HerKentucky's Top 10 Posts of 2015
HerKentucky's 10 most popular posts of 2015
What a year 2015 has been for Kentucky! The Wildcats just barely missed the mark on a perfect season, Jennifer Lawrence continued her reign as the Queen of the Box Office, George Clooney got married, and Kentucky politics ruled national headlines for something other than the long reign of our Senior Senator. As we look back at 2015, I thought it would be fun to revisit the most popular posts here on HerKentucky.com.
1. I Am Not Kim Davis. Oh boy. This one was a doozy. People read it. A lot of people hated it; a lot loved it. I never expected it to go around Facebook as much as it did. I guess it's fitting that, since The Rowan County Clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples was the Commonwealth's top news story, an opinion piece about Mrs. Davis was HerKentucky's most-read post of the year.
2. The Five Best Doughnuts in Kentucky. Kentucky has a Doughnut Trail. There were popular "Donutucky" tee shirts this summer. And y'all had strong opinions about the best doughnuts in the Bluegrass State. I stand by my opinion that the girls from Hi-Five make the very best doughnut in Kentucky, but am happy to do some more taste-testing at Nord's and Spalding's to confirm...
3. The Five Best Hamburgers in Kentucky. It seems there's two camps in this world: gourmet burger enthusiasts and diner burger purists. You can't please 'em all.
4. Maker's Mark Bourbon Balls. My great-aunt's recipe has been in my family for as long as I can remember. They're fabulous every year.
5. The Five Best BBQ Joints in Kentucky. I'm happy to log as many research hours to this project as are needed. I don't know that there is such a thing as an exhaustive effort.
6. Miss America Heather French. In this post from HerKentucky's early days, Bluegrass Redhead Sarah Stewart Holland recalls her proudest moment as a Kentuckian, bonding with her new college friends and cheering on Miss Kentucky in the Miss America pageant. This lovely piece is always popular around pageant time!
7. Mary Breckinridge and Lilly Pulitzer. Who knew that there was a direct link between preppy fashion guru Lilly Pulitzer and Southeastern Kentucky? I loved finding out that young socialite Lillian McKim served the Frontier Nursing Service as a horseback messenger in the 1940s.
Mary Breckinridge's Nurses on Horseback
8. Lilly For Target. The sale that broke the preppy internet, and swept through every Target store in the country in less than an hour. The servers were wonky, and the quality varied, but there were a few really cute pieces in the Lilly Pulitzer x Target capsule collection. HerKentucky was on the scene with favorites from the Lilly lookbook and a guide to every Target in or adjacent to the Bluegrass State. A friend of mine actually heard some sorority girls talking about this post at a Southern Indiana Target as they shopped the insanity.
Before she made dresses, socialite Lilly Pulitzer volunteered in Southeastern KY.
9. How Barre Class Changed My Life. A year ago, I had two herniated discs, couldn't feel the fingers in my left hand, and was terrified that I'd never walk properly again. Barre classes at B.You changed my life in more ways than I could imagine. I've made dear friends, taken charge of my health, and have logged more workouts than in the previous decade.
10 College Basketball is Broken. I love college basketball more than just about anything else. I truly hate that it's become more a game of cover-ups, skirted regulations, agents, and shoe contracts than one of Xs and Os. I kind of went off about that one day.
HerKentucky's top posts of 2015 were as unique and diverse as the Kentuckians we write for and about. As always, thanks to all y'all for reading, and I can't wait to see what 2016 brings for Kentucky!
Four Last-Minute Halloween Costumes with a Kentucky Twist
Halloween costumes with a Kentucky flair!
Am I the only one who wishes at the very last minute that she had thought up a creative and fun Halloween costume? If you get the call for a Halloween party this week, you can come up with a unique costume with a Kentucky theme!
Rosie The Riveter
Rosie The Riveter is every girl's go-to last minute Halloween costume. All it takes is a chambray shirt, a bandana, and a badass attitude. Did you know that one of the models for Rosie the Riveter was a Pulaski County native named Rose Will Monroe? Drop that little piece of HerKentucky trivia on your fellow revelers, and suddenly your last minute costume becomes an homage to a Kentucky feminist icon!
All you need is a denim shirt, some dark jeans, and a bandana. I kind of love the Frye boots below...doesn't this costume seem like a great excuse to get them?
Bottle of Bourbon
Want a costume that takes 5 minutes to pull together, yet will make everybody stop and smile? Pull together the brown items in your closet -- sweater, skirt or pants, tights, it really doesn't matter -- and print a color copy (or draw it if you're more artistically inclined than I am...) of your favorite bourbon label. Why not go for the good stuff with a 20 year Pappy Van Winkle label? It'll start conversations all night!
A whiskey-label t-shirt does the trick as well -- I love this one from Pappy & Company!
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence is Kentucky's favorite It Girl, and her Red Carpet looks can be pretty easily replicated. Trim a blond wig into her signature cropped style and recycle an old maxi dress or bridesmaid dress. Jennifer's iconic solid-color dresses make for an easily-replicated costume. Stick with bold shades like red or white, and clean, strapless lines.
Daisy Buchanan
Every girl has gone to at least one Halloween party in flapper dress, right? I know I have.
True story: I first bought this dress for a college formal and recycled it for many Halloween costumes.
Put a Kentucky twist on your flapper garb by speaking with a voice that's "full of money", dropping references to the Seelbach, and reminding everyone that you grew up in Louisville.
Happy Halloween, y'all!!
The HerKentucky UK and U of L Fan Elite Eight
While we're all agonizing over our brackets and waiting for The Big Dance to start, here's the guide to what's really important about March Madness for fans of the University of Louisville Cardinals and the University of Kentucky Wildcats: Celebrity Endorsements. We've broken down the brackets for HerKentucky's Elite Eight Pairings of Celeb Super-Fans, and applied some Joe Lunardi-style bracketology to offer up our best picks.
The Hunger Games Edition
The stars of The Hunger Games are both Kentucky natives but they fall on opposite sides of the team lines.
Josh Hutcherson, a native of Northern Kentucky, cheers for the Cats
while Louisville native Jennifer Lawrence is all "L's up!"
Winner : Team Katniss. J-Law is just as fierce without archery gear. Sorry, Peeta.
The Heartthrob Edition
Leonardo DiCaprio reps the Cards,
while Cougar Town star Josh Hopkins is a proud member of the BBN.
The Winner: Josh Hopkins. He may have dated gorgeous celebs like Courteney Cox and Erin Andrews, but Lexington native Josh Hopkins makes no secret that his first love is Kentucky basketball. (We'll even forgive him for attending Auburn.) Los Angeles-born Leo looks like a bro who found a cool hat, and the lady beside him is not impressed.
The Supporting Actor Edition
Actor Steve Zahn is a fixture around Lexington, especially at UK games,
while William Fichtner of The Dark Knight showed his U of L loyalty at a recent Derby Party.
The Winner: Steve Zahn all the way. He really put in a touching performance in Dallas Buyers Club, his Treme character is hilarious, and he's married to J. Peterman's daughter. Plus, the Batman dude looks scary.
The Leading Lady Edition
Ashley Judd is perhaps Kentucky's most iconic basketball fan...
while Jennifer Lawrence (Oops... we included her twice, because she's the HerKentucky girls' imaginary BFF, and Hollywood's It Girl) is the Cards' biggest fan.
The Winner: Too close to call. Both are super-fans whom everyone associates with their respective teams. Ashley is the Grande Dame of Kentucky Basketball, but everybody loves Jennifer.
Did we miss anybody? Who's in your Celeb Super-Fan Bracket?
Our Friend Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence is the Kentucky girl's dream BFF. As fans, do we owe her a measure of privacy?
Here in Louisville, we all feel like we know Jennifer Lawrence.
Sure, she’s a Hollywood It Girl and an Oscar-winning actress who moved to New York to pursue her craft when she was just 14. But we all know she’s still just a Louisville girl. Her parents and her brothers still live here. Now and again, you hear people work in references to where her various family members work, or who we might all have in common. It's all in good fun; we all know that she hasn't forgotten The 'Ville, which is evident in the way she visits Kosair Children's Hospital when she's in town and in the way she never fails to rep the Cards.
Besides, Louisville is, at heart, a small town of 750,000 or so people. We talk about Jennifer Lawrence like we know her because, here in Louisville, we talk about everybody that way. There's the "everybody in St. Matthews knows each other" game. There's the "where did you go to high school?" game. There's the "folks who are always at charity events/ new restaurants/ sporting events" game. It's a logical extension that if you went to Kammerer Middle School or Camp Hi Ho then you're practically best friends with Jennifer Lawrence.
Enid Alvarez / Via nydailynews.com
Seventeen Magazine
A lot of Americans feel like they know Jennifer Lawrence, too. Part of her superstar charm is her ability to be disarmingly candid and down-to-earth in interviews. Her TV talk show antics like asking David Letterman for a blanket or joking with Seth Meyers about her childhood Harry Potter obsession present her as goofy, endearing, and relatable. She is, as professor and pop culture expert (Why didn't anybody tell me that was an option when it was time to apply to grad school?) Anne Helen Peterson posited in a brilliant essay earlier this year, the latest heiress to the Cool Girl Throne. She could be your best friend, your kid sister, your niece, or, quite literally, the girl next door.
November 2014 Vanity Fair Magazine
I've thought a lot about Jennifer Lawrence and the nature of fame and fandom in the past few weeks. Earlier this year, some nude photos of Ms. Lawrence emerged on the internet, the result of a hacker accessing her private cell phone photos. In an insightful Vanity Fair Article, she stated that, although a public apology was the first line of PR/ damage control self-defense for the incident, "every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry. I started to write an apology, but I don't have anything to say I'm sorry for." It was exactly the way we'd all hope to react to such a crushingly invasive act.
If Jennifer Lawrence is, in our collective minds, our best friend, or our kid sister, then it naturally follows that we shouldn't seek out those leaked naked photos. Would we do that with a real-life friend? I mean, we've all gone down the rabbit hole of googling old classmates or boyfriends. But, you know, there's a huge difference between publicly posted Instagram or Facebook photos and photos hacked from someone's cell phone. The former are posted online with the subject's knowledge that they could be viewed by anyone; the latter are stolen property. Ms. Lawrence wasn't trying to "Break the Internet", Kim Kardashian-style, with risqué publicity photos. Rather, she had snapped intimate photos for her then-partner, which were then stolen and publicly displayed. It was, as Ms. Lawrence characterized the situation, a sex crime.
Last weekend, Ms. Lawrence conducted an AP interview in conjunction with the release of the latest film in the Hunger Games franchise. When the conversation turned to paparazzi intrusions, she gave a vivid personal account of the stress and anxiety that stems from a constant stream of unwanted photographers documenting her private life. As she proclaimed that she hopes to work toward legislation that stops paparazzi --"And my belief, and it's something I am going to work very hard on changing and I hope it changes before I die, is to make it illegal to buy, post or shop a photo that's been obtained illegally." -- she sounded like that recent law school grad we all know, the one who's on fire for justice and reform. Her tone was hopeful, indignant, and all of the other attributes you'd expect from a bright and articulate 24 year-old.
Even if we take the construct of "friendship" away from being a Jennifer Lawrence fan, do we owe her a certain degree of respect? In saying, "I think that Jennifer Lawrence is a gorgeous actress whose talent was undeniable when she redeemed trite films like Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle", are we required to then say "I refuse to read articles that post candid paparazzi photos of this actress I admire?" If we, as pop culture junkies, loved the way Ms. Lawrence turned a skeevy Jack Nicholson Oscars moment into a charming old-school Hollywood flirtation, are we supposed to boycott TMZ or Perez Hilton (among the most notorious purveyors of paparazzi photos) in lieu of authorized interview outlets, even if it means that we can no longer fully and properly Keep Up with the Kardashians?
The truth is, if TMZ and Perez Hilton went out of business tomorrow, ten more aggressive gossip sites would pop up to replace them by the end of the week. Ms Lawrence's skill-set lies not only in her tremendous acting talent, but also in her beauty and public persona. The Safe Harbor clause of the DMCA exists for a very important reason, and the balance between free speech and public figures' right to privacy has been precarious for decades. The celebrity information industry is, indeed, out of control and there aren't any easy answers to how it can be reigned in. When Ms. Lawrence notes that she's simply trying to live her life free of the insane intrusions that her fame creates, she creates a starting point for an interesting and much-needed conversation. And isn't that one of your best friend's duties?