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Roadside News: May 23, 2009

May 23, 2009

• Bonnie & Clyde Ambush 75th Anniversary: Today is the platinum anniversary of the ambush of bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde, south of Gibsland, Louisiana. They were young and in love and they killed people, and you may want to take a moment on this special day to visit their separate graves (Bonnie and Clyde), or their museum, or their death car, or the spot where they were shot to death. Clyde’s final note to his Mom, however, is a relic that may no longer be available for public viewing….

• Annoying Neighbor Butt Sculptor Out of Prison: Fans of outsider art may want to keep an eye on Altamonte Springs, Florida, where Alan Davis, the “Junk Man,” has just been released from four years in prison for filling his yard with toilets and other artifacts of self-expression (he is not the first toilet artist to endure persecution.) What really ticked off Davis’s neighbors was his giant sculpture of human buttocks, and he has vowed to fill his yard with 42 similar sculptures as payback. Davis told local TV station WFTV, “I’m gonna make a six-foot high ass sculpture and they can all kiss my ass.”

• First KFC: Missing Secret Spice?: A columnist for Kentucky’s Corbin Times-Tribune has taken to task that town’s premier claim to fame, the world’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken, calling it “mediocre” and “an extreme disappointment.” To our surprise, she genuinely wants the KFC to be more of an attraction (sounds good to us). “I know there’s been talk of a railroad museum [but] lots of towns have railroads. Tourists aren’t going to travel the globe to learn about our railroad in the same way they would travel for KFC.”

• Visit America’s Grave: In Charlottesville, Virginia, Weldon Showalter has built a large, fake grave for America in his very visible front yard, topped by an oversized tombstone that declares, “Where Marxism thrives, freedom dies.” He told the Charlottesville Daily Progress that, “We’re going farther into socialism than Europe.” His tombstone replaces an earlier one that criticized the building of a nearby parkway, and may itself be replaced by one that mocks global warming, which Showalter considers a “farce.”

Sections: Roadside News 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Roadside News: May 23, 2009”

1. Craig Says:
   May 23rd, 2009 at 2:46 pm

   I agree that the Sanders Café attraction is a disappointment and hope the citizens of Corbin rise to the challenge.

2. Jacob...K Says:
   May 25th, 2009 at 8:45 am

   I think the Corbin KFC is a great little stop…Anything they add would be great, but I still think it’s a worthy pilgrimage.

3. Stephen R. Wilk Says:
   May 25th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

   Although “Colonel” Harlan Sanders did have a place in Corbin, KY, the title of “World’s First KFC” was actually held by one of Pete Harmon’s restaurants in Salt Lake City, Utah. Harmon was the first to agree to franchise Colonel Sanders’ chicken (alongside restaurant items you won’t find in other KFCs, like carrots), and one of their restaurants in SLC used to proudly proclaim its status as “The World’s First KFC” in big brass letters. Unfortunately, I believe that the restaurant itself has been torn down in the past 15 years, so maybe they OUGHT to make a big deal about the one in Corbin.

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