Sunday, April 08, 2007

Clarksville’s first rental duplex came shortly thereafter, in 1784.

My pal Todd actually remembers what he was taught in school. Do you know what’s wrong with this picture?

Todd caught it, and wrote the Evening News to explain.

Reader: Semonin ad is wrong

While out in Clarksville, I noticed a large billboard for Semonin Realtors. On it was printed:

This city was named after Clark. (He hung out with Lewis.) Nobody knows Clarksville better.

Apparently what they do not know is Clarksville history. Clarksville was named in honor of General George Rogers Clark, after the Virginia legislature granted the land to Clark and his troops for their service in the Revolutionary War. While General Clark was related to William Clark, who did indeed hang out with Meriwether Lewis on a cross country journey that started in Clarksville, the town was not named after William Clark. While I applaud the attempt at historical humor with their advertising, some simple fact checking would have taken care of this error.

— Todd Antz, Sellersburg

For his efforts, NAC awards Todd a free business plug: He is the owner of Keg Liquors in Clarksville and has the best package craft and imported store beer selection anywhere on the Sunnyside.

Photo credit: Todd Antz.

6 comments:

John Alton said...

Another unknown "almost fact"..not taught in school, and one that probably really should remain that way...is that in the location of Keg Liquors, was an establishment called "The Clark Bar". It was a tavern sort of like Cheers. Everyone considered the bar a place like city hall where everybody knows your name, but could care less. It was "the" place for information because "nobody knew Clarksville better than Clark". Lewis..you guessed it, was Norm, and Clark hung out with Lewis. Clark did so because Lewis, after a couple of brews, became a heavy tipper, which is why he liked to hang out with Lewis. It was said that Lewis had a taste for "River Falls-Rock Ale" that Clark made right on the premises in a huge still. That same watered down brew later became Falls-City Beer (ok, I'm stretchin here). The Clark Bar also had indian maidens from Ohio who worked as waitresses...they were unionized and known as the Cleveland Indians. Ok..I quit...I got nuthin else.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Ann said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann said...

I suspect an ad exec is going to catch hell . . .

Tommy2x4 said...

that's awesome! great catch!

on a side note, there are 3 lawyers who have an ad on tv and they say, "all the wrecks happen here, and that's why the call it hospital curve." now, i may be mistaken, but i'm pretty sure that it's called hospital curve, because of the hospital that's located there.

again, good work!!!

Rick Carmickle said...

There is a billboard on Hwy 111 South, from the same realtor, which says, "That casino really isn't a boat! We know Harrison County!"

Sorry, but the casino in Harrison county is a boat, the one that is not a boat is located in Orange county. Kind of makes you wonder if you really would want to use this realtor to buy or sell your home.

I wonder who made these things up. Maybe we can get them on that who wants to be smarter than a 5th Grader show.

antzman said...

They do have a pretty funny billboard on 65 North in Louisville just south of downtown. I'm paraphrasing, but it is something along the lines of "You're about to see why they call it Spaghetti Junction. We know Louisville"