By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Feb 21, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET Forgive the not-so-humble brag, but I’ve lived a charmed, Forrest-Gumpian existence, having rubbed shoulders with Presidents, movie stars, and my full share of the rich and famous types so adored by our celebrity-worshipping culture. I’ve also endured many extraordinarily stressful situations, ranging from national TV interviews to intense world poker tournaments.
But when I ran into my childhood hero this afternoon, I immediately regressed into a bumbling, stumbling pre-teen.
Jack “Goose” Givens was the star player on my favorite sports team, the 1977-78 national champion University of Kentucky Wildcats. In his final 40 minutes in a blue and white uniform, Goose scored a near-record 41 points to clinch the NCAA championship, forever sealing him in this then-10-year-old’s mind as the greatest human to walk the earth.
Just this afternoon, I ran into Givens in front of a Lexington restaurant. “Goose?” I asked. He warmly smiled. I can’t remember anything else I said, although I seem to recall a few mutterings about his picture still being on my wall, forever sealing me in his mind as a deranged stalker.
In the wake of recent scandals involving sports icons Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, Ray Lewis, and now Oscar Pistorius, there’ve been plenty of agonized news stories like this and this that highlight the danger of placing too much faith and confidence in our near-worship of talented athletes, who too often fall far short of the idealized vision we have of their character and integrity.
But in my sophomoric glee in my brief encounter today with my own childhood hero, I was reminded of how important a role sports plays in our own sense of innocence, even for a cynical, middle-age recovering politician. In an otherwise hectic, stressful day, I was transported to a special time in my life, one that I shared closely with my beloved late father, when superheroes did exist, and magic was possible. And I will endure all of the stories of steroids and sexual escapades, if but just for a few more brief moments of that special brand of nostalgia for myself, my daughters and their children.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Feb 21, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET  If next Pope is Italian, it will be the first time ever that someone of Italian descent has held all three of the most coveted and rarified job titles in the world.
1) Pope (Vatican)
2) University of KY basketball coach
3) University of Louisville basketball coach.
Both Calipari and Pitino deny interest in new post and say they are focusing on basketball for now and not interested in trying to “move up” again after NBA experiences.
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Feb 21, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET CLICK HERE to sign up for The Recovering Politician’s KY Political Brief, a FREE daily email with links to all of the latest McConnell/Judd news.
Go to AshleyJudd.com and click here to sign up for Ashley’s email list, and click here to join Team Mitch.
It looks like the potential field for the 2014 U.S. Senate race might be a bit more crowded than previously expected.
Today’s news is the possible entry of Matt Bevin in the GOP primary. Check out this excerpt of the today’s issue of The Recovering Politician‘s KY Political Brief.
And be sure to sign up for the FREE email with all of Kentucky’s latest political developments delivered first thing every weekday morning to your inbox:
| MCCONNELL 2014 — Rand Paul reticent about potential Tea Party challenger to McConnell – WFPL’s Phillip Bailey – “Speaking in downtown Louisville on Wednesday, Paul says he has been following news reports about the race but hasn’t had a chance to speak with Bevin directly. “I haven’t had any real discussions with him or others about it other than to say I’ve heard the same rumors,” says Paul. “I’ve met him before and I’m pretty sure he’s a supporter of mine.” … Paul told reporters he is backing McConnell’s re-election bid, but when asked why Tea Party activists in Louisville and across the state haven’t followed suit, Kentucky’s junior senator was stumped. “You know, I don’t know if I have an answer really,” he says.” [WFPL]
—Who is potential McConnell challenger Matt Bevin? [Business First Louisville]
—Challenger must battle for Tea Party support to face off with McConnell [The Hill]
WILL JUDD RUN? — Ashley Judd meets with DSCC – POLITICO – “Actress Ashley Judd privately met with officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington earlier this week, as she continues to weigh whether to mount a Senate run against Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, according to two sources familiar with the session. According to one person familiar with the matter, Tuesday’s meeting marked Judd’s first formal one with officials at the DSCC, which coordinates strategy, recruits and fundraises on behalf of Senate Democratic candidates. DSCC officials refused to comment, saying they would not discuss candidate recruitment.” [POLITICO] |
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By Josh Bowen, on Thu Feb 21, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET I have driven over 300,000 miles in the last 6 years. It wasn’t until recently I started to feel the extent it was having on my body. I woke up one morning and my hip was killing me and my shoulder ached, I just thought it was from hard workouts. Possibly, but when I evaluated the situation I realized I am in the most amount of pain when I drive a lot of miles in a short amount of time. Having the knowledge of how the body works, I can understand and appreciate the havoc sitting can have on one’s body.
The fact is MOST jobs are now sedentary jobs, where people; sit at a computer, sit in meetings, sit in a car or airplane and basically sit on the rear end all day. I realize this is part of it, everything in this world has become technologically advanced where people are more sedentary in the work place than ever before. That’s ok. No, really it is, because I am going to show you how to overcome this (more on that later).
Here is a stat for you that you may want to sit down for: According to a poll of nearly 6,300 people by the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, it’s likely that you spend a stunning 56 hours a week sitting on your butt- staring a computer working or watching TV trying to think about work. That is a lot of time in one position. Let me tell you how much that effects your body.
 Let’s start with the lower half first, when you sit your hip flexors and hamstrings become shorten (not a good thing). This can lead to improper movement patterns leading to pain in various regions of the body. Also, since you are planted on your butt, your body sees no use for your glutes or your core musculature so they become lengthen or turned off. This is also, not a good thing. Your glutes act as the powerhouse of the low body allowing you to generate the most amount of power. If you have faulty glutes the lower back must pick of the slack.Everyone with lower back pain raise their hand! Is this starting to make sense? I hope so. So the technical version of the story is lower cross syndrome, whereas your hip flexors and hamstrings become shorten and your glutes and core musculature become lengthen and nonexistent. This contributes to knee pain, back pain, neck pain and many other types of “pain.” “JB, all from sitting??” YES!
Now, let me complicate the situation a little more. You decide to workout and you go to the gym and you find your favorite 5 machines. What do those machines have in common, you have to sit! Oh no! What good does that do? Sure your chest and arm muscles may look tone, but you still have pain in your lower back. Not a good trade off if you ask me. But are you asking me? I hope so, here are some tips to not sit so much and correct some of our imbalances.
Read the rest of…
Josh Bowen: A Seated World
By Jeff Smith, on Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET Matt Yglesias nails it: The US budget debate isn’t about deficits, but about open-ended commitment to pay seniors’ health care costs. [Slate]
By Garrett Renfro, RP Staff, on Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET The Politics of Food
In the last week one of the biggest stories in the business world, and likely at John Kerry’s house, has been the acquisition of the H.J. Heinz brand by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital. The deal has prompted further speculation regarding industry consolidation. [WSJ]
The Heinz deal has spurred increased interest of a decidedly different kind for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI is now investigating the possibility of illegal trading resulting from the $23 Billion dollar deal. [NYT]
Another global brand has been drawn into the horse meat scandal which has been unfolding in Europe over the last month. Nestlé is the latest well-known purveyor to find itself playing damage control after two of its products, labeled as beef based, were found to contain horse meat.[NYT]
According to an article by Tom Philpott, corn fields are taking over grassland at a staggering rate, nearly 2 Million acres in 5 years. The expansion of “King Corn’s” domain has caused some, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture to question whether our nation’s corn and soybean dominated agricultural economy can long endure rising temperatures. In the article is a link to the Department of Agriculture report. [MJ]
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Fraud alert
I am not a regular shopper at Whole Foods Market.
I like going there and feel better about myself when I do. But it strikes me as a sort of community among its regular shoppers—health conscious and committed to a lifestyle replete with Vegan dieters and Yoga instructors.
I just don’t feel like I fit in there and suspect they sense a fraud. Or at least a Kroger shopper who missed the turn for Kroger and is in too big a hurry to turn around.
It’s a little confusing for me and a little daunting too.
I experience the same sensation when I am at a hardware store. Just looking at my hands you can tell I have never been asked by a neighbor if they could borrow some of my tools. That would be a pointless and rude and embarrassing to me. Like asking the neighbor whose house is in foreclosure if you can borrow $20. Just a common sense thing it never occurs to anyone ever to do in any neighborhood I have ever lives in.
So bracing with my insecurities about neither being ever asked for direction to Rainbow Blossom, I confidently strode into Whole Foods Market.
So far, so good. No one seems to be whispering “Who is that man who looks like he still buys Wonder Bread and what is he doing here?”
No one asked me if I was lost and needed directions to the Taco Bell at the other end of the shopping mall.
I tried to look healthy and fit in. I mussed my hair and looked earnestly at a magazine featuring simple, austere, healthful living practices.
I noticed a lot of unhealthy and weak looking people shopping and wasn’t sure if they were here to change the way they look or if their pallid complexions were the result of too many glasses of strained carrot juice.
I picked out a low calorie dinner that I would love to have someone I know walk by and see me eating. And say, “John, I didn’t know you were into….” And I could smile –while chewing (healthy food is really easy to chew so this isn’t difficutl or rude to do—and give them an affirming nod that says “Oh yeah. I am a regular.” But not having to say it since that would be a lie.
Nobody I knew saw me and now it was time to leave.
I put a serious concentrated look on my face with just a hint of deprivation that sent the message, “I may have just eaten but I am nowhere near full. And I only pretended to enjoy those things that looked like au gratin potatoes but tasted like something that someone tried to make look like au gratin potatoes otherwise no one would ever buy them because they taste like the drained off juice from real au gratin potatoes but without the cheese or potatoes.”
In other words, I was fitting in.
Until I walked out the store exit and while standing in the alcove bent down to look at the free magazine section. After thumbing through a publication with pictures of the health food culture equivalent of really, really smart nerdy looking people. Except instead of having the excuse of having a stratospheric IQ or two PHds from MIT, they were just really fanatical about health food. And remote from me.
So I looked around to make sure no one was looking, grabbed the gigantic glossy and gaudy issue of NFocus magazine and quickly folded it under my arm and walked rapidly to my car. Hoping to escape before the Whole Foods fraud alarm went off or any of my newfound Whole Foods Market compatriots got my license plate.
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET CLICK HERE to sign up for The Recovering Politician’s KY Political Brief, a FREE daily email with links to all of the latest McConnell/Judd news.
Go to AshleyJudd.com and click here to sign up for Ashley’s email list, and click here to join Team Mitch.
Ashley Judd versus Mitch McConnell?
Here’s today’s latest news on potentially the hottest race in the 2014 cycle from The Recovering Politician‘s KY Political Brief:
| MCCONNELL 2014 — Confirmation: Matthew Bevin considering GOP primary run against Sen. McConnell, asks for feedback – Insider Louisville – Quoting Bevin spokesperson: “As a point of clarification, Matt has made no final decision with respect to this race. He has, however, met in recent weeks with various individuals and groups who have expressed their frustration with their current representation in Washington, D.C. and have encouraged him to consider entering the race. … As a married father of nine, active businessman and long time resident, Matt, like many Kentuckians, wants to ensure that his children’s futures are as bright as his were as a boy. To that end, he has always been open to listening to a wide range of ideas for charting a better path forward. That is what he is doing at this time.” [Insider Louisville]
—Matt who? Tea Party vets upset with potential McConnell primary challenger – WHAS-TV’s Joe Arnold – “… A potential tea party challenge by Bevins elicited consternation from some Kentucky tea party leaders who lashed out at him on Facebook. “Would this business owner taking taxpayer money to rebuild his business after a fire be considered to support limited government, free-markets, fiscal responsibility? What happen to his business insurance coverage?” asked John T. Kemper of the United Kentucky Tea Party. Kemper has pledged to secure a well-funded tea party candidate to challenge McConnell in the 2014 race.” [WHAS]
—Katrina vanden Heuvel: Mitch McConnell faces a difficult reelection [The Washington Post]
WILL JUDD RUN? — Judd should talk to Beshear and other Democrats about Senate candidacy, Stumbo says – Enquirer’s Scott Wartman – ““If I were her, one of the first things I would do if I were considering that race would be to contact the governor,” Stumbo said. “Now, when we discussed this with the governor last week, he indicated that he’s not had that contact yet. And I would hope if she were really serious, not stop with him but talk to other democratic leaders both in the legislature and throughout the state in the constitutional offices, because I think there are some things we could suggest to her that might help her as she formulated her campaign.”” [Enquirer]
—Christian Science Monitor: Does Ashley Judd scare Mitch McConnell? [CSM] |
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By Krystal Ball, on Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET I just returned from chaperoning a high school trip to New York, taking 85 dance students to see shows, take class, and explore Manhattan. Granted, I was one of several chaperones so it wasn’t as arduous as it sounds, but it was still exhausting and challenging – try explaining to a huffy teen girl that “bed check” means I have to check that she’s actually in her room, so she can’t just text me that she’s going to bed. However, in general I can report that there is hope for the next generation. (My father used to worry that our generation would amount to nothing since we didn’t grow up with saxophone music, but the popularity of artists like Huey Lewis and Bruce Springsteen, with prominent sax players, reassured him. Likewise, I used to fret that the next generation was doomed because they were addicted to electronics, self-absorbed with short attention spans, and uninterested in reading the classic kids’ books I loved, but this trip convinced me they’ll be fine, based on a few observations:
– Sure, today’s teens text incessantly and have lost the ability to spell, thanks to spell-check and shorthand like ROTFLMAO, but they are also much more open-minded than we were as kids, eagerly trying new experiences and extremely tolerant of the more eccentric members of their group. (Remember, this was a trip for dance/theatre students from a large, extremely diverse public school, so we had the same types of characters you’d see on shows like Glee, as well as kids ranging from a senior who works 2 jobs to help support her family to some extremely wealthy kids who quietly put in extra money when the lunch group didn’t have enough for their table’s check.)
– Some things haven’t changed, like adolescent girls squealing and sighing over cute celebrities, but this group idolized the chorus boys from Newsies (with whom they got to take class and pose for photos), and even their less theatrically-inclined friends are more likely to worship movie starsn or singers with actual talent. (Of course, I still maintain the Monkees were talented comic actors in on the ironic joke, not just a manufactured boy band selected for their teen appeal)
– Speaking of irony, this generation gets it in a way mine never did. In fact, they have multiple layers of irony, so that they can ‘like’ everything from Hello Kitty to Justin Bieber – something about the ‘air quotes’ makes everything okay, which makes it not okay to tease their classmates for uncool tastes. (The weird girl in my 6th grade class who was obsessed with Dark Shadows, because she decided she was a vampire, would have fit in much better today!)
 – Okay, they may not read Little Women or The Hobbit (since they can see the movie, duh . . . ), but they are fairly sophisticated. My 16-year-old son was on the trip – mostly with another chaperone’s group, since the organizers realized no kid in his or her right mind wants to spend a high school trip with a parent! – and he came back one day very proud of having bought two LPs in a vintage record store (records being as exotic to these kids as 78s were to us!) And several of his friends bought LPs as well. When I explained my turntable had been destroyed several moves ago and many of his friends’ parents were probably in the same boat he replied, “Oh, they’re not to play, Mom, it’s all about the aesthetics.” (I also love that the records he chose were by Rush and Frank Sinatra – how’s that for ironic fusion?)
– They are fairly tolerant of our generation’s befuddlement. The whole trip made me feel a bit like Jane Goodall researching chimpanzees, observing an entirely different species and trying to decode their communication methods – I’ve finally learned text shorthand, LOL, but I’m still not sure whether Instagram is a noun or a verb. But when I tried out their vocabulary, using ‘dope’ or ‘JK’, they didn’t laugh too loudly (at least in front of me).
– Today’s kids are a great combination of independent and needy – they found their way around and got themselves up on time, yet they weren’t afraid to call on a chaperone when they had questions or were concerned about their roommate whose boyfriend broke up with her via text. (I particularly loved seeing “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” with them, which is a highly stylized, odd musical based on English music hall theatre, including lots of characters talking to the audience and having women play male ingenue roles, a tradition begun with operas using mezzos as boys. At intermission, a group of the kids came up to me and told me they were completely confused, so when I gave them a bit of background, one of them exclaimed, “Oh, we just thought they were lesbians!” Which they actually thought was cool . . . . )
One other side note – it was wonderfully refreshing to go several days without seeing a newspaper or looking at a computer, and consequently having no idea of what was going on in the world. When I mentioned that to my husband in one of our very brief phone check-ins, he said, “Well, you heard a meteor crashed in Russia,” and I thought he was joking. Anyway, if you are a parent who is nervous about chaperoning this type of large trip, rest assured that it will be reassuring (but not very well restful), so take inspiration from these kids and go for it. However, you won’t have much time to act on that inspiration, which is why I don’t have a video to post this week. Stay tuned for next week!
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