Owensboro Lands NBA Basketball team

Basketball in Kentucky is huge, and its about to get even huger.

The Curmudgeon has learned through his inside sources that a press conference will be held at 6:00 p.m. today to announce the relocation of a current NBA team to Owensboro.

Details are very sketchy and apparently this deal is moving through very quickly but the Curmudgeon has interviewed a person very close to the situation (that person's identity will not be revealed in order to protect him/her).

As part of the downtown devlopment, a new stadium will be built to house the team and the team will begin play in Owensboro at the start of the 2012 season.

"The team has been struggling financially in the market they are currently in and were looking to relocate," states the source "the team looked at the success the Oklahoma group has had and decided to give a smaller market with less competition a shot".

Kentucky is known for having a very rabid basketball fanbase. The team looked at the bigger cities, Louisville and Lexington, but did not want to compete with the local college teams (the Cardinals and Wildcats).

"Marketing this team in a town such as Owensboro is a completely new way of thinking for the NBA. With the current recession, competition for what little entertainment dollars there are floating around is cut-throat. We believe we are going to tap into an untouched market with strong demand. The current redevelopment of Owensboro's downtown area and plans already in place for a new arena really was perfect timing for this deal."

While Owensboro seems like an extremely small population to support such a major-league team, my source believes the team will draw fans from surrounding cities like Evansville and Bowling Green. "When you look at the actual market size that the team will be drawing their fans from, it is comparable to cities like Sacramento, CA and Oklahoma."

The Curmudgeon pressed to learn which team was involved with the move but that piece of information is being kept tightly controlled. "The current owner, who is moving the team and not selling, wants to be able to personally address staff and players before they hear from other sources."

It looks like Owensboro may be taking its first steps towards the big time and oh yeah. . .APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Them Wacky Tobacky boys are at it again

From the Louisville Courier-Journal (boy I sure would like to link to the local story in Messenger-Inquirer but their sites requires a subscription)

HIV inhibitor grown in tobacco plants

But yesterday, Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center announced that one of its scientists had used Kentucky tobacco plants to cheaply grow a potent, protein-based drug that inhibits HIV.

If clinical studies prove successful, the product, likely a preventive gel, could be on shelves around the world as early as 2015, providing a crucial method of reducing new HIV infections in places such as sub-Saharan Africa, according to Kenneth Palmer, who conducted the study.

"There's a big need for an effective, female-controlled intervention to protect from HIV," said Palmer, a senior University of Louisville scientist.

This is by far the biggest results to come from the Owensboro Cancer Research Program. The research behind this story was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (article here) and the research has picked up a good amount of attention from the science community and has been commented on in Nature (article here). For those of you not playing along at home the Proceedings of the National Academy and Nature are two of the top five journals to publish research in. This is the type of attention that top-notch research from the big institutions get and the little ole' labs up at the hospital are doing it. Maybe there is something to this plant-made pharmaceutical stuff.

Bonus points go to the authors for making the research open access, meaning you don't need a subscription to see the article.

Three Strikes and this weekend is over!

Yeah, the curmudgeon is in a horrible mood. In the rollercoaster of life, I am mid-loop. Unfortunately, its those little details that really get on my nerves right now and this weekend's adventures didn't help too much. I kind of changed up my weekend routine a little and visited some places that I haven't been to in a while and I realized why.

First off - Red Lobster - you didn't bring me my baked potato with my meal. You said they were behind and that it would come. I finished my meal, my plate was taken away, and I didn't get my baked potato or offered an alternate. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BEG FOR FOOD THAT I ORDERED. Your saving grace - those buttered biscuits.

Maloney's Rocca Bar - decent service, thats after you wait 20 minutes for the waitress to notice you have joined a table that already has drinks. Sorry, but there are too many other bars out there like you. I will not put forth the effort to make it to your establishment if your wait service can't put for a little extra effort themselves.

The Blind Parrot - Wow! Talk about a nosedive! When the Parrot first opened, it used to be a decent little place to go for a few drinks, maybe to enjoy the outside patio, maybe throw some cornhole. The crowd was a decent lot, not to old, not to young, mainly the young professional friday-after-five type. The dance floor was usually occupied with only one or two cougars (that a lady 40 and above looking for a younger male), can't say that I joined them in dancing but there was always the opportunity.

Fast forward to this weekend. I was met at the door by "Big Daddy" the bouncer demanding three dollars for a cover charge. When I got into the bar, I immediately could tell this wasn't the old blind parrot. The best way to describe the place and its clientele was like a strip joint without the nakedness. I really felt out of place having a college degree and my hat on straight. The old DJ with his computer full of mp3's pumping out the cougar enticing tunes had been replaced by a real (wannabe) DJ with his two turntables and thankfully no microphone. In addition, I guess the Fire Marshal had already gone to bed for the night because there was no way that place should have had that many people in it. Needless to say, I won't be going back anytime soon.

One shining point to the weekend was the performance of those HILLTOPPERS. Sure, they lost in the second round to Gonzaga, but they put forth one hell of an effort in both games and proved they could play with the best of them. If things had gone just a little differently, they could have been in the sweet sixteen two years in a row. We'll see you next year in the final four!

Now That's Bluegrass - Iron Horse!

I warned you earlier, my taste in bluegrass music is a bit eccentric. I think this selection may ease you into my world with a little less shock. Don't worry, the real good stuff.

I actually ran across this band on iTunes and have since dug around a little on youtube and their website.

Iron Horse Bluegrass is a group that was formed back in 2000 out of the Muscle Shoals area and specialize in covering heavy metal and rock tunes, bluegrass style. They have released several CDs covering groups such as Metallica, Guns & Roses, and Ozzy Osbourne. It appears that they do a little touring mainly in the Alabama and North Carolina area. So, sit on down and have you a listen to this:

The farmers are getting itchy

Does the person you are talking to seem to shift around in his seat alot lately? Does the sound of a diesel engine make them look quickly out the window? Does your conversation about the NCAA tournament suddenly shift to fertilizer prices? Chances are, you are talking to a farmer.

Just a week or so from now, a significant chunk of the population here in Daviess county will disappear, unreachable by phone or text, not seen in the local restaurants or wal-marts. No, aliens haven't performed a mass abduction, the farmers are going to the fields.

Yep, it's looking more and more like spring around here and the locals farmers are going stir crazy just waiting to get into the fields. The ground is still a little spungy but the fertilizer spreaders have been running continuously and the spra-coupes have come out of winter hibernation. Tobacco plants are being seeded in greenhouses (they start their lives in greenhouses to get started before being transplanted to the fields). It won't be long, maybe a week or so, until the first corn crops are planted around here.

Its always fun this time of year to poke a little fun at the local farmers. Just tell one that a neighbor down the road has already started planting on the back forty. The farmer will inevitably spout off something about it being to early or too wet or something, but you can see the steam coming from their ears because they aren't the first and you can see the wheels turning as they try to figure out if they have some ground dry enough to get started on. Of course, you hear every year of that one farmer who pulls his planter up and down the road with no real intentions of doing anything just to get his neighbors riled up.

Just being around these guys even makes me a little anxious this time of year. I am not a farmer nor in any way connected with traditional agriculture, but I do get that urge to just do something. Usually, I put in a few weeks of extra-long hours at work (thats partially why the blog posts haven't been so forthcoming). Its also when I seem to get itchy to move on to greener pastures job-wise, for example, see exhibit A.

Anyways, its always refreshing for me to see the tractors moving up and down the road, it means winter is over. It also means being stuck behind a vehicle doing 10mph on a 55mph stretch of highway.

Now for the curmudgeon to put on his straw hat and give the farm report:

Talk amongst the farmers seems to be that this year will be a struggle to make a profit. Inputs, seed, fertilizer, etc. . .are still priced high while grain prices are sinking due to the economy. Of course, anytime you talk to a farmer they are having a hard time making any money, but they all seem to live pretty comfortably.

The downtown development master plan is having an effect on farmers too. All those tractors and equipment have to be insured, and if you'll remember correctly, the city and county just doubled the tax they put on this insurance in order to fund bonds for the downtown project.

A 92.5 acre tract of good-dirt, non-flooding, farmland just outside the city limits (between Keller Road and Fisher Road for those playing along at home) sold at auction for $9400 an acre just last week. Apparently, the new owners plan on planting an orchard full of trees growing money.

And thats the curmudgeon farm report for today, tune in next time. . .

How 'bout them Hilltoppers - part 2

Hey all you wildkitten fans, it's okay, there's plenty of room on the bandwagon, you can join in.

For those of you who don't follow Hilltopper basketball, yes, those beloved Hilltoppers made it to the big dance and will face Illinois in the first round.

In honor of this event, I present to you a couple of clips (that I didn't make) of Big Red, the Hilltopper mascot hanging around campus.

Spring shows it's face (finally)

We've (finally) had some good weather. The past week or so has seen highs in the 60's and 70's. Of course, we've had a few thunderstorms to go along with it. It looks like spring will go back into hiding later in the week but the warm days we've had have been much appreciated. The farmers around here, of course, are about to crawl out of their skin waiting to get into their fields but thats another story.

The nice weather has put the Curmudgeon in a thankful mood. I've got to be thankful that my job is pretty secure. With the economy going into the tank, I don't think I could be in a more secure setting work-wise. Thankfully, this depression (yes I'm calling it a depression) has not caught up yet with my workplace. As a matter of fact, while the world has been going to hell-in-a-handbasket, the past three years has been the most productive time of my life. This past year, I've had more work than I knew what to do with and to be honest, I was fast approaching burn-out, but with the vacation and forcing myself to slow down, the burn-out has been averted for now. The next few months look to be just as busy if not busier (there is even a slight possibility of the project I'm working on going into warp speed, meaning I get crazy busy). Thats not a bad place to be.

Of course, with all this going on, I have put together a pretty impressive little package of experience and there are some other pastures out there that are looking pretty green. Yes, there are actually still some green pastures out there, at least in the industry I work in. If I wasn't afraid that we were on the fast track to revisit the stone age, I wouldn't be so concerned about trying to jump the fence. So, here I stand with a secure job but one I think I am quickly outgrowing. Do I stay put and ride this depression out, or do I try and make the jump?