Several weeks ago, a new blog appeared that has quickly been picking up traction on Facebook and other social media sites around Louisville - . Its authorship is somewhat unknown, though is reportedly written by an elderly couple from Germantown, Frank and Sandy Thompson. Clearly written with a satirical bend, it’s hard to determine if the claimed authors are legitimate, so I reached out to them to attempt to dig deeper and find out just who Frank and Sandy Thompson are.
The author(s) responded quickly - “let’s meet at Mo’s on Wednesday evening,” they told me. “I don’t like people coming around the house since we’ve stirred up trouble.” I asked what he meant by that, but he only responded by telling me that there were some people unhappy about his “vigil over Germantown.” The email correspondence we had was all signed “-Frank,” so I took that to mean either someone is incredibly dedicated to the character, or there is in fact a Frank Thompson who I would be meeting on Wednesday evening.
I gathered up my notebook, hopped in my car and headed over to Mo’s at 5:45 for my 6:00 meeting, parked in the parking lot and waited. After a half hour had passed, I was starting to think I had been stood up. I had given “Frank” a description of my car, and had hoped that would suffice, but several customers had come and gone with no one approaching me. I went inside to grab a drink, and asked the clerk if he knew who Frank Thompson was. He didn’t, but he had read the blog. “Funny stuff,” he told me. “I can’t believe that they like that. Great stuff.”
I went back to my car and waited a bit longer, but no one came. After a little over an hour, I decided that I had been stood up and I headed home. I hopped on the internet and shot Frank an email asking what had happened, but with no response I decided to try trawling the web for more info - maybe someone was out there claiming responsibility for the blog?
A few searches led me to a Twitter account called LouisvillBeardBesand ( ), who claimed to be the writer - I was surprised, since the person I had been speaking with had gone to great lengths to remain anonymous. Why would the individual who I spoke with constantly dodge my questions while proudly stating on a well-followed Twitter account that they were the writer? I tweeted at RyDeBe and asked him to get in touch with me about the article, but I haven’t heard anything back. Since I had yet to hear back from the actual writer, I emailed them again and asked for a response to the twitter account I had found.
As i prepared to publish this article, I heard back from “Frank,” who says that he isn’t associated with the other twitter account. He also explained that he “had a hot tip about about a in the east end and had no choice but to go report on it.” Perhaps not a total loss, as his latest investigation was quite fun to read.
As satirical as the site is it’s doubtful that Frank and Sandy Thompson are real people, but I’m intrigued by whoever is doing the writing. They’ve found the nerve of Germantown, and they’re hitting it on the head with piece after piece. I might not have found any of the answers I was looking for, but it’s fascinating to have such an interesting puzzle right here in my own neighborhood.
Photo courtesy of Germantown Times
