battle.

We know that there are no gold medals.

We accept that often it takes twice the effort to move half the distance as other people.

We have learned not to judge ourselves by the people zipping past, but to remember that we are lugging a heavy suitcase on that same journey. Our goal in life is not to keep up with others, it is to lighten that load that slows us down. In the secret fantasies of anyone who has dealt with mental disease, somewhere there is a wish to get to “normal.”

This week, normal went away even for the healthiest and most prepared of us. And in the weeks to come, we are going to truly discover who the most vulnerable in this society are. Please know, that some of the most vulnerable have been up to this point hidden. They are about to be very exposed.

They are the ones who are trying to make their way back.

Mental illness isn’t just a mental illness.

It is an employment illness. It is a financial illness. It is a legal illness. It is a relationship illness.

Unfortunately, for many in this country making your way back requires the first step of “going off the books.” Back taxes, owed student loans, medical bills in collections

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and a myriad of other obligations that were missed in previous mental episodes mean that working “legitimately” isn’t possible.

Tax refunds are held. Wages are garnished.

To make ends meet, those in recovery often work in cash jobs or unclaimed income.

The construction crews, kitchen staffs and odd-job workers are often people working their way back for whatever reason — addiction, major depressive episodes, mental breakdowns or just a series of bad breaks.

They’re trying to make ends meet, while gathering the resources they need to take care of these past debts and fully participate in society.

Also, many of us need to stay off the books because there is a strange middle ground in healthcare. It is that space where you aren’t poor enough to qualify for benefits, but you’re not making enough money to afford insurance on the exchange — that income level where rent and insurance are more than you make. People in this zone have two options: go without insurance and pay the penalty, or keep their stated income low enough to get the very necessary medical help they need on their way back.

In the conversation about expanding unemployment benefits and providing federal stimulus, we must remember that some people who need it the most will not qualify.

Unemployment is based upon your last four quarters of work as demonstrated by taxable withholdings. Now we have learned that the 2020 stimulus checks will be determined by 2018 and 2019 tax returns. Those who have a limited tax liability will receive only $600.

Those who earned and filed less than $2,500 dollars in taxable income will receive nothing.

Many of the working poor, the people who pay rent and go to work every day, don’t have the best tax records. Most servers I know, if they even claim tips, tend to claim enough tips to hit the federal minimum wage. People doing odd jobs and construction work live in a cash society, often forgoing traditional banking and using prepaid credit cards. These behaviors put us at risk.

But often, they are necessary to accumulate enough capital to rebuild the basic building blocks of life. It takes money to hire the services of the accountants and lawyers needed to get back on the path of being functional citizens. Many of you just finished your taxes, and many know the pain of tracking

down needed numbers and documents from just last year. Imagine coming out of five years of manic and depressed behavior or addiction and needing your tax documents from six years ago.

It takes time and professional help.

And before you point fingers, and say, “Well that’s what you get for not paying your fair share!” consider this fun fact from the Brookings Institute’s analysis of the IRS’s most recent tax gap report published in 2016.

The rate of income misreporting is significantly higher for income from sole proprietorships and farms, and it is likely higher for high-income households than lower-income households. The top 1% of income accounts for 61% of misreporting.

The lower 50% of income accounts for only 14% of misreporting.

The tax avoidance of the wealthiest combined with the legal, tax-avoiding strategies of our largest corporations, dwarf, by an order of magnitude, the amount of tax not being paid by our most vulnerable and working poor.

Those working themselves back are often doing it day by day. Some days you fail.

But you wake up, grit your teeth, and figure out something you can do today. Those who have a long history of mental disease also have a long list of skills and experience,

because they have had to do all sorts of jobs just to survive.

But those people, working their way back, need that next day. And right now, that next day is disappearing. There is less “off the books” work to be had. There are fewer chances to work your contacts and find opportunities when the world is maintaining social distance.

There are people living month to month, and they’re going to begin to have trouble next month. There are people living week to week, and their trouble is going to begin any day now. There are people living day to day, and their time is here.

Who they are may surprise you. They seem to be fine. They have a place to live.

Some of them even have a car, a decent phone, decent clothes and shoes. They seem just like the rest of us.

That’s because every day, we are waking up and trying, to varying degrees of success, to be like everyone else. A part of “normal.”

But when normal goes away, we don’t know where to go.

Love to all my friends who live in the land in between. We will make it.

We always do. • J.P. Lebangood has been a writer, voice and film actor, line cook, comedian, hot dog vendor and anything else that pays (almost).

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WEST OF NINTH @WESTOFNINTHLOUISVILLE PEOPLE, IN THEIR OWN WORDS...

By Walt and Marshae Smith | leo@leoweekly.com

Dec. 12, 2019 Dr. Phillip Williams of West End Family Dental, Russell.

“I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED that a person was sent here for a particular job. My job was always dentistry. When I was a kid, all of my baby teeth rotted out. We basically had no toothbrush until I was 5. I got a toothbrush when I started first grade. When you got to first grade, you got your toothbrush.

Before that, my grandmother, who I lived with, instructed that the same washrag that you wash your body with, you washed your mouth with. She would always say, ‘Wash your mouth!’ We ate molasses with every meal, and with all of those carbohydrates and the fact that we had no specific oral hygiene instructions other than to wash your mouth with your washrag. All of my baby teeth were badly decaying, and I wanted them out of there as soon as possible. So, I figured out a way to get them out, whether it was pain or no pain. When I figured out

XXXX

that those teeth would come out, I knew that with the teeth that came after, I would have a toothbrush, and I managed to keep some teeth.

I was an Army brat. My stepfather and my mom got married when I was in the third grade. We moved to Germany ‘cause that’s where his assignment was, and lo and behold, we had chores at that school. It was a military school, so it was set up a little different. So, inside of the school, all of the kids had chores and mine was to help the dentist. We had a dentist stationed in the elementary school. It just so happened that I was well and was kind of proper that I petitioned to help the dentist. I was so sensitized by my early experience. I wanted to learn everything that I could learn about teeth. It turned out to be two cool guys, and I wanted to be cool like them. That made it even more of a drive to be a dentist. So, all through school, that was my motivation to get good grades. I knew I had to get into dental school and needed to have a certain grade point

average to get there.

Once I got to college, I knew that dentistry would fit into my lifestyle. I wanted something that wouldn’t require that I had to stop drinking wine and go to work at 2 o’clock in the morning. It’s not like being a doctor and giving up your lifestyle. My lifestyle was partying while I was in college.

Dentistry had just fit right in, and I stayed on the path. You think that when you get to biochemistry or organic chemistry, and you see how hard it is for those subjects, you think to yourself that you can’t do it. My motivation was the lifestyle that I wanted to live and that dentistry was my passion. I didn’t like teaching. I thought that I could veer off and go to teaching because that would be quicker. I stayed on path and went to dental school.

I got accepted after I got my requirements within three years. I went from Manual to undergrad at UofL, then down on Floyd and Preston, to dental school. It’s like all of my education was right on First Street.

I grew up in Green County, Kentucky. I was born here in General Hospital. The University Hospital was General Hospital. When we came back from Germany, we lived in The West End. I went from the Cotter Homes to my Aunt’s. Then, you just moved in with your relatives. We came back and it was six of us, counting my mom. We all moved into a three-bedroom house in Cotter Homes. Everyone just slept where they could sleep. Then we moved to 28th and Greenwood to Park Hill and then to Beecher Terrace. We were all in the ghetto of The West End. I went from Parkland Junior High to Manual.

My mom’s iron rule was that she wanted you to be self-sufficient. She guided me and siblings to believe that whatever we would set our minds to, we could do it. She would tell us that we had enough intelligence to do something, so we had to do it. It was the parenting that kept me on the straight and narrow. I was blessed by God to have a destination when I got here. All LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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VIEWS of the things that he sensitized me to, has definitely put me on that the path that led me to where I am right now. The passion hasn’t left. It’s the same passion that I had when I pulled my first rotten tooth out. I pulled my sisters’ and brothers’ teeth, too. They were my first guinea pigs. I came up with a way to get their teeth out without hurting. I took a piece of ice and hold it on the gums and I would pull their teeth. I was fascinated. I would walk around saying, ‘You gotta loose tooth?’.

When I completed dental school, I wanted to come back to the impoverished area. When we lived in Beecher Terrace, we went to the dental clinic there. My mom made us go get checkups, and I didn’t like going. I didn’t like the way they treated us in those kinds of places. When I went to the dentist, they were evil as heck and treated people like they were pieces of shit. I knew that wasn’t dentistry. That wasn’t the kind of dentist I was going to be. I told myself that when I finished dental school, I would be coming right here and make sure that the people in the community have a good choice and not just somebody who looks at you like you’re below their level. I made up my mind that this is where I was needed, and this was where I was gonna practice.

I came out of dental school in 1977. I still had the love of the military. I could have come out and been an officer. I thought that I should use my skills and go into the military.

I had all these student loans and thought that joining would take care of that. I went down there and didn’t pass the interview.

The guy asked me one question. He asked me who won the World Series the previous year. I looked at him and said something that wasn’t the right answer. My curiosity wanted to know what that had to do with me coming into the service with the skill set that I had. Ask me something about my moral turpitude, not the World Series. He had made up in his mind that I didn’t look like who he wanted me to look like and ended the interview. I walked out and knew that I shouldn’t have gone there.

I knew that I would experience prejudice when I got back from Germany. In Germany, I was hot shit over there. I played baseball, and I was an all-star. They’d put me on a pedestal over there. Germans loved Black men. You couldn’t do any wrong. We even had a maid over there. Her name was Gerdy, and she marveled over us. She would always tell us how beautiful we were. It was the complete opposite of how it was here. The Black and white Americans, in Germany, formed a union because we were in a different country, and we were all in the same

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hood. I try to educate myself to fulfill that boat. I could go to any swimming pool or dream, and I try to deliver from the time theater. that I started practicing. There were some When I got back here, I wasn’t allowed excursions, but still, my roots were already to go to the theater, and if you do, you have grounded in what my dream was and I to sit up on the upper level. You couldn’t go always got back to it. to the swimming pool, except on Tuesdays, When I got to dental school, there were because they’d changed all of the water on two of us. It was Dr. Leon French and Wednesdays. It was messed up. myself. We met in junior high school, and A month after the military interview, in junior high, he told me what his lifelong someone called me and told me that I didn’t dream was, and it was to be a dentist. I was get in. By that time, I had already spoken like, ‘What? Me too!’. We used to hang to a financial advisor, and he brought me out. He was a pastor’s son, and he wasn’t straight to this office and told me that this is a wild boy, either. We were both kind of where I needed to open up a practice. It was nerdy, even though I developed a taste for already a dental office, and the equipment wild life in college. We were both nerds. We was still usable. There was antique equipboth walked into dental school, wonderment, and the dentist who had already been ing if there any more Black people there. there was there for about 30 or 40 years. It We looked around and checked, and, of just so happen that a tornado came through course, there were a couple of Blacks in the and hit Indian Hills, and he got injured. sterilization room, a couple of Black dental When he got injured, he tried to still pracassistants and no Black instructors. Eventutice, but his shoulder wouldn’t let him. He ally, there would be Black instructors, after got tired and just left all of his equipment a couple of and ended years being up retiring.

‘In Germany, I was hot there but that He didn’t try shit over there. I played school was to sell it or white. anything. It baseball, and I was an My chemwas after he istry profesdied, his wife all-star. They’d put me sor, from wanted to on a pedestal over there. undergrad, get rid of it. us that My financial Germans loved Black men. told if we wanted advisor picked up on it and You couldn’t do any wrong. to get into dental school, brought me We even had a maid over we would down here.

Then, when there. Her name was Gerdy, have to make application you went to the bank, as a and she marveled over us.’ early. He said that because dentist, they’d —Dr. Phillip Williams. there was a roll out the push to get red carpet for minority students in these institutions. We you. They basically gave me a loan on my were qualified, so all we had to do was make name. I cleaned up my credit, and the bank application. So we did, and after three years took care of me. Nowadays, you come out of undergrad at UofL, we got accepted. We of dental schools, your debt will make them had to finish some requirements in summer not even look at you. Back then, they were school because we had to finish physics not afraid to spend money. They even gave and organic chemistry. Still, we passed and me a check to go get a car. They wrote me walked in dental school in September 1977 a $6,000 check to go get a car, and I went and were the third and the fourth Blacks to to the Buick place and got a car. That was go to the University of Louisville’s dental 1977. school. Since then, there have been many It’s my passion, my ministry, and it’s more. what this area needs. I had no reason to In dental school, we were the only Blacks look outside of this life; it was fulfilling. I around, and that was discouraging. We felt would wake up every morning, wanting to isolated and on an island by ourselves. We come to work and still anxious up until it’s had a hunger for our own people. We wanted time for me to leave. People want a good to hang with the fellas. I had plenty of choice where they can come and get treated classmates that were friends, but that wasn’t the right way. They can come here and get it. It was just a big culture shock. I had an high-quality services in their own neighbor-

advantage over Leon because my family was in the service atmosphere. Leon grew up on 26th and Kentucky, right in the middle of the Black area. He didn’t get around white people until we got into Upward Bound. He managed and was a comedian by his personality. He made it easier for me to get to know people because he was funny as heck.

We tried to quit several times, and there was a Black lady, who worked in the minority recruitment office, who we would see every time we got discouraged. She would say, ‘Get ya’lls Black ass back across that street.

I don’t want to hear any more talk about quitting. You wanna quit and do what?’ We would say, ‘Yes, ma’am’ and walk back over there.

It was discouraging being there because people don’t want you there because of the color of your skin. People weren’t going to give you the best breaks just because of your color. People are gonna think you’re inferior because of your color. They didn’t care but there were some people that pushed to see us successful. We knew that you had to be strong and couldn’t be a wimp inside of a world where people treat you bad all because of your skin color. It was treacherous.

See, you came up in a world and didn’t get to see that prejudice. You didn’t see when pools were segregated. There was this amusement park that didn’t allow Blacks at all. When I got back from Germany, in 1964, we weren’t allowed to go there. It loosened up when Martin Luther King came here and did a sit-in. I got the see the transition in progress from segregation to integration.

Go into life with the attitude that you’re here for a reason. Whatever that reason is, it will come to you along the way. Prepare yourself. Listen to your parents. Parents have visions for you, just like they had one for themselves. I have a vision for my children. Follow that guidance and keep yourself spiritual in contact with the higher power. There is one. Only the higher power can fulfill that dream. So, be who you were sent here to be and you’ll figure it out. Just like me, you’ll be sensitized, you’ll be prepared and you’ll end up staying on the pathway if you just stay in tune.” • West of Ninth began as a Louisville photography blog, westofninth.com, by Russell residents Walt and Shae Smith. With a love for their community, Walt and Shae see the potential of all nine neighborhoods that make West Louisville. Armed with a Nikon DSLR, a recorder and the ability to never meet a stranger, their goal is to shed light on what makes West of Ninth the greatest.

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VIEWS

WHEN THE GOING GETS VIRAL...

IT’S TIME TO EMBRACE BESHEAR THE YOUNGER’S PUPPIES AND RAINBOWS

By Huntress Thompson | leo@leoweekly.com From the Political Affairs Desk of the Kentucky Derby Motor Speedway.

THESE ARE WEIRD and strange days, #TeamKentucky, living in a world where all of the toilet paper and noodles are missing from store shelves, but there’s enough fresh produce to feed everyone and all the homeless in Louisville.

The most notable side effect of Coronamonium has been the decrease of sirens past the office of the Political Affairs Desk and the guy on I-65 North in a Mustang GT who thinks his personal speed limit is somewhere around 90 mph and reports of a fellow busy cleaning out the store shelves of food at Walgreens on Broadway. If this is the bedlam to expect from Corona, then to be afraid is silly, as to be afraid is to assume the inherent worst of humanity during hard times.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the smell of sulfur is dense, and dark smoke clogs the skyline from James Comer & Co.’s pillageand-burn stock selloff with their insider information. This is a city made of elected corporate minions who are now arguing about which multinational company receives bailout funds first.

But while Rome was busy burning itself down, Mayor Greg Fischer’s office assembled a ninja task force with the Community Foundation of Louisville, Metro Government and Metro United Way. They call it the One Louisville: COVID19 Response Fund.

It will provide financial help with rent or utilities payments, childcare, transportation, food, pharmaceutical needs and “other support as determined,” the mayor’s office said. That could mean $1,000 in emergency funding for individual households. There are a lot of details, so go to cflouisville.org/onelouisville to figure it out for yourself.

There is an option to donate on the website, and it ought to be your duty to do so if you can, even if only to brag about your donation after these dark clouds roll past the horizon. Furthermore, the requirements

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

to qualify for this assistance are completely reasonable, compared to any other response effort to prevent an economic collapse.

Listen this time to the mayor: “We know that the necessary response to stem the spread of COVID-19 is creating hardships for so many in our community, especially some of our most vulnerable,” Fischer in a statement. “This fund is meant to ease that burden somewhat.”

“This is what a compassionate city does,” Fischer said.

This is an important distinction, the difference between acting as if the Fund will solve all the woes and recognizing the need for compassion in the coming weeks with the organization of making help available.

Not all is lost.

We are hearing some of that from Beshear the Younger during his nightly address.

But not from Cheato-in-Chief, blathering into the microphone from D.C. until passing the microphone to someone slightly more coherent than him to speak. It does not bode well for the coming weeks.

In stark contrast, Beshear the Younger is busting the balls of everyone who refuses to follow orders for the Greater Good, if you haven’t tuned in yet. His nightly updates are a throwback to an era of FDR’s Fireside Chats and C.S. Lewis’ Broadcast Talks.

These addresses are a comforting consistency to uncertainty, Beshear’s voice with a hint of wood smoke and bourbon inviting its listener to embrace a world where we’re all working #TogetherKy. Beshear the Younger’s realistic approach creates the comfort because his reassurances that this will get better but his acknowledgment that it will get worse before it gets better is exactly what #TeamKentucky needs to hear. That and his zero-FKs attitude about preachers who can’t trust their flock to read their Book at home for a few weekends and him noting that there are independent actors who would flood communications with misinformation are absolutely necessary.

Do not take offense, though, because he isn’t calling out anyone but calling them

back into the circle of community for the benefit of all.

Also, Beshear the Younger awarding a Fried Chicken Degree to his sign language translator is telling about the man at Kentucky’s helm. He is the same man whose Puppies and Rainbows speech at the State of the Commonwealth was greeted with suspicion. Yet, his words and actions are consistent, and only the times have changed.

Follow his lead, recognize him as one of the helpers who is calling us in, not out as do those who consider their own selfish desires more important than protecting us all.

Embrace the Puppies and Rainbows falling from Beshear the Younger’s mouth as they are the words we ought to have been listening to and following all along.

Therefore: the Political Affairs Desk would like to give Gov. Beshear the Younger the highest of Washed Hands High Fives after all of this mess calms down. There is also the offer of Ky Tavern and Ski chaser on the table as a starting point of the Bourbonic Plague that’s going to go down once we all can be together again, but that offer is ultimately up to Uncle Andy.

Some don’t drink often — I am one — but these strange times are times for strange offers from the subversive to an authority.

Finally, to loosely quote Beshear: There Is No Stigma In Public Assistance!

Follow The Schedule When Filling Out An Application For Help!

There Is Medicaid, Unemployment & Food Stamps!

Stay Home & Flatten The Curve By Washing Your Hands! • Huntress Thompson is a poet and philosopher #HealthyAtHome in Louisville.

For more information on assistance, go to One Louisville: cflouisville.org/onelouisville. Household assistance is available though Neighborhood Place (louisvilleky. gov/neighborhoodplace) and Community Foundation of Louisville (cflouisville.org).

VIEWS

Pets OF THE Week Rory

Clay

POST CARD FROM WASHINGTON

NOW THE CHICKEN HAWK HAS COME HOME TO ROOST

By John Yarmuth | leo@leoweekly.com “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?”

WHEN JONI MITCHELL sang that line, “paved paradise” in the song “Big Yellow Taxi,” she was referring t o the environment, specifically green space, but today it might well imply something else: government, specifically the federal government.

For decades, conservatives have pounded the message that regardless of the challenge, except for military defense, the United States government was more problem than solution. They mockingly repeated the line “I’m from the federal government, and I’m here to help you.”

Of course, when given the chance to govern, the conservatives didn’t operate that way. Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt and expanded government during his two terms. So did George W. Bush.

Having now served in Congress for more than 13 years, I recognize the many failings of government, but I also am acutely aware of how important all levels of government are.

Not everyone is as aware.

Several years ago, I was asked to go to Yale and talk with med and premed students about the Affordable Care Act. In the course of two days I met with many brilliant young people, or maybe I should say otherwise brilliant young people. I was stunned by the number of Yalies who said they didn’t pay attention to politics because it didn’t mean anything to their lives.

I pushed back immediately to them: “And you’re going into medicine?” I asked

rhetorically. “Do you realize that the federal government will impact what you are paid and how you practice? If you’re going into research, the government will be funding your research. You’d better pay attention to politics.”

When I meet with young people, even 10-year-old students in their classes, I talk about how government affects their families’ daily lives. How it affects their health care.

How the government will help them go to college. How the government makes sure they have clean air and water.

That is one reason our abandonment of civics education in school is so dangerous.

If we don’t know what government is supposed to do and how it is supposed to operate, there can be no accountability for public officials. More importantly, if we don’t care what government does, we are at its mercy.

That’s why I tell anyone who doesn’t vote that not voting is the same thing as voting for the person you don’t want.

It should be sadly evident by now that Donald Trump did not study civics.

He is clueless about what government is supposed to do and how it is supposed to operate. He has spent the first three years of his term hollowing out virtually every agency of government and appointing appallingly unqualified people to fill the most important positions.

And now the chicken hawk has come home to roost. The sky is falling, at least temporarily, and all eyes have turned to the federal government and specifically President Donald Trump. For the first time last week, Trump decided he had better look like

he understood government’s role instead of diverting attention to China, the fake news, the deep state, governors and apparently even his son-in-law.

Unfortunately, in the present situation, better late than never means substantial damage to Americans.

But we can leave the exit interview for next January. The point of this column is that government is important. It is critical.

Our system of government has been a model for the world for more than two centuries.

It saved us in 2008, in 1933, and it will, despite Donald Trump’s incompetence, save us in 2020. We all need to remember that when the world gets past this pandemic crisis, we must care a lot more about who runs our governments — federal, state and local — and demand the best governments possible.

Abraham Lincoln famously said, “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but can not do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves.”

He also should have said (and maybe somewhere he did) that the government has to be ready and willing at all times, to meet their citizens’ needs.

Because you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. • U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, founder of LEO, has represented Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District since 2007 and is now chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Taffy

Clay and Rory Meet our handsome guy Clay and big, beautiful Rory!

Rory is a ten-year-old Domestic Shorthair and Clay is a nine-year-old Siamese/Lynx mix. These Kitties came to the Kentucky Humane Society when their owner could no longer care for them after having a stroke.

These two gorgeous gentlemen have lived together for the majority of their lives and are lookin' to keep it that way. Rory is the new more outgoing of the pair and always comes forward for pets and attention. His bff Clay is a little more shy and relies on Rory to feel comfortable in new situations. In their former home, they lived with other cats and dogs. While they didn't care much for the dogs, they would ignore them in the home. Rory's former owner says that Rory isn't a super affectionate cat, but he's a really cool dude. He loves his Clay and is happy either just hanging out with you or playing with toys. Could you be the happy ending this bonded pair has been waiting for? If so, come meet them today! Rory and Clay are both neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on vaccinations. Now all they need is you! You can visit Clay at our East Campus, 1000 Lyndon Lane. For more on Clay or any of our adoptable pets, please call 502-366-3355 or visit kyhumane.org.

Taffy Introducing the one and only Taffy! This three-year-old Terrier mix is sweet, sassy and searching for a home.

20-pound Taffy came to the Kentucky Humane Society from an overcrowded shelter. Don't let her size fool you! She's excellent at sprinting, chasing, jumping and doing all things a Terrier loves. Because of her chasing habits, she would do best without feline siblings at home. But if you're searching for an energetic playmate full of joy, Taffy might be the girl for you! Taffy is spayed, micro-chipped and up-to-date on her shots. Come meet Taffy today at the Springhurst Feeders Supply, 9485 Brownsboro Road. For more on Taffy or any of our adoptable pets, please call 502-366-3355 or visit kyhumane.org.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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NEWS & ANALYSIS

LOUISVILLE’S RUN ON GUNS, AMMO AND... INSIDE THE MIND OF A CORONAVIRUS GUN BUYER

By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com

THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD ROSES: WE ARE VIRTUAL GENIUSES!

KEITH Searcy was already planning on buying a gun.

The 22-year-old New Albany resident has been shooting since he was a teenager and was saving to buy one this summer.

Then, the novel coronavirus shut down most public spaces and businesses, and Searcy observed people acting, what he called, “irrational.”

Irrational, like storming grocery stores for toilet paper even though there’s nothing about coronavirus that requires more toilet paper than normal.

“I decided to move my timeline up a bit, so if things do go sideways, I was ready,” he said.

This week, Gov. Andy Beshear shut down all “nonessential” businesses, but apparently not gun shops — “nothing in this Order should be construed to interfere with the lawful sale of firearms and ammunition.” Even before then, gun stores across Kentuckiana were swamped with customers, stripping stores of their firearms and ammo.

Out of seven gun stores reached by LEO last week, three said they were too busy to even talk. One answered with a recorded message that said no one was available to talk due to a high volume of customers.

Bill Wolf of Wolf Supply, LLC, had time to pick up the phone, but only after he had to close his businesses because he had sold out of all of his ammo and most of his firearms.

“They’re telling me it’s weeks to months before we can start getting inventory back in,” he said.

The same rush on guns has been observed in other states. A USA Today story reported long lines at gun stores

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THORNS & ROSES

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

and increased ammo purchases in Wisconsin, California, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Missouri.

Why does Wolf think more people are buying guns? “‘Cuz they’re scared,” he said.

Ken Pagano, a senior manager at Louisville Armory, a gun range that sells ammo, had a similar answer. “No one knows exactly, just with all the media and the social media awareness of everything that’s going on, people have a sense that there may be something ominous on the horizon,” he said.

Despite Beshear’s exemption, the Louisville Armory shut down on Monday “to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

Searcy, who bought a Del-Ton rifle modeled after an AR-15, from an Indiana firearms dealer, said he originally wanted a gun for several reasons, including the simple fact that he likes firearms, just as he likes cars or other “heavily engineered” things. But, Searcy said, he’s also wanted to own a gun in case of an event of societal upheaval.

The coronavirus brought those fears closer to reality.

Searcy traces this worldview back to a book he read in high school: “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov.

The science fiction novelette depicts life on a planet that is always lit up by the sun.

But, every 2,000 years, an eclipse plunges the world into darkness, and its inhabitants go mad.

“Basically what I learned from that book is, the biggest problem when bad

things happen is that people behave unpredictably and illogically,” he said.

Which is what his mind jumped to when he saw shoppers stocking up on toilet paper that they didn’t need.

Suddenly, Searcy could picture a future wherein the supply chain for groceries and medicine had broken down, leading to looting, increased competition for resources and, eventually, violence.

“That’s incredibly unlikely,” Searcy admitted. “But in the event that I’m wrong and things do go that way, I don’t want to be high and dry and not able to take care of myself or, you know my roommate or other people I care about.”

He’s also stocked food and first aid kits.

Searcy said he does not think everyone scared of coronavirus should buy a firearm, especially if they don’t have the experience he does: completed gun safety courses and firearm merit badges earned in Boy Scouts.

“There are a lot of people who haven’t been raised to respect firearms,” Searcy said. “There’s a lot of people who, if purchased a firearm, I’m not sure they would treat it like the tool it is. Or, I guess when they have it, I’m not sure they would respect it as something that is very capable of ending another person’s life.”

Many customers coming to Wolf’s store before he closed were new firearm owners, Wolf said. But, as gun ranges shut down, there was nowhere for them to train.

Pagano said that gun sales are often swayed by national news.

“This reminds me of when President Obama was in office and every time there had been an active shooter event, people were afraid of gun legislation being passed or whatever,” he said. “We would see continuous spikes.”

In fact, Pagano thinks they were higher when Obama was in office than in recent days. •

Roses go to the rafts of creative Louisvillians who are taking their real lives and putting them online. Wait... that is just Facebook. No, these are yoga teachers, musicians, actors, comedians and even just people who have decided to spend their coronacation helping others. Like members of the Facebook group “My Friends Do Awesome Things. Let’s Learn From Them!!!”, which offers videos of... how to make Korean coffee, how to write a review, knot tying, gardening, “how to ground and cleanse your spiritual energy”... and on and on.

ROSE: BUT CAN YOU BUY A CORONA?

Gov. Andy “nee Ned Flanders” Beshear made a list of what he deemed nonessential businesses that must shut for the duration. But guess which business gets to stay open because its service is essential? Liquor stores!

Not to keep beating a beaten governor, but can you imagine what Matt Bevin would have done?

THORN: KENTUCKY, CORONA AND... GUNS!

And, then, in his executive order on businesses, Andy also says: “ ... nothing in this Order should be construed to interfere with the lawful sale of firearms and ammunition.” Yee haw! Liquor and guns! How Kentucky is that? (Bevin would have handed out prayer guns.)

ROSE: A MONSTER OF AN IDEA

Speaking of creativity, we at LEO have always loved some Kaiju, the monster-themed bar that does much more than serve drinks. Now that bars are closed, Kaiju has switched it up like a Transformer — “Kaiju Bar is now Kaiju Grocery. We’re selling anything that isn’t bolted to the floor.” In a Facebook post, it said, in part: “We know a lot of our friends are hurting just as we are.

Our hearts go out to you. We’re doing what we can to keep going like most of y’all.”

THORN: BUT... CAN A VIRUS GET A VIRUS?

Kentucky’s junior senator, Rand “Selfishness Embodied” Paul, a doctor who has obstructed coronavirus relief bills, has tested positive. Now we learn that before he knew the test results, he felt he was so special that he would not infect others. Jake Tapper from CNN tweeted that while Paul awaited to hear back, the petulant libertarian decided he would risk exposing his colleagues and others: “He felt fine, had no symptoms, and did not think he had coronavirus. He went about his daily life, including lunching with colleagues last week and going to the Senate gym this morning.”

Surprise! He does have it! Maybe Paul will go to Canada to get treated. Maybe his neighbor will drive him! We wonder whether he gave Donny a hug on the back nine!

“You know, if you get it, you get it. I’m not worried about it.,” said Jim Peak, 74. | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.

‘IF YOU GET IT, YOU GET IT’ RESISTANCE, REFUSAL IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS

By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com

WHILE CORONAVIRUS cleared out Kentucky businesses last week and filled hospitals in New York City and elsewhere, 74-year-old Jim Peak went about his day as normal in Bullitt County.

He showed up to his Rally’s fry cook shift at 9 a.m.

After five hours of flipping burgers, Peak left to pick up a few things from Walmart.

Outside, he saw a man sitting in a car with a face mask on. Peak laughed.

Inside the store, as Peak looked around for dinner supplies, he scoffed at the pickedover shelves and commiserated with workers about the ridiculousness of crowds of people rushing in to buy toilet paper and food.

Peak has had bypass surgery and a kidney removed and takes nine prescription medications.

He is exactly the kind of person health experts say is vulnerable to the worst effects of the virus, yet he is also among those who refuse to heed warnings or who resist them.

They believe everyone else is overreacting, and some are resigned to their susceptibility.

Coronavirus is not deadly for most people, but some will need hospitalization.

Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say most people will be exposed to the virus this year or the next. Accordingly, the CDC said we should avoid gatherings and work from home, all to “flatten the curve,” or slow the rate of cases so that hospitals aren’t overwhelmed by those who do need care.

Peak said he worries about the health of

others, but he isn’t as concerned with his own mortality.

“You know, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” Peak said. “You know, if you get it, you get it. I’m not worried about it.”

But Peak’s daughter, Kelly Peak Livingston, is, and she has had no luck in convincing him to stay home.

“It scares me a lot because he definitely, you know, falls into the category of people who are more at risk with his age and his medical history,” she said. “He’s somebody that I think if he were to contract it might not have a great outcome.”

She is among people who have family members or friends who just won’t listen to the advice of health experts.

BUT WHY?! JUST WHY?!

There may be as many reasons for not believing or following precautions as there are people.

Scott LaJoie, an assistant professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at UofL who studies health-related decisionmaking, said he has seen the young and the old downplay the importance of staying isolated. Those who are younger believe they’re invulnerable to the illness, he said.

For those who are older, like Peak, it’s the opposite — they’re unconcerned with catching it and the possible results.

“We see it at all levels of society right now where there are motivators to downplay LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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the virus” LaJoie said. “Maybe we’re downplaying the virus because we want to prop up the economy. Maybe we’re feeling lonely so we’ll tell people, ‘Oh social distancing isn’t that big of a deal.’”

Some of that doubt, expressed by three LEO interviewed, is fed by suspicion of the government or the media or both.

Some is even fueled by elected officials such as Republican state Rep. Jim Gooch, an insurance agent and mining equipment business owner from Providence, Kentucky.

He made a speech last week on the House floor questioning whether measures imposed

by Gov. Andy Beshear were unduly harming the state’s economy, such as closed restaurants and other businesses.

He told his colleagues that we must go on with life as normally as possible.

“The thing that I worry about most is that when we come through this, which we will, that we haven’t seen more people devastated, bankrupt, businesses closed that will never ever reopen, and that somehow it could be that the very financial damage that we’ve done affected a lot more people than the people who got sick,” he said.

And U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Northern Kentucky, drew ire for his social media posts, including one that said closing restaurant dining rooms would “lead to worse public health outcomes than if they had remained open.”

“When this is over, the greatest harm to society will have been the public’s unquestioning acceptance of the unchecked authority of governments to force private behavior and disrupt economies,” he wrote.” I fear the actions taken by our government will make FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans look like a ‘light touch,’” he wrote on Facebook.

GOOCH: KEEP KENTUCKY WORKING

The day after his floor speech, Gooch told LEO that he believes the dangers of coronavirus are “serious,” and social gatherings should be limited to smaller groups. But he wasn’t sure that it was necessary for the governor to shut down businesses such as gyms and hair salons.

Gooch doesn’t want to quit working either. Before he made his speech, he sat through an appeal from a Democratic colleague, calling for the General Assembly to cancel the legislative session out of coronavirus concerns.

“I don’t think that we should shut down here in the legislature,” he said. “The people’s government shouldn’t just quit because there’s an injury. That’s when they need us the most, I think.”

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

Gooch is 68 and counts himself as one of those at risk of experiencing serious side effects from the coronavirus, but he has personal reasons for not wanting the legislative session to end.

“I’m kind of a people person, and I have a need to talk to folks,” he said, “and I can maintain distance there. I don’t have to hug everybody that I talk to. But that is still important to me, to see people and interact with people.”

Gooch doesn’t want others to experience the anxiety of not being able to do their jobs either.

“I mean, we have to work,” he said.

NOT WORTH A CANCELED VACATION

Shane Estes, 39, believes that the coronavirus should be treated as if it were the flu.

He is suspicious of the news media, which he said has exaggerated the dangers of the pandemic.

As coronavirus cases in Germany climbed earlier in the month, Estes was still planning on flying to the country for a vacation that he and his partner had been long planning.

“Even if I’m over there, and I’m just wandering around and everything’s freaking closed, I’m out of the country, I am away from home, I am taking a vacation. I’m happy,” he said.

But on March 11, President Donald Trump advised all Americans to avoid nonessential travel to most European countries.

Seven days later, Estes was still trying to figure out how to recoup the $1,400 he had spent on planning the trip.

“So yeah, I’m sort of having to self quarantine, because I have no choice,” Estes said.

Estes works in maintenance for an apartment building. His paycheck depends on how many work orders residents call in.

And when people are being called out of the country, forced to leave school (and Louisville), can’t pay rent and don’t want to let a stranger into their apartment… there aren’t as many work orders.

“And I’m sitting here trying to figure out, now, how am I going to pay my bills?” Estes said. “I live comfortably, but if I lose money or lose my job, it isn’t going to take long before I’m in a box.”

‘POLITICAL DANCING’

Mick LaGrange, 61, said he worries that the virus is being used for political gain — pointing to the stimulus bill that House Democrats sent to the Senate two weeks ago, repeating a rumor that they had stuffed

Shane Estes, 39, believes that the coronavirus should be treated as if it were just the flu.

it with abortion funding (untrue, according to Politifact.com).

So, last Wednesday, LaGrange was at his job at a Jeffersonville gun store, performing background checks and helping out a crowded shop of customers.

The next day, he planned to drive to a firework store he owns near Corydon to continue prepping it for summer. While not working, he’s been making regular grocery trips.

“I’m not saying it’s not serious,” said LaGrange about the coronavirus. “But I think some of this has been knee-jerk and political dancing to some extent.”

LaGrange pointed to the abortion funding rumor.

But, LaGrange is washing his hands frequently, cognizant that he should be careful to not bring home germs to his wife, a cancer survivor. His daughter, a nurse practitioner, has chastised him for not taking coronavirus as seriously as she thinks he

should.

“I heard somebody say today, 50% of the people are panicking, and they’ve been taking it too serious, and the other 50% are not taking it serious enough, and it’s probably right in both cases,” LaGrange said. “You know, so there’s something in the middle I think that makes sense.”

‘IT’S A DEVASTATING THOUGHT’ Jessica Dueñas is staying home.

With Kentucky schools closed, the 35-year-old Jefferson County Public Schools teacher has left her home only to go to the grocery store. She’s not worried for her own health, she said, but for the health of others.

“I just feel like, you know, it’s a time period where I need to stop being selfish and put others ahead of me in my mind,” she said.

And there’s one person in particular who she’s worried about: her mother.

Amable Dueñas, Jessica’s mom, is 80

and living in Costa Rica. Every day, she rides a bus into San José’s crowded downtown to visit with friends.

“If you catch it, it can kill you,” Jessica Dueñas told her mother during one of their recent daily phone calls.

“My mom’s response was, ‘If I die, I die,’” said Dueñas.

Dueñas’ mom might not care if she passes, but Dueñas would.

“I mean, it’s a devastating thought,” Dueñas said.

She still wants to visit her mother in the summer and to take her future children there to visit.

“I remember when I lost my father in April of 2018, I mean, you’re never ready for it, but when he died suddenly, my heart was just ripped apart,” said Dueñas “And there is this emptiness there that when I

think about him, it hasn’t left. “ As for Peak, he isn’t completely blasé about the health of others. Every day before work, Peak takes his temperature, checking to see if he needs to stay home from work.

“I just want to make sure that I’m not passing it onto anybody if I do catch it,” he said.

But he is not always practicing social distancing.

On his trip to the grocery, the eggs and milk were out, but he was able to find a packet of apple chicken hot dogs.

He took them home and cooked them for dinner. When LEO called, he was still chewing on his meal and the thought of the frenzied shoppers at Walmart.

“I don’t know, I have a problem with people being idiots,” he said. •

RESTAURANTS TAKE TO THE CURB! THE GOVERNOR’S announcement that dining in restaurants was forbidden hit Louisville like a bad case of food poisoning.

No one expected it. No one wanted it. We are all waiting for it to end.

What would become of all the restaurants if they could not serve food?

What would become of the legions of chefs, line cooks, servers, dish washers and all the others if they could not serve food?

What would happen to the rest of us if we could not get our fix of Green Chili Wontons from the Bristol or that late-night burrito from New Wave?

In a city that identifies itself proudly as an emerging foodie destination, this has been cataclysmic. But, also in a city that prides itself on innovation and reinvention, the food culture quickly came up with solutions: —Hastily created carryout and delivery services, complete with latex-gloved deliveries to you curbside. (W.W. Cousins built a drive-through and posted photos of it online! “We have been working around the clock at WW.Cousins to make our drive-thru like our buns, homemade!” it announced on Facebook.)

—Special meals, some with discounts and some that are designed to feed entire families. Food you would never suspect could be taken out... are, such as Melting Pot To-Go fondue from The Melting Pot of Louisville.

—The LEE Initiative, founded by Chef Ed Lee, our James Beard Award-winning star chef, and managing director Lindsey Ofcacek, stepped up to help restaurant workers who now are jobless. With Maker’s Mark and Lee’s restaurant 610 Magnolia at 610 W. Magnolia Ave., the LEE Initiative is offering to-go dinners for service industry workers. Donate and learn more here: leeinitiative.org Gov. Andy “Calm Hand on The Wheel” Beshear also gave restaurants a boost by issuing an executive order that rejiggered, so to speak, alcohol licenses so that an on-

premise license holder can sell alcohol off premises. You know, to-go bottles of wine and beer and cocktail kits.

Of course, all of us, hunkered down in our houses with cans of tuna and mystery meat defrosting, have been loving this. But, we also have been loving our restaurants by giving them business until we all can get through this — together.

Check out Kathryn Harrington’s photos.

If W.W. Cousins builds it, they will drive through.

Ciao Ristorante alerts customers that it is open for carryout and delivery.

A curbside service sign directs people to Against the Grain Brewery & Smokehouse.

A common sight in The Highlands — people with to-go bags from restaurants.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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Letting customers know they are open is key for restaurants. The Uptown Cafe quickly put up signs, Big Signs.

Royals Hot Chicken is among several NuLu restaurants that quickly took their business to the curb.

Phillip Goldsborough did good business serving up lobster rolls at his Longshot Lobsta truck on Bardstown Road.

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Carryout orders lined up at Chipotle in The Highlands.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

Bri Halava and AuCo Lai take meals and other supplies to restaurant workers who are out of work because of the coronavirus crisis.

Max Perry prepares meals that will go to restaurant workers affected by reduced hours or layoffs.

Ryan Fuquay prepares vegetables at 610 Magnolia for the Restaurant Workers Relief Program.

Volunteers at the 610 Magnolia Relief Program prepare for restaurant workers’ arrival to pick up meals and other supplies.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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STAFF PICKS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

Big Talkers: Kóan Je�f Baysa Facebook Live | Free | 6-7 p.m.

can Pub i r e m A n a i l a t I s Food & Spirit

909 Swan St. 627-1777

Great Meadows Foundation Critic-in-Residence KĂłan Jeff “KJâ€? Baysa leads this edition TALK of “Big Talkers,â€? a series of lectures and conversations about important issues regarding art in Kentucky. KJ Baysa is a fascinating mix of medical doctor and arts aficionado. He has been on medical missions in conflict zones, developed health apps for smart phones and devices and serves on the boards of several arts organizations KĂłan Jeff Baysa. around the world. â€œâ€Ś [H]is current practice bridges medical culture and social sculpture, with specific interests in the neuroscience of memory and perception, the cultural constructs of health and disease states, and multisensory immersive art experiences.â€? This big talker will cover KJ Baysa’s incredible journeys and perspectives on art. —Aaron Yarmuth

THURSDAY, MARCH 26-APRIL 15

Stream The General Assembly Wherever you are

Have a Love Issue?

AskMindaHoney@leoweekly.com

The state capitol building has restricted visitors, but you GOVERNMENT can still stream every committee meeting and Senate and House proceeding to keep your legislators accountable. How else would you have seen Rep. Jim Gooch’s speech putting the health of the economy over the health of Kentuckians? (See our feature story.) Most meetings can be streamed on Kentucky Educational Television’s website: ket.org/legislature. For the rest, Kentucky’s Legislative Research Commission staff have you covered on their YouTube channel, KY LRC Committee Meetings. —LEO

THURSDAY, MARCH 26

Virtual Dinner With Friends

Your Home! | bourbonsbistro.com | $35 | 7-8:30 p.m.

Mind

e v a H o ne y o n L

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

Hmmm‌. A Bourbons Bistro pork chop!

Did ya think dinner parties were off for the foreseeable future? Think again. The SOCIALIZE folks at Bourbons Bistro have prepared a virtual social dining experience. They’ll prepare the food, a three-course meal available for pickup at the restaurant. Once you get home, you can join a Zoom call to chat with other diners, including Bourbons Bistro co-owner Jason Brauner.

If you’re wondering about the bourbon, there will be recommendations on the restaurant’s Facebook page. Luckily, liquor stores are considered essential businesses! —Danielle Grady

STAFF PICKS

UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Virtual Arts

#ArtsAndCultureINKY fundforthearts.org/artsandcultureinky While I’m sure there will be plenty of paintings, plays and poetry created during SEE the coronavirus quarantine, there will be times when all you want to see is something you didn’t make in your house. But you can’t, because local arts and culture venues are closed. The Fund for the Arts and the Arts & Culture Alliance have taken pity on us art lovers and created a website of virtual arts. It’s the best of both worlds. There are three sections: Greater Louisville Virtual Arts Resources (including the 21c Museum Hotel, Frazier History Museum and Kentucky Shakespeare), National Virtual Arts Resources (where you can “visit” the Smithsonian Institution or stream plays and musicals) and How to Support Local Restaurants (after all, food is an art and cultural attraction in these parts). —Jo Anne Triplett

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

Actors Theatre Direct: Next Stop, Tech Unknown Zoom Livestream | Search Facebook Free | 4-5 p.m.

Passion and resiliency are two trademarks of successful theater actors, ACTING! producers, directors and companies. So, don’t expect Actors Theatre of Louisville to just sit at home and wait this out. Actors Theatre Direct is virtual, in-home content to satisfy your theater needs. Join Actor’s staff for this discussion and Q&A on strategies and advice for advancing your career in theater. The panel includes Bryn Weiler, assistant production manager, Tiffany Jieting Yu, costume design assistant, Peter deGuzman (properties apprentice) and Katelin Ashcraft, assistant properties master. The discussion will take place on Zoom and will be limited to the first 100 people to sign up, which you can do via the Facebook event page. —Aaron Yarmuth

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

Virtual Event: David Vawter

Zoom Livestream | CreativeMornings Louisville | Search Facebook Free | 9-10 a.m.

CreativeMornings Louisville has been bringing together comINSPIRE munities for breakfast and a short talk from a local leader. Regular meetings occur one Friday every month but, because of current events, David Vawter will lead this month’s VIRTUAL meeting. Vawter is executive vice president and chief creative officer at Doe-Anderson, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the country (founded in 1915).

Vawter has won multiple Effie awards — an international marketing award — and worked on brands such as Maker’s Mark and Coca-Cola. Basically, you might not have heard of him, but you know his work. If you’re worried about your small business during this time of economic uncertainty or just looking to be inspired creatively, this is a great way to spend your Friday morning. And what better time to come together, to be part of a larger community and take our minds off of the threat of a pandemic than now? Registration is required.

You can find registration through the Facebook event page or through creativemornings. com.—Aaron Yarmuth

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STATE OF INDIANA : In The Perry Circuit Court COUNTY OF: Perry CAUSE NUMBER: 62C01-2002-JT-000054 IN THE MATTER OF THE TERMINATION OF THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP: AC - DOB 11/15/2018 AND Lindsey Cook (Biological Mother) Walter Nolen (Alleged Father) AND ANY UNKNOWN ALLEGED FATHERS

SUMMONS FOR SERVICE BY PUBLICATION & NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS HEARING TO: Walter Nolen and Any Unknown Alleged Father (Whereabouts unknown).

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to the above noted parent whose whereabouts are unknown, as well as Any Unknown Alleged Fathers, whose whereabouts are also unknown, that the Indiana Department of Child Services has filed a Petition for Involuntary Termination of your Parental Rights, and that an adjudication hearing has been scheduled with the Court.

YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to appear before the Judge of the Perry Circuit Court, 2219 Payne Street, Tell City, IN 47586 - 812-547-7048 for a(n) Fact Finding Hearing on 5/7/2020 at 8:30 AM and to answer the Petition for Termination of your Parental Rights of said child.

You are further notified that if the allegations in said petition are true, and/or if you fail to appear at the hearing, the Juvenile Court may terminate your parent-child relationship; and if the Court terminates your parent-child relationship you will lose all parental rights, powers, privileges, immunities, duties and obligations including any rights to custody, control, visitation, or support in said child; and if the Court terminates your parent-child relationship, it will be permanently terminated, and thereafter you may not contest an adoption or other placement of said child.

You are entitled to representation by an attorney, provided by the State if applicable, throughout these proceedings to terminate the parent-child relationship.

YOU MUST RESPOND by appearing in person or by an attorney within thirty (30) days after the last publication of this notice, and in the event you fail to do so, adjudication on said petition and termination of your parental rights may be entered against you, in your absence, without further notice.

Amanda F. Mogan Clerk Amy Meyer, #32396-26 Attorney, Indiana Department of Child Services 609 Ravine Street Shoals, IN 47581 Office: 812-247-2871 LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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MUSIC

LIVE, LOCAL MUSIC HAS NOT STOPPED! LOCAL SCENE IS EMBRACING LIVESTREAMS, INNOVATION

By Scott Recker | srecker@leoweekly.com ARON CONAWAY has an idea, one that could help break the boredom of isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak. It also could raise money to save the MAMMOTH, his Civil War-era building in West Louisville that he envisions as a multi-purpose art center but that the city closed because of structural issues. This Saturday night, Conaway will livestream a five-hour variety show and fundraiser called MAMMOTHvision 2020 featuring local musicians, poets and artists such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Tim Furnish, John Paul Wright, Roea Wallace and Gregory Chaney.

“Two weeks ago,” Conaway said, “I woke up and was like, people are going to be extremely isolated and feeling really alienated, and we can put something together that can really be entertaining but also give people a sense of hope, and see other people in the community, and out in the world, being creative in their own corners. So, it’s a way of people connecting and being inspired by the action of creativity.”

MAMMOTH-vision 2020 will run from 7 p.m. to midnight on March 28 at theMAMMOTH.org.

It’s only one of the many innovative ways that Louisville musicians are working to provide live music during the pandemic.

Like the big-name musicians that you see pulling together to provide online entertainment, the local scene has also been brainstorming.

Last Sunday, local jazz musicians Carly

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Johnson and Craig Wagner streamed a live set on Facebook from Matt Anthony’s Record Shop. Johnson, a full-time musician who usually plays five nights a week, said this outbreak has been devastating to the concert economy, but that it was important to make the best out of a bad situation.

“I took some time to be freaked out, and then I decided to do something about it,” Johnson said.

Johnson has started a GoFundMe called “With A Little Hope From My Friends” to help provide financial assistance for her and other full-time musicians during this time, and she has also decided to make that livestream gig a weekly event called Sunday Dinner With Carly & Craig, which will air at 7 p.m. every Sunday.

“Not doing music for going on two weeks now has felt really strange, and it’s a lack of connection and everybody is experiencing a huge lack of connection in anything they are doing, whether they are a musician or not, because of the quarantine, so I felt like, you know, there’s still got to be a way to connect with people and get music to people,” Johnson said. “To get a creative

A screenshot from the Kentuckiana Association of Musicians and Singers livestreamed concert.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

A screenshot of Carly Johnson and Craig Wagner performing via livestream.

sense of normalcy for folks that are used to going out to hear live music, which is such a thing in Louisville. Everybody really values that.”

Kaiju has long been a place for indie and experimental music, comedy and other forms of entertainment, but, like the rest of the bars, it’s temporarily closed, so the venue’s promoter, McKinley Moore and a few of his friends decided to create a new digital space. Moore, Greg Welsh (Kaijuesdays), Nathan P. Woodard (The Wednesday Evening Quiz), Gracie Taylor (Sketchy Stuff) and others are creating content on a Facebook page called Louisville High Frequency, which is akin to a makeshift, online TV channel. Right now, they’re still figuring out details, but it’s up and running, and they’re working to solidify a schedule.

The channel will have a variety of content, but, in terms of music, Moore wants to book shows from bands from other cities with a local opener. He also wants to start a regular series in which he and Charles Rivera create live scores to silent movies that are in the public domain.

“We all thought that some sort of central streaming outlet was needed for everyone we know doing cool shit,” Moore said.

“That led us to start this Facebook page as sort of an internet cable access station to promote the local creative community and maintain some sort of central schedule

of events. It might also help keep us from going insane while we’re stuck at home.

Times are tough, especially in this industry, but it is important that we continue to work to maintain the communities that we have put so much time and effort into building.”

Last weekend, the Kentuckiana Association of Musicians and Singers hosted a livestream concert and benefit that featured Quite Literally, The Leftovers, The Light Fantastic and several others. It ended up raising more than $2,400 for the musicians who performed and provided a source of entertainment for people stuck inside, but they also had a few technical difficulties — periodically losing audio and video — something that might happen during these things, especially when people have been scrambling to set them up amidst an outbreak that has quickly changed everyday life. And it was still a really enjoyable concert.

Owen Heritage, founder of KAMS, encouraged anyone out there who has been thinking about trying a livestream or an innovative online idea to move forward with it.

“Go for it,” Heritage said. “Don’t expect perfection. Realize there are going to be technical problems, the sound may not be that great, for instance. But, just go with it.

People are getting into the spirit of this.” •

MUSIC

LOCAL RECORD SHOPS FIND WAYS TO SAFELY GET YOU VINYL WITH CURBSIDE PICKUP, DELIVERY AND ONLINE OPTIONS

By Scott Recker | srecker@leoweekly.com IT ISN’T POSSIBLE right now to walk into your neighborhood record store, comb through bin after bin and strike up conversations and arguments about all things music, but there are still ways to buy vinyl from those Louisville businesses.

For example, Guestroom Records shut its doors to the public a week before the ordered closure of “nonessential” retail stores on Sunday, but the Frankfort Avenue shop has been selling albums through curbside pickup, delivery and shipping — options that are all currently still allowed.

“I made the analogy that we are a very, very slow pizza place, with some of the most obscure toppings that you can ask for,” Guestroom Records co-owner Travis Searle said. “Bon Iver and Tame Impala, those are pepperoni. Art Blakey double LP audiophile jazz reissues, that’s artichoke skin that has been cured in Spanish olive oil, brined in the sun. You can call in your toppings and maybe we have them and maybe we don’t.

Maybe we can get them and maybe we can’t.”

Since record stores are generally small rooms where most customers are touching dozens, if not hundreds, of items, many in Louisville decided to close to the public before the mandate. But, places such as Guestroom, Surface Noise and Matt Anthony’s Records Shop have been brainstorming safe ways to allow people to continue to buy albums. The options vary from store to store — most have used online stores or third-party sellers and marketplaces such as Discogs to ship records. Some also

have pickup options where customers call in, ask about the in-stock status of what they’re looking for, pay over the phone and pick up the order in front of the store. Because the pandemic has caused an unpredictable series of situations, the purchasing options at most stores have changed, and might again, so it’s best to check websites and Facebook pages.

Searle said that safety drove Guestrooms’s decisions, but that customers are also looking for entertainment right now.

“It’s scary times, it’s weird, but for a lot of people who have been quarantined at home, you know, you get bored, you want a new record,” Searle said. “We’ve got dozens or hundreds of people who come into the store weekly or once a month and want to support us, want to continue working on their record collection, on their hobby, want to listen to something fun or uplifting or whatever. We want to be here for that as much as we can be.”

SHUTTING DOWN A ‘NERVE CENTER’

Surface Noise ended its pickup option Monday, but records from the store are still available via Discogs and mail order. The store’s owner Brett Ralph said what he’ll miss most are the people who congregate in the store.

“More so than the business, Surface

Lisa Foster and Travis Searle co-own Guestroom Records . | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.

Noise aspires to be kind of a nerve center, a salon, a place to come together,” he said.

Ralph, a longtime contributor to the music scene who played in early local punk and hardcore bands such as Malignant Growth and Fading Out, had moved away from Louisville to pursue academics and poetry. But, he moved back to the city to once again contribute to its culture. And not being able engage with other music and art fans has been the most difficult thing about closing the store for him.

“I moved back to Louisville from a farm house out in the country, where I lived the isolated life of a poet on the farm,” Ralph said. “And I’m not saying I didn’t have friends, and a social fabric there, but I moved back to Louisville because I wanted to immerse myself in community, and I wanted to benefit from it, and I wanted to contribute to it. And that’s been the hardest thing for me to give up with Surface Noise: the sense of community that I’ve been cultivating, and that has been fueling and sustaining me, and enriching my life.”

FROM DOOM TO RESURGENCE TO WORRY

Guestroom Records co-owner Lisa Foster delivers during a curbside pickup. | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.

There was a time when it seemed all record stores were doomed. In the early 2010s, a vinyl resurgence changed that, and it proved to be a sustainable trend, with 1.2 million vinyl albums sold in the week

ending on Dec. 26, 2019. That marked the single largest week in sales for the format since Nielsen Music began electronically tracking music sales in 1991, according to Billboard. Still, that doesn’t mean your local record store is impervious to an economic hit such as the one we’re experiencing, as it’s important to remember that big-box stores and online vendors have their hands in the vinyl game as well. What makes neighborhood record stores different is, as Ralph mentioned, the scene within them, as the atmosphere and events that happen in those places can’t be replicated elsewhere.

And that sentiment was reflected by vinyl collector Joey Flispart, who used the curbside pickup at Guestroom last week and has more records ordered. He said that, in times like these, it’s important to put money into the places that you like.

“There are a few things that I’ve been listening to digitally a lot lately that I knew that I really wanted to have on vinyl, that I was just kind of putting off, so I picked up a few of those things, because I was like, ‘Yeah it’s time to do that,’” Flispart said.

“Right now, I can work at home, and my wife, she’s a teacher, so she can do some stuff from home, too, through this. So, as long as we’re able to support some other people, and put some money into local stuff, I definitely want to do that.” •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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INDUSTRY STANDARD — INSIDER INFO FOR THOSE WHO DINE OUT

WELCOME HOME, CHICKENS

By Marsha Lynch | leo@leoweekly.com LESS THAN two weeks ago, LEO staff writer Danielle Grady interviewed me for a piece about sick leave in the local hospitality industry. I was glad to help her because I was already writing a similar piece, but she got the assignment first, and it is an important subject. At that time, the buzz phrase going around was “if you feel sick, stay home,” and we discussed how that was really not workable for people who live paycheck to paycheck. It’s also frowned upon in kitchen culture — you come to work, no matter how shitty you feel or leave your co-workers in a lurch.

That all seems rather quaint now.

Now, all the restaurants are closed to inperson diners. Many nimble owners, managers and chefs are recreating their businesses to provide curbside take-out, just to survive.

To use up the product in their walk-ins that’s already paid for. But they’re doing it with tears in their eyes, because they’ve had to lay off virtually their entire staff. It doesn’t take that many people to provide curbside service; a cook or maybe two if you’re incredibly lucky to have enough take-out business to warrant it. A person to take orders to the curb and answer the phone. These duties are largely being performed by owners and salaried managers.

So, the next step for laid-off workers is to apply for unemployment benefits. Hopefully, most of you never have and never will have to apply for unemployment. Even at the best of times, it’s a bit labyrinthine. Your weekly benefit is 1.1923% of your earnings over the last four complete quarters before the current one.

A line cook with an extremely solid job over the last year (with no hiccups like a few weeks between jobs) will still receive less than $300 a week. Servers’ income is all over the place (some good weeks, some lean weeks). Those who’ve been underreporting their cash tips are royally screwed, because their benefit payments will end up based roughly on minimum wage (they’re actually only paid $2.13 an hour before tips, but their employers are required to make up the gap if they clear less than the federal minimum of $7.25). This hypothetical server will receive $166 a week.

Have you ever tried to live on $166 a week, minus taxes?

Sure, restaurant workers are largely fringedwellers without 401ks, without dental

22

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

insurance and little to no health insurance.

We have addiction problems. We have mental health problems. Anthony Bourdain famously compared a restaurant kitchen to a pirate ship.

But we’re a family.

Hilariously, we’ve all been telling each other for years that this industry provides job security like no other because “people have to eat — even in an apocalypse!”I guess we chose the wrong apocalypse.

The local restaurant community is ramping up assistance programs. APRON, the nonprofit organization that has for the last nine years helped cooks and servers with temporary financial relief, is ready to step into the breach, but their coffers will likely be drained quickly. Chef Edward Lee’s The LEE Initiative, in cooperation with Maker’s Mark, is providing to-go meals directly to effected restaurant workers who have lost or been laid off from their jobs.

Please donate to these organizations.

Yes, buy take-out food and gift certificates from local restaurants, but remember, these efforts are to try to ensure that some of those spots will be able to open back up when the social distancing mandate is lifted.

Many restaurants will never open their doors again.

But the laid-off workers need direct help and quickly. A payroll tax holiday doesn’t mean anything to someone who’s not getting a paycheck.

Addiction will rear its ugly head again for those who thought they had beaten it. Don’t ask how an addict will get the money for drugs — they’ll find a way. And the liquor stores are still open. There will be suicides born of financial desperation and despair for the future.

How is it that we’ve allowed the minimum wage to stagnate for over 10 years? How is it that a society is OK with servers making less than $2.50 an hour and having to hustle on the edge of financial ruin for the rest of their livelihood? Why doesn’t everyone have health insurance?

Now all these chickens are coming home to roost at the same time, and the coop can’t hold them all. • Marsha Lynch has worked at many Louisville independent restaurants including Limestone, Jack Fry’s, Jarfi’s, L&N Wine Bar and Bistro, Café Lou Lou, Marketplace @ Theater Square, Fontleroy’s and Harvest.

PHOTO BY RACHEL ROBINSON

ETC.

FOOD & DRINK

SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

HOLING UP

Q: My question is on managing “gray area” intimacies during the pandemic. I have a lover/friend that I’ve been hanging out with — fucking, drinking tea, going on hikes, eating ice cream, watching movies and other activities — for about nine months. He’s 36 and was married for 10 years, and due to that experience he’s been a bit emotionally “boundaried,” but he’s still really sweet and a good communicator. I’m in grad school doing a double masters, so the small amount of time we’ve been spending together has worked well for me. Here’s the issue: He’s also an ER doctor. Do I keep seeing him during this pandemic? I just moved to the city where we both live for my grad program, and he’s my main source for connection, comfort, and support here. Every time I see him, we both feel tremendously less stressed and our connection feels emotionally healthy. I just know he is bound to be at a huge risk for exposure and since he’s not a committed partner, and we don’t live together, I don’t know if he falls within or outside of my physical distancing boundary. It seems like the best thing to do from a logistical perspective is hole up with my cat and not see another soul in person until a vaccine is invented or something, but I don’t know when that will happen.

Physical Distancing Do’s And Don’ts A: “This is really a matter of a personal risk/ benefit calculation,” said Dr. Daniel Summers, a pediatrician who lives and works near Boston. “What PDDAD is willing to accept as a risk may be different from what someone else would.”

And there’s definitely a health benefit to getting together—we are social animals and isolation is bad for us—but your lover is at high risk of infection. And when front-line health care providers get infected, they tend to get sicker than the average person who gets infected, according to CNN, which is something else you need to factor into your risk/benefit calculation. Additionally, does your boyfriend’s workplace—I’m going to call him your boyfriend for clarity’s sake—have the protective gear he needs to minimize his risk of exposure?

“We’re all doing our best to take as many preventive steps to lower our risk of being exposed,” said Dr. Summers, “but there’s still a maddeningly unacceptable shortage of personal protective equipment like masks,

gowns and gloves nationwide. I hope he has sufficient access to these things. But is there a risk he could get exposed to the virus at work? Definitely.”

Dr. Summers lives with his husband and four children and in addition to the precautions he takes at work—where he may be seeing patients with coronavirus (he doesn’t know for sure because tests still aren’t available)—Dr. Summers strips down to his underwear on his front porch of his home when he gets home from work. His clothes go straight into the washing machine, he goes straight into the shower.

“I’m still afraid of bringing it home,” said Dr. Summers. “But with four kids home from school, my husband’s sanity depends on my being present as much as I can. So for me, staying away isn’t an option. That’s not the case for PDDAD. She has to decide whether the un-definable risk of exposure isn’t worth it. Or, alternatively, she can decide the connection she has with him is important enough to her own well being that the risk is worth it. But only she can make that decision for herself.”

If you decide the risk of infection is too great—or if your boyfriend decides the risk of infecting you is too great—you can still be there for each other. You can Skype and Zoom, you can text and sext, you can leave groceries on his porch and wave to him from the sidewalk. But if you decide to keep connecting with each other in person, PDDAD, you should minimize the amount of time you spend moving through the city to get to each other’s places. And that means—emotional boundaries be damned—picking one of your apartments to hole up in together for the duration.

You can follow Dr. Summers on Twitter @ WFKARS and you can read him at Slate’s Outward. • On the Lovecast, love drugs! How therapeutic are they? Listen at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage

ETC.

ASK MINDA HONEY

HOW’S ‘RONA TREATING YOUR ROMANTIC LIFE?

By Minda Honey | AskMindaHoney@leoweekly.com In a relationship or life jam? Send your questions to: AskMindaHoney@leoweekly.com or reach me on Facebook.com/AskMindaHoney MY BABY SISTER texts me that she is happy about the way my friend’s partner is caring for her children while she goes to work every day in the midst of a pandemic.

Twitter is crowded with couples unsure how they’re going to get through this with their partners around 24/7. For many in longdistance relationships, the quickly rolling changes to life as we know it has made the distance feel even longer. A set of friends announce the wedding is off because what’s a wedding without the ones you love? The entire state is falling into deep, enduring love with our governor. And me, well, I’m trying to keep it sexy from a minimum of six feet away.

I turned to social media (because that’s basically the only place we’re all hanging out these days) and asked Louisvillians and beyond about their relationships (or lack there of) under the reign of the coronavirus.

“My incipient not-yet-my-boyfriend person was with me when the self-quarantine mandates came down in NY... So, we quarantined together. We made CANDLES. We hadn’t had the Exclusivity Chat before, but haha now we literally can’t see anybody else.”

—Alison “Welp. After eight months of a long-distance relationship my boo has temporarily moved in because we don’t want to be apart in this time. We are now four people in a 950-square-feet home. I am basically home schooling two kids — they are helping. And they are trying to complete their thesis while I work full time [remote online… basically slammed right now]. How do we keep it sexy now that we are basically all in each other’s faces every moment?”

—J.P. “How is this — pandemic imposed self-quarantine — the first moment in my life that I have given myself permission to selfishly and unapologetically center my own needs? Without the filter of work, a partner, family, etc as a distraction, I instead get to check in on me — Do I need food?

How much? What do I want to eat? Is it time

for a boost of sunshine? I need a laugh... maybe I’ll do a silly workout video. I need to vent...maybe I’ll get some friends online for a call. I’m 3 years out from my last serious relationship and while the world is scary and uncertain and completely upside down it feels so good to know I’ve got my own back.”

—K.S.S. “My partner lives about 40-minutes away from me, and he is the primary driver (since I don’t own a vehicle). Due to me working from home, I can stay with him longer because I don’t have to worry about going into work on Monday. I think it’s made it easier for him too because he can take a break from the frequent back-and-forth driving. Other than that, I don’t think it’s impacted our relationship that much - we’re both introverts and homebodies.”

—K.M. “I’ve been in a long-distance relationship for just over a year — bf lives in Oregon, me here. I’m a single mom, and my parents have been my childcare, and they had to go into isolation because of this. So, my boyfriend, without hesitation, without question, flew in a few days ago to help me indefinitely. I have felt lucky he was in my life since the day I met him, but now? It’s hard for me to explain how much it means to me.”

—Megan P. “I don’t know if this is interesting enough but here it is. No names, please. (not that I’m saying anything offensive!)

OK, so I had a first date about a week before COVID-19 assumed its place at the top of our timelines and then our lives. It was a fine date — it was fun. We had mutual friends so things flowed, it might have led to one more but also maybe not. People are busy, dating is chill.

But then the world started to turn upside down, and my friends started to lose their jobs, and businesses started to close, and events were canceled. And, obviously, this person and I had plenty to talk about. And the more we talked, and the scarier things became, the more real those conversations became. Real, but also silly?! Laughing about dumb TV became just as important and intimate as talking about hopes and

dreams and fears.

(Ugh, I’m grossing myself out.) Because it’s not like we’re madly in love! This isn’t a ride-or-die, move-in and hunker down in a love nest while the dog side-eyes us situation. (Yet.) It feels kind of silly to be thinking about a crush! When we should have our first sleepover? And, wow, when was the last time I was this emotionally honest with someone?!’

Every day, my strong, single side (who proudly spent Thanksgiving alone) disapproves of looking forward to seeing this person. That mean voice (who is really just scared) is all, ‘Is this just some emotional crutch?! You really need that? Is there even anything there?’

But I’m old enough to know when there is a special connection. And I’m self-aware enough to know when I’m just standing in my own way.

Wait. What Was The Question, Minda?!

Oh, right. ‘What’s going in your love life?’

The still-early days of this global crisis have shown me that some things matter a lot more than I thought, and other things (old hangups, my inbox, a job title) just don’t.

Shuffle those priorities around and what rises to the top may surprise you.”

—Anonymous “We recently made the decision to postpone our Louisville-based wedding (we moved to Austin last year) because we knew that a wedding isn’t really a wedding if you can’t hug, kiss, or dance with anyone that attends the event. My fiancée and I have been together for 8 years now, we’re in our late 30s, and we’re not traditional or religious, so all of the reasons that many other people are in a rush to get married don’t really affect us. Ultimately, the wedding is just a big party for our friends and family, many of whom live out of town and we don’t get to see very often. If those people can’t travel, if our older and more precious relatives are at greater risk, and if we can’t even spend quality time together, then what’s the point?

While postponing a wedding is inconvenient, for us, it’s only that. We chose to work with vendors like Story Louisville, Biscuit Belly, and Gretchen Bell Photography because we know and love the people there, and naturally all of them have been more than accommodating of our need to

postpone. I’m much more concerned for the effects that the virus will have on my employees and other people in the service and healthcare sectors than I am about throwing a big party.

While having a wedding can be a symbolic gesture of your love and commitment to another person, postponing your wedding together is a weirdly practical reminder that you chose the right person to begin with and that you can handle the curveballs that life will throw your way.”

—Z.P. And from Instagram: “Giving me too much time to e-converse and realize I just wanna be friends with 95% [of them].”

“I was talking to this married dude while in NOLA. And we were going to hookup, but then I remembered the social distancing thing and I saved a marriage that night lol.”

“Allllll the sexting.”

“We have years together of not leaving the house � Weekend breakfast is DoorDash now, tho.”

“Forces me to flirt from a distance.

Sober.”

“Being a lonely, horny teen in the ‘00s prepared me perfectly for this time of isolation. A/S/L, babyyyyyy!”

“Lol. I’m thirst trapping on Tinder tryna get ppl to take seclusion seriously.”

“Nothing that 2020 wasn’t already doing.”

“It’s bringing us even closer! More intimacy <3 <3 <3” “We got through the stress crankiness and are unified with one goal: financial strength.” •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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ETC.

109

110

102

103

111

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

DOWN 1 “Waste not, want not,” e.g.

2 It has a button in the middle 3 Show to be untrue 4 Reason that some students struggle in school, for short 5 “____ were you …”

6 Joint effort, slangily 7 Requiring difficult pedaling, say 8 Exclusive 9 Phone 10 Pseudonymously 11 Manny’s last name on “Modern Family” 12 Slip through 13 “Of course!”

14 Bill padding 15 Time out?

16 Stuffed and deep-fried rice balls, in Italian cuisine 17 Name-tag holders 18 Political system with a paramount leader 24 Vocal quintet?

25 More or less 30 Work well together 34 Translation of the French “vivre” or German “leben” 35 Rested 36 World capital settled by Vikings circa the ninth century 38 Scourge 39 Apt rhyme for “constrain” 40 Martin Sheen’s real first name 41 Name of seven Danish kings 42 “Le ____,” Matisse work that hung upside down at the Museum of Modern Art for 47 days 43 Neglect 44 Acts dramatically 45 Bakery/cafe chain 50 Like a bowl 51 Cheat, informally 53 Refusing to answer directly

A D A G E

LEGAL NOTICE

97 101

115

123 Pseudoscientific subj.

124 Charon’s river

S N E A G K E B L Y

114

A B O U T

93

100 108

U P H I L L

113

92 96

107

S H A R D

95

106

87

91

99

E U C H R E

94

86

90

D I S U S E

81

85 89

112

77

80

84

105

76

C A L C O R A H M A N I A N Y E C A F B I R D A N D O T I S M E A X E S U E V O D E W T O R E O U S T O T O O N

71 75

E V A S I V E

70

63

R E N O I R

69 74

88

104

62

B B A E E D L L H L I D Y E B E P A M A N O N E T E E R R S A U S T I C

61

79

98

58

F E D E X

83

53 57

73 78

65

42

47 52

68

64

37 41

56

67

72

82

36

P E R C Y

60

51

18

S C A N T

59

50

17

M O O S

49 55

16

31

40

46

54

66

30

35 39

48

15

22

34

45

14

26 29

38 44

13

A P H O A R K D U E B R L I I C N H R E A S D I D O W S E E Y B E P

33

12

25 28

32

11

21

24

27

43

10

D I Y E R S

20

23

9

H A N K I E

8

S C A D O A K E L L A L E L G R A R R E D E A P O I M O N O S E N E M N D E E D N O R E D P A T E N T S T O U C S R S T O H O R D O P E P S Y

7

G N O C C H I

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 25, 2020

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6

A W E E B I T

24

5

I C F O A I L E L I T A O O B U L I C R V O D E N A C W A T E V I N E S T H T O O R T R E R T A E Y

ACROSS 1 Palindromic band with the palindromic song title “SOS” 5 Place for an oxygen tent, for short 8 A whole bunch 13 High-level H.S. math class 19 Exploit 20 Dandy 21 Like many barrels 22 “Yay!” 23 Cheer for beer on campus?

26 Milan-based fashion brand 27 Skate effortlessly 28 Put down in print 29 Part of a strip 31 West of Chicago 32 Discerning judgment 33 Author Calvino 35 Played the fall guy?

37 Half-____ (rhyming order) 38 Hoot at an out-of-focus nature photograph?

43 Chicago university 46 Small three-legged table 47 Two-time best actor, 1954 and 1972 48 “____ Old Cowhand” (Bing Crosby hit) 49 Put away 52 “If you ask me,” briefly 53 Something populists revile 54 Antsy feeling when one is out of cellphone range?

59 Sport ____ 60 One of the dames in 2018’s “Tea With the Dames” 61 Like the lion slain by Hercules 62 Cans 66 “Tilted Arc” sculptor Richard 68 Jackie on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 70 Places to sleep 71 Spanish-omelet ingredient 72 Isaac’s firstborn 73 Fought 75 Bête ____ 77 Counterpart of frost 78 Where a demanding dockworker gets supplies?

82 Snack item with a salient anagram?

85 Word that’s its own synonym in reverse 86 Symbol of danger or anger 87 Boot 88 Discriminating against elders 89 They’ve got talent 92 “Ditto!”

94 Landing in Rotterdam?

98 Curry or Rice 99 Snack items with their name on the top and bottom 100 Result of union negotiations, often 101 Lotion-bottle abbr.

104 Native seal hunter 107 Part of a college application, informally 108 Unfeeling 110 Roaster or toaster 112 It’s not legal 114 Piano that plays only a certain three notes?

117 Slips 118 “Fingers crossed!”

119 Wrath 120 A long time ago 121 Willie Mays phrase 122 A little tight

4

U T A H

No. 0322

3

L E T M E T R Y

BY NANCY STARK ANDWILL NEDIGER / EDITED BYWILL SHORTZ

2

A G U I L E R A

READY, SET ...

GETS LOW!

1

S A D T A L E S

The New York Times Magazine Crossword

55 Suggested intake level, for short 56 Glass fragment 57 Correct 58 “Two Sisters” or “Two Young Girls at the Piano” 63 Struck 64 Exceedingly 65 Site of a 1976 South African uprising 67 Quaintly countrified 69 Virtual animals in an early 2000s fad 71 “____ Got the Whole World in His Hands” 73 Attended 74 Alternative to a snake 76 They catch waves 79 Nickname on “The Addams Family” 80 Shakespeare’s “You, too?”

81 Bugs Bunny, e.g.

82 Sob stories 83 Christina of pop 84 “Here, move over” 89 Not much at all 90 Trattoria dumplings 91 New England fish 93 Dork 95 “Catch-22” pilot 96 Cloth that may get a lot of tears 97 Handy types 101 Meager 102 Walker ____, 1962 National Book Award winner 103 Shipping option 105 Sundance state 106 Place for un béret 108 Concessions 109 It beats a deuce 111 Stock sounds 113 Bit of sun 115 Short flight 116 Informal affirmative

Atwood Automotive and Marine Inc, 10710 Bluegrass Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40299, Second Address: Atwood Automotive and Marine Inc, PO Box 99097, Louisville, KY 40269 502-377-4351 has the following mechanics lien to run to obtain title of a 2011 Ford Van, Vin# is 1FTNE1EW9BDB06081, Owner Dynamic Leasing Inc, 8108 Krauss Blvd Suite 110, Tampa, Florida 33619, Unless owner or lien holder objects in written form within 14 days after the last publication of this notice.

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REAL ESTATE

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PUBLIC NOTICE – CRAN_ RTNK_KYJEF_034 AT&T Mobility, LLC is proposing to construct a new 33-foot metal pole at 706 Oxmoor Woods Parkway, Hurstbourne, Jefferson County, KY. Public comments regarding the potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30-days from the date of this publication to: Maggie Klejbuk – CBRE, 70 West Red Oak Lane, White Plains, NY 10604, whiteplainsculturalresources@cbre.com or (914) 694-9600.

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