Ready for your final free weekend before football season? There’s plenty to do, starting with the Flugtag experience down at the Waterfront, where 40 groups will push their crafts off the edge of a 22-foot high platform. If history is any indication, most will promptly dive into the Ohio River, like those paper airplanes you used to try to fly across the room during Algebra class.
For details, check out last week’s Rusty Satellite Show podcast here with Bill DeReamer. Which is also a place to hear about Saturday’s big party on Preston, the Seven Sense Festival, featuring 40 bands, countless food trucks and opportunities to drink various types of alcohol.
However, Paula informs me that I won’t be doing any of that, because she’s got something cooked up for my birthday, which is Sunday. I’m not sure what’s in store, but I love a good surprise. And happy birthday to a bunch of ex-Rusty guests celebrating this week, including my Pike buddy and Oldham County attorney Steve Emery, Eye Care Institute chief Mark Prussian, and UK sports radio guy Matt Jones, who it turns out shares my birthday. Next week we’ll celebrate my EatDrinkTalk partner Steve Coomes b-day on Sept.1.
September 1, of course, is the opener at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium as Bobby Petrino’s bunch takes on Charlotte, the season’s designated patsy. Things get real Sept. 17 when Florida State comes to town. The Seminoles are being featured in one of those sports reality shows on Showtime, which is certain to highlight the trip to the ‘Ville. The consensus of all the sports talk radio folks in town is that the Cards should win 9 or 10 games, with the key contests against Florida State, Clemson and Houston, while down the road in Lexington, the optimists see a six-win season and bowl game in their future.
OK – have you been wondering what’s up with Melissa Swan in the four months since she left the anchor chair at WHAS-TV. While I know most of you don’t watch the late news any more, Swan was a staple for three decades and on this week’s Rusty show, talks about adjusting to not having that schedule, the nickname she earned at the station (Little General) and the path she is taking to build a second career.
You can come hear her in person at the Breakfast of Champions event Sept. 13 at the University Club.
I also visited with Stephanie Clements. If you’re in a certain circle of folks, you’ve gotten lots of invitations to networking functions, or your social media has lit up with news about the Homeowner’s Resource Guide. Stephanie has built a significant business in just 3 years, and talks about that with me. Here it is:
A trio of robberies at local eateries — Comfy Cow, Seafood Lady and Monkey Wrench — got Steve Coomes and I talking about the brazen nature of the crimes and what might be behind it (drugs) on the latest EatDrinkTalk.net podcast. Steve went to French Lick to talk with master distiller Alan Bishop about new products that are on the way. And I spent a lively hour with Stacie Bale and Kate Lewison over at the Bank Street Brewhouse in New Albany, where they make their own beer and even grow hops along an outside wall.
Speaking of crime, the C-J checked in on the Angel Program in Jtown, where the Mayor and Police Department have copied a program that was successful in Boston that allows addicts to come to the police station and get treatment, not jail, right away. It started Aug. 1, and thus far seven individuals have taken advantage of it.
Another highlight of my week occurred in Jtown, where Wild Turkey distiller and legend Jimmy Russell spoke at the Gaslight Festival Kickoff Luncheon. Russell gets and deserves a ton of respect for his knowledge and expertise in all things bourbon, and for making friends with and hiring the brand’s new creative director, actor Matthew McConaughey. Here’s my piece on EDT.
On the Rusty show, I mentioned the success of my experience as an Uber/Lyft driver. This week, I received a nice bonus for nearly a year’s worth of referrals on Lyft. By using this offer code — RUSTYSATELLITE — at this link, you can get $50 in free rides, and you might even get me as your driver. This week’s highlight was picking up Metro Councilman-elect Brandon Coan and his wife Summer Auerbach, both former Rusty show guests, for a ride to the airport.
Finally, I’m aware that you’re probably not interested, but in the first week of bowling, and my first time at Ten Pin since my November ankle surgery, I was able to put up a 233 game, to the amazement of my teammates.
