Indiana town nominates Village Idiot

The April 1 meeting of village elders in a tiny Indiana town was no joke.

Though the agenda may have sounded like a gag, the annual election of the Village Idiot in the town of Story was entirely serious, with community members casting their votes for the neighbor they believed made the biggest blunder in the past year.

This year's winner, artist Brad Cox, was selected for a particularly inept oil change that left his wife's car without a working transmission, according to a press release issued by the co-owners of the town's sole employer, the Story Inn.

Voting for the title took place at the inn's tavern, the Still, located beneath its old general store.

"The balloting process consists of submissions to the tavern's bartender," the release stated, and the one requirement to vote is that, at some point, you must have been a customer there.

"We don't have a mayor, town council or anything resembling a municipal government here," the inn's co-owner Jacob Ebel said in the release. "We don't need that kind of stuff."

Cox and his wife, Stephanie, run Cox Mill studio just outside of Nashville in Brown County, where Story is located. Eight years ago, Brad created the iconic bar stools at the Story Inn from old tractor seats and plows, the release stated.

However, while Cox is a man of many skills, basic automobile maintenance is not one of them, the release stated.

According to his nomination for the Village Idiot title, Cox failed to refill the transmission fluid in his wife's vehicle during a recent oil change, which resulted in the transmission giving out on her 25-mile drive to work.

"I must have changed the oil in that car 80 times," Cox said in the release. "I taught our kids how to change the oil, too. I don't know what happened to me that day."

For his humiliation, Cox received a $100 gift certificate and will hold the title of "Village Idiot" until March 31, 2018.

Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at 502-582-4646 or bloosemore@courier-journal.com.

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