Soap

Raising goats and making soap have become second nature for Joe Bremer. The 14-year-old Chicagoan-turned Danville resident launched his own soap-making business in 2010. Joe's Bars and Suds began after many visits to a soap store in Tarpon Springs, Fla., which had “10 by 10 walls” full of soap. Bremer says they used a ladder there to reach the highest shelves. “He figured if someone else could do it, and they made soap in ancient times from goat milk and olive oil, he could make soap.

Remember when I wrote about putting a bar of soap in bed with you to stop restless legs? Well, my faith in its powers was thoroughly shaken last week. As I told you, not one time since I put the bar of soap in our bed have I been plagued with legs that jumped around like a grasshopper, and we're talking a month's trial. I was telling everybody about it. One day as we shopped the pharmacy at Wal-Mart, I came across the remedy I'd used for years. It's a homeopathic little pill with a little quinine in it. Sometimes it helped, sometimes not, but when I saw the little red-and-white-labeled bottle in the store, I picked it up and laughingly put it in the shopping cart.

I'll bet you won't even believe me but it is the honest truth. Remember when, about two years ago, I was having a lot of trouble sleeping because of the incessant leg cramps and twitches? I was in Florida at the time. Then someone (an RN) told me about putting a bar of soap in our bed and the whole problem was solved. Remember? Well, I had tried Requip and other remedies and everything else I'd ever heard of and nothing worked, so I thought, "Shoot, why not stick a bar of soap in the bed?

"Snakes on a Plane" is not a period piece, a romantic comedy or a coming-of-age tale. Ironically, though, neither is it a suspense thriller, a straight horror flick or an action-adventure. It's just snakes on a plane. Mean snakes that attack only the most esoteric of body parts: a woman's breast, a man's genitals, some poor schmuck's eyeball, and a black man's buttocks. And that's about it. The hottest Internet sensation since a certain night-vision video of a talentless celebutante, "Snakes on a Plane," or "SoaP" as it's called by those in the know, was celebrated by every blogger, T-shirt-maker, amateur songwriter and movie geek on the planet.

Oct. 7, 1986 Mrs. Lola Carpenter celebrated her 79th birthday Sunday with a family potluck picnic at the recreational center of East Kentucky Power, Lexington Road. Helpful hint: A soap coating will make drapery hooks much easier to push into the fabric.

While I was in Costa Rica recently for my zoology master's degree program, our only option if we wanted to wash laundry was to use the facilities at La Selva Biological Research station. In order to do laundry there, we were asked to use biodegradable laundry soap. I've been wanting to make my own laundry detergent instead of buying it from the store because it's cheaper and better for the environment, but I hadn't realized just how bad for the environment my current store-bought detergent could be. Biodegradable detergent is a better option because there are fewer chemicals left over in the water after you're done.

You know this whole deal about putting soap in your bed to prevent restless legs syndrome? Well, I have an update for you. My dear friend, Virginia Crowe, wrote me a letter about this, and she gave me permission to include her letter in today's "View From the Hill" column. Every time I read her letter, I start laughing. Isn't it just a marvelous thing that there is not one single, solitary soul in Clark County who still suffers from RLS? Why, I'll bet the soap industry will be seeing a big jump in sales.

Your grandmother's favorite black currant jam sat a skip away from the hand-carved maple spoon used to stir the same recipe long ago. Next to that hung a stitched whisk broom used to clean up after sealing that last jar. Nearby waited a row of homespun wool shawls, dyed naturally with indigo and goldenrod, to warm bare arms during an evening on the front porch. The array of cultural delicacies presented at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill's annual craft fair on Saturday brought to light a way of living that has long passed.

Coal smoke rolled over the encampment as deer hides stiffened in the sun. "Just that little bit of sulfur makes it aromatic," said blacksmith Carl King. The smoke from King's open coal forge had darkened his Ben Franklin spectacles, singed his graying beard. "I smell like coal smoke constantly," he said, adding that his wife will ask him to change out of his period costume as soon as he gets home. King worked Constitution Square Festival in downtown Danville as a period blacksmith, circa 1750, on Saturday, which surprised weather forecasters and turned out to be a beautiful day. The crowd watched at a cautious distance as he hammered sparking orange steel into flint strikers.

To the editor: All the members of the Lincoln County Arts League would like to thank everyone who attended and/or helped in any way to make our very first "Arts in the Park" event of May 20 a success. Some of the local business supporters of the event were: First Southern Bank, Ruckel's Grocery & Deli, Sonja Bratcher/Kentucky Farm Bureau, Barbara Payne/Cruise One & Cordier's Farm Center, Boone's Hardware, C Store & More, Builder's Supply, Wal-Mart, Physicians For Families, Shell Mart Deli & Restaurant, Ruckel's Restaurant, Ruckel's Catering & The Bride's Best Friend, Jenkins Family Concession Stand, Matt Jenkins DJ Tunes & Karaoke.

Raising goats and making soap have become second nature for Joe Bremer. The 14-year-old Chicagoan-turned Danville resident launched his own soap-making business in 2010. Joe's Bars and Suds began after many visits to a soap store in Tarpon Springs, Fla., which had “10 by 10 walls” full of soap. Bremer says they used a ladder there to reach the highest shelves. “He figured if someone else could do it, and they made soap in ancient times from goat milk and olive oil, he could make soap.

While I was in Costa Rica recently for my zoology master's degree program, our only option if we wanted to wash laundry was to use the facilities at La Selva Biological Research station. In order to do laundry there, we were asked to use biodegradable laundry soap. I've been wanting to make my own laundry detergent instead of buying it from the store because it's cheaper and better for the environment, but I hadn't realized just how bad for the environment my current store-bought detergent could be. Biodegradable detergent is a better option because there are fewer chemicals left over in the water after you're done.

100 years ago - 1912 Mr. Barney Meaux , a well-known colored citizen in Danville, died of old age at his home this week. During his early life, he was the wealthiest colored man in Boyle County. He owned a bluegrass farm worth $25,000.   Members of the House Public Building Committee enjoyed looking over an attractive morocco-bound book of more than 100 views in and around Harrodsburg, which was received by Rep. Harvey Helm from the Harrodsburg Commercial Club.

Oct. 7, 1986 Mrs. Lola Carpenter celebrated her 79th birthday Sunday with a family potluck picnic at the recreational center of East Kentucky Power, Lexington Road. Helpful hint: A soap coating will make drapery hooks much easier to push into the fabric.

Deadline for submitting information to the Bulletin Board is noon Thursday. There is no charge for this service. Items run as space permits. Mail information to The Advocate-Messenger, P.O. Box 149, Danville, Ky. 40423- fax to (859) 236-9566- or call 236-2551 ext. 352. Bookmobile Monday -   South Bragg Street, Perryville, 11-11:10 a.m.; Third Street, Perryville, 11:15-11:30 a.m.; Old Mitchellsburg Road, noon-12:15 p.m.; shut-ins (two  stops), 12:20-12:35 p.m.; Ky. 37, 12:45-1:30 p.m.; Nosco Road (two stops)

STANFORD — Goats are the heroes of this story. It was goats that inspired the humble beginnings of Kentucky Soaps & Such nine years ago. It is goats that supply the essential ingredient to the Stanford store’s line of upscale soaps and lotions that have attracted quite a following. And it is a goat that adorns the advertising and packaging of Plainview Farms, the homegrown brand of goat’s milk products that are handmade in the basement of the Kentucky Soaps & Such downtown storefront and shipped out across the country.

STANFORD — Kentucky Soaps & Such will host an open house Oct. 22-23 in celebration of moving into the renovated space formerly known as Severance’s. The old store space is joined to the new and will house antiques selected by renowned antique dealer Clifton Anderson. “We are thrilled to have Clifton Anderson’s antiques and feel they will be a wonderful complement to the antiques offered in Stanford by the Hen House and Stanford Upholstery and Antiques,” says store owner Angela Correll.

Sometimes I wonder if the way they advertise on TV bothers anyone else. For example, you're engrossed in a really good movie and it comes to the most touching part and suddenly a stupid ad comes on. There are a string of ads that seem to last forever, then about five minutes of the movie and then another bunch of ads. What makes it even worse, some channels keep showing the same ones over and over until you want to scream. I've started muting the ads and reading the paper or working a crossword puzzle.

I called to talk to my mom yesterday, but she was a little preoccupied. This wasn't the first time it's happened, so I wasn't really that surprised. "Rachel, you know better than to call me while I'm watching Nick and Sharon. " Silly me. For those of you who do not know, Nick and Sharon would be Nick and Sharon Newman, longtime residents of Genoa City, Wisc., and relatives of business mogul Victor Newman. If you're still confused, don't feel bad. That just means you have a life and haven't seen nearly every episode of "The Young and the Restless" aired in the past decades.

STANFORD - It's an essential art that dates back to the Babylonians, according to www.sdahq.org . Soap-making, although not a common household chore these days, is the nucleus of one Main Street business here. Kentucky Soaps and Such prides itself on featuring all-natural, goat milk bar and liquid soaps, and lotion. But it's more than just soaps and such. Everything in the shop is made in Kentucky, down to the goats that produce the milk that go into the soap and lotion. The soap is made on location at the store.