Overview

Kentucky Curiosities is your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things the Bluegrass State has to offer. For this completely revised and updated edition, best-selling author and barbecue connoiseur Vince Staten and journalist Liz Baldi have combed Kentucky once again for one-of-a-kind gems that make their home state truly unique.You'll pucker up to a pig, witness the creation of the world's largest ham biscuit (all 4,000 pounds of it), and cheer on the underpig at the Trigg County Country Ham Festival.You'll explore the world's largest cave system, purchase your very own 5-foot tall cement rooster, and take in a saloon show at Cave City, a.k.a. Tacky Town, USA. One day a year Kentucky is the most famous state in the union. That's Kentucky Derby Day, the first Saturday in May when the annual Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs. On that day, Kentucky is the home to fast horses, beautiful women, and great whiskey. For the other 364 days it is home to fast women, beautiful horses, and people recovering from too much whiskey. This duality -- hey, we're important today; but tomorrow we're nothing -- is a perfect reflection of a state of great contrasts. Kentucky is the home of the most famous people in the world, Muhammad Ali. It is also the home of the most infamous, Charles Manson (his boyhood home is in Ashland --unmarked, of course). Novelist Robert Penn Warren was a Kentuckian, as was gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Illinois may have Land of Lincoln on its license plates, but Kentucky was where Honest Abe was born. He just moved away rather quickly. These contrasts extend down to our counties: you can't buy adrink in Bourbon County (it's against the law to sell alchohol there) but you can in Christian County. Kentucky is one giant curiosity.

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A syndicated columnist and author of ten books, including Unauthorized America: A Travel Guide to the Places the Chamber of Commerce Won't Tell You About (HarperCollins, 1990), Vince Staten has appeared on such media as Late Night with David Letterman, Dateline NBC, Today on NBC, and NPR's Morning Edition. His varied career encompasses writing, lecturing, teaching, and co-owning Vince Staten's Old Time Barbecue in downtown Prospect, Kentucky. Reporter Liz Baldi has written for Kentucky Monthly and other publications.

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