GREEN MOUSE presents NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW for 7 February 2020.

This week's mouse droppings are brought to you by HWC Engineering, because as long as HWC is on the scene, we'll be reminding you that it shouldn't be.

The Green Mouse doesn't push drugs, punch his girlfriend or salute when commanded by anger-management-challenged sycophants.

He's just a drinking rodent with a green problem. 

Yesterday I took a glance over the mouse's shoulder to see what he was scribbling in that ubiquitous steno pad.

Let's all work together on a new city motto. I'll start. "NEW ALBANY -- WHERE KOOL-AID IS KING AND SHEEP ARE SCARED." What do you think? Or this: "COME FOR THE TWO-WAY STREETS, STAY FOR THE ONE-WAY THINKING."

It was that kind of week.

But first, a hopeful sign. This is a wonderful new City Hall feature, and at long last, we see a faint glimmer of transparency.

WEEKLY PROJECT UPDATES:

The following project updates were given at the Board of Works meeting on 02/04/20

JACOBI, TOOMBS & LANZ

➡️ Grant Line Road (Daisy Lane To McDonald Lane):

Last Week: Donated $250 to Gahan4Life
This Week: Donated $100 to Applegate for Office 2018 - 2034
___

BEAM • LONGEST • NEFF

➡️ SLATE RUN ROAD IMPROVEMENT PROJECT - PHASE 1

Last Week: Donated $250 to Gahan4Life
This Week: Donated $250 to Caesar "The Salad" Re-election Campaign
___

HWC ENGINEERING (AND HOME IMPROVEMENTS)

➡️ EASTRIDGE DRIVE QUALITY OF LIFE HOT TUB - PHASE 5.7

Last week: Donated $250 to Gahan4Life
This Week: Two gallons Scrubbing Bubbles (in-kind donation)

---

Things were relatively calm hereabouts until Wednesday evening, when two vicious mind fucks elicited comment. But first, let's revisit the editor's New Year's resolution: a "sabbatical from polemics about local politics."

I said from the start that the Friday column you're reading is an exception, because I'm not a 100% cold turkey kind of guy. Events this week on Wednesday may seem to indicate my resolve is tottering a bit, and to a degree this is true. It's very difficult to cease speaking truth to the prevailing doofuss tomfoolery. However the record clearly shows that I've cut way back, thereby saving time for other important uses (like getting paid), as compared with the hours formerly devoted to explaining the sheer, enduring idiocy perpetuated on a daily basis by NA's ethics-free ruling caste.

I'm making progress, little by little. But when an outsider with an agenda lofts one of those tempting lob passes, every now and then a patriotic citizen just has to slam it home.

Speck's unfulfilled plan: Intellectually lazy carpetbagging shortcuts from clueless Louisvillians don't make New Albany's streets any safer.

Jeff Gillenwater is quoted extensively at the link, and he also made this observation.

In simplest terms, (Chris Glasser) “reported” a bunch of stuff that isn’t factually true. How many times have we had the “thinks he’s educated and liberal but doesn’t have a clue” conversation just in the past few days?

Bunches, Jeff, just as with the other Wednesday night revelation. Prohibition in America often is well-meaning, which doesn't mean it's right.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Neo-prohibitionism, foppery and hypocrisy at Indiana Landmarks as Family Dollar on Vincennes gets a perfectly legal alcohol sales permit.

Gillenwater again:

The Family Dollar thing is a hoot. I’ve no doubt that a more upscale, historically housed spirits merchant would get a big seal of approval from the same crowd, “vulnerable populations” be damned.

In closing, this week's column lamented the passing of an institution ... and yes, you're getting another Gillenwater quote as coda.

ON THE AVENUES: Alas, New Albany is less of a place without a bookstore.

I am perennially reminded of just how little most people know about what the hell has actually happened around here in those fifteen years and how quickly they take to filling that knowledge void by considering themselves as central to it. That second bit about self-aggrandizement has at least been consistent. Especially troubling is that so many who either clearly didn’t understand the potential or actively argued against it are now (and in some cases still) in positions of power and are (still) actively working against the spirit and substance of those earlier, more independent days that Destinations and a handful of others embodied as a part of New Albany’s second or third or fourth or whichever coming it is.

Next week: Lobotomy or gin? The experts weigh New Albanian coping mechanisms.

ON THE AVENUES: Alas, New Albany is less of a place without a bookstore.

Hi, I'm Nawbany's village iconoclast. In my spare time I write sentences and drink lots of beer. 

The onetime PBS anchorman Jim Lehrer died on January 23, and when I heard the sad news, my thoughts raced back to those many occasions during the decade of the 1980s, working evenings at the long departed Scoreboard Liquors, and doing something that almost never happens with me nowadays: watching the evening news via television.

Whenever I spot a package store clerk with eyes glued to an iPhone or laptop, I think back to my entertainment options on slow business nights: a minuscule black and white television set with shabby rabbit ears, from which many a McNeil-Lehrer News Hour was observed. I probably should have been sweeping or stocking, anyway.

The city of New Albany had cable television back then, having handed the keys to the city to the first enterprising operator who stepped forward with hands extended, much as the nation’s railroads once fleeced the federal government for right-of-way privileges extending to the earth’s core in on direction and the moon in the other.

However there was no way Scoreboard’s owners would ever have paid for something quite that frivolous, although store manager Lloyd “Duck” Cunningham gladly would have watched Cubs day games if WGN were available.

In other news, there were sporadic attempts to have the morning’s Courier-Journal delivered to Scoreboard, although these usually came to nothing because the newspapers would so often get stolen. Seems journalism was subject to thievery even when the Binghams practiced it (until 1986, at least).

Given that I usually worked two jobs, time for me was scarce. To make it down from the Knobs a little early for work at Scoreboard meant having the chance to walk a block to the library and catch up on magazines, then in 1988 came a job at Data Courier in Louisville, where I abstracted magazine articles, exponentially expanding my available options to self-educate.

This experience genuinely changed my life, and while the public library remained a go-to-when-could, now there were some publications of sufficient obscurity to require a visit to the IU Southeast library for perusal.

By this time Scoreboard had moved to the corner of Spring and Beharrell Avenue on the other end of town, and I was living in Floyds Knobs with two good friends. We plumped for cable, which in practice meant sports, MTV and CNN. My library visits waned; there wasn’t much time to read, anyway. My social life was active, which is to say I drank far too much.

The overarching point to this opening digression today is that I’ve always placed supreme importance in being informed, by whatever means it takes. Almost certainly to a degree these channels of journalistic expression 30 or more years ago were biased and tainted. It would be foolish to argue otherwise.

Still, it is increasingly hard to imagine they were any worse than the befuddling cacophony greeting me each morning as I try to learn exactly what’s going on in the world. It's as if we cannot possibly know -- which benefits the oligarchs nicely, don't you think?

---

Fast-forwarding 15 eventful (read: exceedingly rough) years, and seemingly as many personal lifetimes, and suddenly it was 2004. There’d be another dozen years to unfold before my NABC tenure concluded, and Diana and I had purchased a house on Spring Street, where we still live.

As for the time of which I'm about to speak, I’m guessing it was October, as I’d just returned from what proved to be the finale of my side gig as European motorcoach beer tour operator.

Diana and I decided to attend an open house at the Moser Tannery, then fully intact and only a short period removed from daily operation. It had been purchased by Al Goodman, who envisioned a museum of tanning among other uses for the buildings, as well as an ecological preserve for the Loop Island wetlands behind them.

Frankly, I didn’t know the natural area even existed. In 2020, it’s the only part of Al’s dream to come to fruition, because sadly, only a few months after the open house, a heavy snow caused the roof to collapse onto the amazing century-old hide tanning bays, completely destroying them.

Subsequently Al couldn’t leverage his plans into existence, and eventually what was left was scooped up by the opportunistic city, which acquiesced in the neglect of the remaining structures until they were torched by arsonists in what might be Jeff Gahan’s most cynical and purposefully scripted moral failure ever.

Ah, but I’m digressing into a previous existence. Apologies, Andrew.

If for no other reason, the open house at Moser Tannery in October of 2004 was memorable because I met Randy Smith for the very first time. I already knew his wife Ann Baumgartle from our time as students at IU Southeast. They informed us of something we hadn’t heard: Destinations Booksellers was soon to open at 604 East Spring Street, a mere five blocks from our house.

Know that in 2004, the downtown food and dining revolution had yet to be launched. The embryo came in 2006 with the advent of Bistro New Albany, which by all rights should be memorialized by a plaque at Brooklyn and The Butcher, which now occupies the space.

Maybe today’s Develop New Albany can work on that if they the governing committee runs out of groveling, self-congratulatory photo-ops.

However, we got by. In late 2004 there was plenty of great beer and pizza at NABC on Grant Line Road, a short bicycle ride from our home. The library remained a reasonable ten minute walk, and providentially, just down the street was a bookstore.

Finally New Albany threatened to become livable.

At its inception in 2004, Destinations Booksellers was New Albany’s first full-service bookstore since 1947. Two years before this, our original brewery at Sportstime and Rich O’s was the first in New Albany since 1935. Whether any of this helped Randy and I to become friends is questionable, but it strikes me as significant in the sense of shared visions.

NABC expanded downtown to Bank Street Brewhouse in 2009, and contracted back to the mother ship in 2019. I left the business for good in 2018. As most blog readers already know, Destinations Booksellers has spent the past two weeks winding down and now has ceased operations after almost 16 years in business, making way for a soon-to-come food service tenant, leaving Randy and Ann to be landlords.

They’re not going anywhere. Neither are we, and yet already I feel the absence of their bookstore. In spite of all the many electronic and technological advances governing the way we interpret the world, receive news and fundamentally communicate, books remain sacred objects to me.

A bookstore, the public library, our private library where there’s no space to put any more books because there are so damn many books … well, these are the churches and chapels for an unrepentant atheist, humanist and rationalist.

I’m grateful for Randy and Ann for Destinations Booksellers. 15-plus years is a great run for any business, and New Albany isn’t exactly the sort of milieu that celebrates “book learning.”

Of course this city wasn’t much for snooty imported (and later craft) beers, either, but I started evangelizing about better beer all the way back in 1983, and had 20 years to prepare the market before we began brewing our own. Aspiration takes time and patience to nurture, and probably most often in life, the seedling fails to reach its full growth potential.

When it does, those are the special times.

Randy and Ann are our friends, and I’ve richly enjoyed the hours I’ve spent browsing at Destinations, attending the civic events held there (like pubs, bookstores need to be community centers), and chewing the fat with the proprietor.

To be honest, it made me proud as a New Albanian that New Albany had its own bookstore. It may be gone, but I won’t forget it. Maybe someday the city as a whole can be the sort of information-friendly learning zone like that room at 604 East Spring was from 2004 through 2020.

Unlikely, but a boy can still dream.

---

Recent columns:

January 30: ON THE AVENUES: Dear Holocaust deniers: If you don't like this post, unfriend me now.

January 23: ON THE AVENUES: Running over the same old ground.

January 16: ON THE AVENUES: I won’t belong to any Dry January that would have me as a member.

January 9: ON THE AVENUES: Elusive sounds of silence.

GREEN MOUSE presents NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW for 31 January 2020.

Substitute Brown's Station Way for Eastern Parkway for Nawbany's two-way street project, and the anguished wailing of drivers is almost louder than the massed roar of their cars, but the thing that amazes me each time is the reluctance of the general populace to avail themselves of this "internet" thingy and EDUCATE THEMSELVES (egads) as to why, god, oh why would anyone try to slow me down?

My question is slightly different: Why oh why are people like me always expected to guide people like you by the hand like little children and explain these matters?

Now, where was I?

First, a reminder that only two days remain ... today and tomorrow ... to snatch a few bargains during the bookstore's winding down.

The final business day for Destinations Booksellers is Saturday, February 1. Go there and buy books.

It was a slow news week in New Albany, but the Green Mouse got nicely limbered up by week's end.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Not so fast on Form G's Centenary church PR vaporware.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: It turns out the "G" in Form G stands for "Groper."

It comes down to this: When the local power elites begin self-deification and blatant propagandizing about a "done deal" about which no one has bothered to inform the property sellers, then there's more to the story than is being reported.

Too bad we don't have a newspaper.

For our "Photo of the Week," we find the mayor lecturing dejected captive scouts about his favorite topic.

This week's coveted Warren V. Nash Ineptitude in Agitprop Trophy goes to the city's Facebook feed and this wonderful gem from Tuesday.

"Place your order online or inside at one of the kiosks," reads the breathless blurb, as if it falls to the city to write blatant advertising copy for a chain restaurant.

Besides, as others quickly pointed out, these kiosks are designed expressly to remove the need for human beings as employees, thus rendering the "creating jobs" argument into just the same old economic dishevelment boilerplate.

Finally, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city attorney's grip on bodacious bond bonuses, we're returning to weekly wordplay.

The return of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Sycophants and other brown-nosing spaniels.

We'll be back next week with another installment of Nawbany Week in Review as a new month begins in Year Nine of the Chronicles of New Gahania.

The final business day for Destinations Booksellers is Saturday, February 1. Go there and buy books.

The store closing clearance has entered its final two days.

OK, folks. This is it. Ann and I will have the store open Friday and Saturday, and then that's it. We still have an ample collection of great books in all genres, fiction and non, children's and adult. Come say good-bye, bring your own bags, and haul off some great bargains. Classics, award-winners, Randy's favorites, etc. If you have a favorite author, come see what we have that you've missed (Wendell Berry, Stephen White, Tim Dorsey, Robert Caro, etc.). These books deserve a good home.

Destinations Booksellers opened in 2004.

Turn the page: Destinations Booksellers is closing after 15 years at 604 E. Spring St.

There'll be a new tenant in the building, but not a bookstore.

Turn the page: Destinations Booksellers is closing after 15 years at 604 E. Spring St.

This just came over the Facebook wire. I've spoken with Randy Smith, and he gives permission to reprint his comments on social media. 

---

Good-bye, New Albany. We're closing the store in the next 3-4 weeks. With very limited exceptions, every book is on sale for from 50% to 90% off. All equipment, including shelving, cases, racks, and all kitchen equipment is also for sale.

Before we came here, New Albany had been without a full-service general new books store since 1947. After nearly 16 years, it's time to say "so long."

CONSIGNED BOOKS: We still have books here that were consigned by authors and I don't have the authority to discount these. If you are an author who has consigned books to Destinations Booksellers, please come and claim your books within the next 3 weeks or email us with instructions for disposal or return. I will try to contact each of you, but it will be your responsibility to reclaim your inventory.

What can you do? Please stop by to say good-bye if you can. We have an amazing collection of great books. I selected them all and they can be yours at incredible prices. If you or your organization need shelving, we can fix you up. If you need tables, chairs, shelves, racks, kitchen utensils and equipment, and more, this will be a great month to get them.

Ann and I were happy to bring this store to New Albany. I want to extend my thanks first to her for supporting the store. Next, I want to thank the 40 or so employees who maintained our levels of service over the years. Shout-outs to Sophie Riggs and Andy Terrell, who were true MVPs. Finally, I wish to express my great appreciation to our patrons. You truly were PATRONS in the sense that you believed it was important to have a locally owned bookstore and that you continued to rely on us to serve you.

Although we're leaving our bricks-and-mortar store after 16 years, we are exploring options to maintain a bookstore in New Albany. It won't be at 604 E. Spring Street, but there are some ideas that have been suggested. A few years ago, we conducted a pilot co-op program for a members-only operation that, though small, went quite well. If we were to expand that to scale, Destinations might go on without a showroom. Maybe. And if there's someone (or someones) with a dream of owning a bookstore, we can explore the possibilities of transferring some of our assets and accounts to help fulfill your dream.

I sincerely believe that one of the measures of a city is the existence of a locally-owned bookstore. It is with true regret that we won't be able to maintain this resource for our community. You should all be commended for supporting us as long as you did and we will join you in lamenting the loss of the resource. After all, we need a bookstore as much as you do. Nonetheless, we thank you for the support you did lend to our little store. It was nice while we had it, wasn't it?

The location will not be vacant. There's a new tenant coming that I think you'll all be thrilled about. It's an established New Albany business that will be taking over the lease and transforming this part of downtown. Watch for news coming later.

If you're an institutional customer (organizations that typically buy from us once a year), get in touch. We can, if you want, continue to help you with those bulk purchases.

We'll still be available for book orders over the next few weeks, but if you're interested in these on-sale books and equipment, please just stop by; that is, don't call, come in. Email us at destinationsbooksellers@gmail.com, if you just want to message us. We won't be responding to Facebook Messenger. Just use the email or come by.

Fresh eatery in New Albany: El Rico Taco is now open in Destinations Booksellers.

I'd already eaten the starter soup. 

El Rico Taco is open for business at 604 East Spring Street, taking over the cafe space in the rear where Taco Steve formerly operated.

But pay heed: El Rico Taco is a different cut of cloth.

It's a mom 'n' son eatery -- Xochitl "Sochi" Tonis and her son Moises Tonis -- dedicated to homemade fresh Mexican food, and my lunch there yesterday was a reasonable portion and quite good at $8.99. The price includes a homemade "ade" of the day; on Monday it was freshly squeezed "lime water" with a touch of sugar, simple and quenching.

That Monday lunch special is pictured above: mildly spicy meatballs in chipotle sauce accompanied by a cup of soup (tomato-based noddles, potatoes and carrots), refried beans, rice and tortillas.

I was encouraged to dice my banana and mix it with the rice, and this struck me as both sensible and tasty. Two condiments were available: a mid-range spicy green salsa and a light avocado salsa, both fresh and tasty.

Tacos, burros and tortas are on the menu every day, with the lunch special rotating on a daily basis.

Sochi and Moses told me that for breakfast they'll be doing a signature burro and torta, but you can also ask for bacon and two eggs if that's your wish.

They were cooking enchiladas yesterday and offered me one. It was delicious, with the green salsa and queso fresco (cheese) standing out. I've also heard the tamales are authentic and addictive. Ask them for vegetarian versions of these dishes, and know the entire menu is available for carry-out.

Current hours are 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday (closed Sunday), although Moses cautioned that the hours might change. He's gradually getting the El Rico Taco page at Facebook up to speed, so that's the best source.

For now it's just the two of them, and they've only just started. If you're wondering about the sort of food you'd be served if a Mexican family just nailed a shingle to the door of their home and invited paying guests inside, this is it, albeit with lots of books and an ambiance that will evolve over time.

I liked what I've tasted so far, so please give them a shot.

More about George Herriman and Krazy Kat; Michael Tisserand, Herriman's biographer, will be at Destinations Booksellers on Monday, November 19.

In Finnish, too.

The more I read about Herriman and his work, the more interesting it gets.

Michael Tisserand, biographer of Krazy Kat creator George Herriman, will be at Destinations Booksellers on Monday, November 19.

Cary Stemle is the impetus for Tisserand's appearance at Destinations on Monday. He has spoken with the author, and the story is here:

Visiting author will talk about what we can learn from ‘Krazy Kat,’ a cartoon born 100 years ago, by Cary Stemle (Insider Louisville)

Early in the 20th century, an eccentric New Orleans-born figure named George Herriman parlayed his wry sense of humor and accomplished graphic skills into a lucrative and influential career.

After drawing several short-lived newspaper comic strips, Herriman struck artistic gold with “Krazy Kat,” which featured the titular black cat along with a white mouse named Ignatz and a police bulldog called Officer Pupp.

Today, Herriman’s strip remains a topic of interest both culturally and artistically. Michael Tisserand, former editor of the New Orleans alternative newsweekly Gambit, will be in the Louisville area on Monday, Nov. 19, to discuss his biography of the artist, titled “Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White” ...

Michael Tisserand, biographer of Krazy Kat creator George Herriman, will be at Destinations Booksellers on Monday, November 19.

Michael Tisserand, author of the acclaimed book Krazy, will be at Destinations Booksellers on Monday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. The book is in paperback and will be available for purchase. Click on the promo poster for details, and learn more about the book here:

Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White, by Michael Tisserand

In the tradition of Schulz and Peanuts, an epic and revelatory biography of Krazy Kat creator George Herriman that explores the turbulent time and place from which he emerged—and the deep secret he explored through his art.

The creator of the greatest comic strip in history finally gets his due—in an eye-opening biography that lays bare the truth about his art, his heritage, and his life on America’s color line. A native of nineteenth-century New Orleans, George Herriman came of age as an illustrator, journalist, and cartoonist in the boomtown of Los Angeles and the wild metropolis of New York. Appearing in the biggest newspapers of the early twentieth century—including those owned by William Randolph Hearst—Herriman’s Krazy Kat cartoons quickly propelled him to fame. Although fitfully popular with readers of the period, his work has been widely credited with elevating cartoons from daily amusements to anarchic art.

Herriman used his work to explore the human condition, creating a modernist fantasia that was inspired by the landscapes he discovered in his travels—from chaotic urban life to the Beckett-like desert vistas of the Southwest. Yet underlying his own life—and often emerging from the contours of his very public art—was a very private secret: known as "the Greek" for his swarthy complexion and curly hair, Herriman was actually African American, born to a prominent Creole family that hid its racial identity in the dangerous days of Reconstruction.

Drawing on exhaustive original research into Herriman’s family history, interviews with surviving friends and family, and deep analysis of the artist’s work and surviving written records, Michael Tisserand brings this little-understood figure to vivid life, paying homage to a visionary artist who helped shape modern culture.

What is Take Life on the Road?

Taking life on the road means "road trip," and Take Life on the Road does the driving.

Take Life on the Road® is the tour division of Destinations Booksellers and we market ourselves under the name Take Life on the Road® (DTI -Destinations Tours Indiana). You can phone or text us at (812) 944-5116 or email us at takelifeontheroad@gmail.com. We’re on Twitter as @DTIRoadLife, on Facebook as TakeLifeontheRoad.

Watch for our Instagram feed and coming soon, our YouTube channel.

More in depth: Our Story.

Looking for a place to get your food business started? The kitchen space at Destinations Booksellers is open.

Taco Steve is no more - if you have the right idea, as a tenant or as a partner, make an appointment to make your pitch. We are committed to use our "hatchery" to launch another restaurant here. It works.

For the uninitiated, Taco Steve has been operating for a couple of years in a complete and furnished kitchen and cafe area in the rear of Destinations Booksellers.

With Taco Steve's current move to the kitchen space at Bank Street Brewhouse, Randy and Ann are looking for "next."

For prospective food service operators, it might be an incubator arrangement, or a permanent location. All options are on the table, and a potential market of several hundred residents at The Breakwater is situated right across Spring Street (which carries automotive traffic and boasts bicycle lanes).

Destinations Booksellers
604 E Spring St
New Albany, Indiana
Call (812) 944-5116

NAHS State Champ Books FORMERLY were available at Destinations Booksellers.

Photographed on July 11, 2016.

3:30 p.m. update: I'm told that no more of these books remain at DB. Hopefully you've already gotten yours.  

Book Celebrates New Albany’s State Basketball Champions

At Destinations Booksellers: Kwang Suh and his 4 Measures for the Unification of the Korean Peninsula.

Kwang Suh "is on a mission to educate as many people as possible on the four steps necessary to reunite North and South Korea."

But first -- cooking school!!!

Gotta have those priorities straight, boys.

Now, where were we?

It's another quality presentation coming to Destinations Booksellers, and having just finished reading chapter 19 in the book Stalin's Curse ("Looking at Asia from the Kremlin"), dealing with the causes of the Korean War, I'm planning on attending and looking forward to learning.

You've been forewarned.

Author Kwang Suh's mission: Reuniting Korea; retired professor to hold book signing Tuesday, by Chris Morris (What Happens in Clark County Stays in Clark County)

“I want people to know all over the world that after 70 years, North and South Korea are still separated,” he said. “It’s so ridiculous. People with the same language, same culture, same people ... families separated.”

Suh has written a book titled, “4 Measures for the Unification of the Korean Peninsula.” He will have a book signing from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, at Destinations Booksellers, 604 E. Spring St., New Albany.

Book events: "100 Things to Do in Louisville Before You Die," by Kevin Gibson, at Destinations Booksellers on Thursday, March 10.

File under: Books (with Taco Steve chaser).

100 Things to Do in Louisville Before You Die, by Randy Smith (Destinations Booksellers)

We all understand the concept of the “bucket list.” Whether we’ve done it yet or not, visiting Niagara Falls is on most of our bucket lists. Kevin Gibson thinks there’s plenty to do without even filling up your gas tank and tells us about it in 100 Things to Do in Louisville Before You Die.

The Insider Louisville feature/news writer, who covers local food and beverage businesses with flair, will introduce his latest book at Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana, on Thursday, March 10, at 7 p.m. It’s an unticketed event, but as it’s being held in the dining room of Taco Steve (see Gibson’s introductory story about the eatery), dining reservations are suggested. Call 812-670-6463 to reserve a table.

Novelist Tim Dorsey will be at Destinations Booksellers, this Sunday (Feb. 28).

For additional background from 2008:

A Storm "Serge": Tim Dorsey author appearance Tuesday at Destinations Booksellers.

Now it's 2016, and he's coming around again. Click through to read all about it.

Tim Dorsey Returns to Destinations Feb. 28 at Destinations Booksellers

We're thrilled to bring back one of our all-time favorite novelists, Tim Dorsey, as part of his 2016 National Book Tour in support of his newest novel, Coconut Cowboy.

Tim is the most recent recipient of the John D. MacDonald Award for Excellence in Florida Fiction, an honor first awarded to the late Elmore Leonard in 1992. Tim is just the seventh honoree.

New Albany has been honored with a visit by Tim Dorsey twice before, including the day our mayor declared "Tim Dorsey Day" back in 2006. Tim has dozens of local fans and his tours draw visitors from hundreds of miles around.

This trip will be his first Sunday afternoon visit and we'll be open at noon (Feb. 28) with special food and drink offerings from Taco Steve and Destinations Booksellers. Tim's presentation begins at 2 p.m. and will be followed by a book-signing. The event will conclude at 4 p.m.

In his own words: Taco Steve and his journey.

Taco Steve himself recently spoke with Develop New Albany. For hours and updates, stay tuned to Taco Steve's page at Facebook.

--

Get to know locally owned Taco Steve's

My journey with the Taco Steve Brand has been pretty short thus far. The concept of mobile taco vending certainly isn't new to the culinary world, but it's new to New Albany. I first had the idea circa 2009 when a good friend and I were leasing a kitchen in what used to be Connor's Place on Market street in downtown NA. We felt that the downtown revitalization was just beginning to get sure footing. We wanted to be a part of the boom.

My tacos are usually served with a choice of 3-4 different meats, usually Chipotle Chicken, Pork Verde and Chorizo with Yukon Gold Potatoes and Cabbage. Occasionally I'll do an Asian style Soy-Ginger Chicken taco w/ Sesame and Rice Vinegar Slaw, or a Pork and Granny Smith Apple Mojo taco.

Appetizers include Fresh Guacamole (made to order), Chorizo Nachos, Black Bean Mash w/ Cheddar, and sometimes Chicken Wings in Valentina Buffalo Sauce. The wings are a hard sell for lunch, so they'll usually only be available in the evening.

I've been very fortunate to have a group of friends and loyal customers that believe in me and the business. To date, I've only had one investor. But the group that helped me put together the physical entity is equally important. That includes Randy Smith and Ann Baumgartle, owners of Destinations Booksellers where Taco Steve is now located. They've been undeniably integral in the process. 

Also, Chris Schipper, Chris Dixon, and Craig Wilson, who helped me with remodeling (and forced me to keep my chin up when things looked bleak). The good people of New Albany's own Underground Station have been very supportive. Cisa Barry of Sew Fitting, Katie Traughber of Katered To You, Reecee and China of Underground Classic Cuts, and Andy Carter have all been very supportive. 

But the most important person of all has yet to grace us. My betrothed beauty, Liz Skelton, and our child Orion Juliet, is really what inspires me.

- Steve Powell

Taco Steve's revised menu and hours of operation at 604 E. Spring St. in New Albany.

Keep up with Taco Steve at his Facebook page. I enjoyed two tacos for lunch today, and it could become a habit.

Taco Steve's menu and the bricks 'n' mortar hours of operation.

Note Taco Steve's holiday hours this week: Open Wed., Thurs. and Sat. (closed Christmas Day).

"Taco Steve is ushering in the New Year slow and steady. We'll be open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. for dine-in or take-out. Call 812-670-6463. Always at 604 E. Spring Street, in the back of Destinations Booksellers. Cheap, Fast, and Literate."

Selling New Albany by the pound? Hey, I'm a bureaucrat, and "I'm only doing my job!"

Something to think about from Steve Turgoose, and as the 1960s rock group once advised, "we have all been here before."

From 2010: "Weights, measures, short pours, long odds and Little Big Pints."

NABC’s Pizzeria & Public House was twice visited last week by Floyd County’s recently installed local weights and measures inspector. His stated reason for knocking on our door was a complaint he had received to the effect that we were not offering full pours of beer.

Consequently, in order to comply with the letter of the law in a place that seldom enforces any of them, we shall continue pouring draft beer as we always have, while recalibrating the way we’ve spoken about our draft business for 18 complaint-free years, as we learn new ways to describe what we're pouring by speaking in vague shades of linguistic, liquid content.

Not only have I been there, but apparently it's where I reside; at least once a year, like clockwork, taking time away from managing a small business to grapple with soulless, turf-hugging bureaucrats. It's enough to make a guy into a Tea Partier, though so far I've been able to avoid the siren's call.

These ruminations are occasioned by the experience of the Bookseller, who lately has been offering books by the pound. What might a few stray ounces constitute between friends and customers? And is the "letter" of the law really applicable to what is, in reality, a marketing ploy?

Must be payback time. Our cute little gimmick of selling a few of our surplus books "by the pound" motivated a 2-man inspection team to come out and harass me for selling books at 25 cents an ounce. City's worried someone might get cheated out of a quarter. Once I realized it wasn't a prank, I got mad. And, as with every regulator this city has thrown at us, we passed. Ridiculous overreach of jurisdiction. And yes, I said do your job and gtfo.

Taco Steve's storefront is coming.

What began as Powell's Pigs and Cows eventually became Taco Steve, a phenomenon that has been slowly percolating throughout 2015.

Stephen Powell, who for a great many years was an employee of mine at the New Albanian Brewing Company, started rolling his taco cart to downtown street corners, and began developing a following.

Stephen "Taco Steve" Powell, his taco cart, and downtown New Albany.

Another instance of his business's evolution took a step forward last night, when Taco Steve did an invitation-only "soft opening" of his forthcoming bricks 'n' mortar location in the former Dueling Grounds Cafe space at Destinations Booksellers (604 E. Spring).

Thanks to everyone who came out for the opening. Next time I'll make more food. Regular hours will be posted soon for the Spring Street location, after some analysis and fine-tuning. Tacos for Everyone!

For further information, check the Taco Steve page at Facebook. I'm happy and hopeful for him. In an era of immediate gratification, Steve is taking a modest gradualist's approach, seeking to get small things right and basics put into place, and only then growing ... incrementally.

There'll be much to come, so stay tuned to Taco Steve.

Linda Gugin and Jim St. Clair to talk about their book "Indiana's 200" on Dec. 3 at Destinations Booksellers.

Follow the link and read all about it. Maybe I'll bring some growlers of Pay Packet Ale.

(that's an inside joke, folks)

Gugin, St. Clair Book Talk Dec. 3

Historians Linda Gugin and Jim St. Clair will be at Destinations Booksellers on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 2 p.m. to present Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State, their latest collaboration as editors of Indiana history.