Higher Education.

I've been reading about how colleges and universities have had to fight for funding during these dour economic times (That's the Claflin College Panther and the Voorhis Tiger duking it out at right). Still, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an institution of higher learning in the Palmetto State, as last weekend's tour of the State revealed. Left from Walterboro, home of University of South Carolina- Salkehatchie's East Campus (and the politically incorrect mascot moniker "Indians"), and took off for Conway, in the Pee Dee Region of the State. Conway is home to Coastal Carolina University which boasts PGA golfer Dustin Johnson among its grads. After completing the first leg of my journey, I headed for Greenville. Along the way, I passed Florence, home of Francis Marion University. I'm not sure which graduates of FMU are famous, but a couple of my buddies, Chris Phillips and Fr. Johnnie Davis have sheepskins from there. From Florence, I travelled through The Midlands, which house Carolina capitol city Columbia's University of South Carolina, of course. You must know that the Gamecocks are are the reigning NCAA baseball champs. From Columbia, it was on to the Upstate, where I passed Newberry College. Newberry is buddy Mike's alma mater (They used to be Indians, but now they're wolves). Just up the road in Clinton, you can exit to visit Presbyterian College (with the beautifully named "Blue Hose" mascot. You are predestined to either get that or not). Through Greenville, I passed both Bob Jones University, alma mater of fellow St. Jude's Vestry member Daron Smith, and Furman University, home of the Paladins (and alma mater of former Leto High School Falcon defensive back John "Whitey Butt" Zemina. After my stay in the Upstate, I headed home, back down I-385 to I-26 past Orangeburg, home of historically black colleges South Carolina State University, and Claflin University. I'm not sure how all these schools are doing in the fight for the diminishing public dollar, but I do know that Claflin University was whipping up on Voorhis at Fluor Field on Friday Night.

Food for Thought.

Jumpin' Jimminy! We're growing meat from stem cells in Charleston! That is to say, we WERE growing meat from animal stem cells in Charleston. The paper referred to it as a "meat lab". According to the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper article photographed at left (which you can link: HERE), the Medical University of South Carolina suspended the Director of the project for insubordination and "unacceptable behavior". The article also contained the following: "While the future of the meat lab remains uncertain, the suspension also calls into question the future of a separate project, a $20 million effort that aims to create human organs from a person's own stem cells". Hmmm. The Director in charge of the "meat from animal stem cells" is suspended, and the project for harvesting organs from human stem cells is in jeopardy. Anybody remember the early seventies Charlton Heston Sci-Fi movie Soylent Green?

South Carolina's Got the Blues.

A few weeks ago, I was travelling about the Palmetto State with Oldest Son. It was Sunday morning, and we popped into a Columbia unit of a national chain to pick up a few items. To our amazement, not everything that the store sold was available for purchase on account of State Blue Laws. I was already aware that buying booze on Sunday was verboten, but this was too much. Half the store was roped-off to save me from myself. The classification system was... puzzling.


If I'm not gonna be in Church, I'd better not try eat Hershey's chocolate. Linde candy is, apparently, not so sinful.


Davis got his contact lens solution, but he was interrogated in line. "You didn't get that on the other side of the rope, did you?". "No, Ma'am. I'd never do such a thing". Never on Sunday.

Olar. Que Pasa?

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of travelling through Olar, South Carolina. Olar is located in Bamberg County, which is one of Colleton County's neighbors. I snapped this picture of the Bank of Olar. It was after 5:00 p.m when I drove by, so I can't say whether or not the Bank of Olar remains a going concern. I loved the Wikipedia entry on Olar. Among the information contained therein was the racial composition of Olar:

"On a side note: the census[1] of 2000, there were 237 people, 111 households, and 71 families residing in the town. The population density was 301.1 people per square mile (115.8/km²). There were 152 housing units at an average density of 193.1/sq mi (74.3/km²).The racial makeup of the town was 52.74% White, 46.41% African American, 0.42% Native American and 0.42% Asian. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.42% of the population".

So, Native Americas and Hispanics make up 0.42 percent, each, of the population of Olar. Okay, let's check the math. The population is 237 souls, so that'd be .0042 times 237 equals... er, one Native American and one Hispanic. Cinco de Mayo must totally rock in Olar.

Winning isn't everything; sometimes there's candy!

The University of South Carolina, as you may have heard, are the 2009-2010 NCAA baseball champions. The Gamecocks whipped up on perennial sports champions University of California at Los Angeles to take the crown. Announcers through the College World Series repeatedly pointed out that UCLA had won more college sports championships than any other college- something like 109 of 'em- in various sports. The only other championship that South Carolina had ever won before, according to So. Car's website, is the 2005 national equestrian championship. This got me thinking: how can USC capitalize on this? Well, sports merchandise, for sure; but, maybe now, finally, we can do what the 2009-2010 National Hockey League Champion Chicago Blackhawks did:

We can shill for penny candy!


Let's hear it for Lemon Head!

Attack of the Gingers!

Lady Di and I made a one hour trek to Kiawah Island for "Blues by the Sea". The Freshfield Market venue was verdant, and a nice sea breeze and a spot in the shade made for pleasant afternoon. We caught the Shane Pruitt Band and a bit of the Skyla Burrell Blues Band, but had to head back to the Boro before headliner Bobby Parker took the stage. The music was good, too; but the thing that most caught my eye was the preponderance of redheaded people- a/k/a "gingers"- that populated the place. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a ginger.

At first, it wasn't so bad. Here's the crowd, see? But look, over in the right-hand corner...

See? Right there!

Look! There's another one.

Hmmm. I'm detecting a pattern here: that read-headed gal sitting just ahead of me bore a striking resemblance to the beer cooler sitting next to me. Maybe terrorists are turning Palmetto State denizens into beer coolers! Maybe that's why Shane Pruitt wants us to give him back his wig!

Roadtrip: Summerville

Lady Di and I traveled about 45 minutes Northeast of the Boro to the growing hamlet of Summerville. Walterboro has its annual Rice Festival; Summerville, a/k/a Flowertown, has the Azalea Festival. Summerville is a mish-mash of old and new. There are plenty of chain restaurants and stores, and newish subdivisions with nice houses at relatively cheap prices for people who want to live near Charleston without paying Charleston prices. There are also old-time Dorchester County politics and lots of ramshackle areas that need a good scrubbing. We were headed to one of the chain stores, Lowe's, to hunt a new convection oven for Lady Di.

Summerville and Lowe's are both excellent places to hunt "Bubbas". Look! There's one now.

We talked with Xavier. Xavier gave us a good price on a convection oven and matching microwave set. 'Course, they couldn't deliver it to Diane until Saturday.

There's the oven.
We checked out Carol, as she checked us out. Diane can't wait until Saturday.

Roadtrip Columbia

Diane and I spent the weekend in South Carolina's capitol, Columbia. Like a lot of the Palmetto State, Columbia is a mishmash of the old and the new. The old, cantankerous South abounds near the Statehouse:

A monument to the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, adorns the grounds of the Statehouse.

...as does a monument to the Confederacy.




Here's a monument on the Statehouse grounds to Pitchfork_Ben_Tillman. Tillman was a governor of South Carolina, and a U.S. Senator. He gained his nickname for threatening to run his political opponents through with a pitchfork.


Across the street is the old South Carolina Supreme Court Building. I argued a few appellate cases there over the years, with varying degrees of success. The Chief Justice of the SC Supreme Court when I moved to the Palmetto State was Julius B. "Bubba" Ness. Ness was legendary for his common sense solutions to problems, and for his proclamation, "I may be wrong, but I'm never in doubt".

Not every old thing in Columbia comes with negative baggage. The Adluh_Flour_Mill is the cornerstone of the trendy Vista District of Columbia, and has graced downtown Columbia since 1900.

The Trustus Theater, where you could catch a current play, was right across the street from our hotel.

There's a lot of new stuff going on in Columbia, too. As I wandered toward the University of South Carolina campus, I caught this banner advertising the Columbia Symphony.

The State Museum was only a couple of blocks away.

I checked out the WWI exhibit there. The Civil War Museum was doing decent business, but the dinosaurs got most of the action.










Decisions, decisions. No left turn here, thank you very much.

Somebody Stop the Madness.

South Carolina's Lieutenant Governor (and Gubernatorial hopeful), Andre Bauer, has The Palmetto State back in the National News again, and not in a good way. In a gathering in the upstate he likened public assistance programs for the needy to "feeding stray animals", which, apparently, is a bad thing "because they breed". Ouch. In a January 23, 2010 article in The State newspaper, Bauer justified plans to cut free or reduced lunch plans for students whose parents didn't attend PTA meetings saying, "People in society have certain responsibilities, just like if you don't pay your taxes, there are certain repercussions". Wait. Isn't this the same dude that, during his tenure as Lt. Gov, got pulled twice in four months for speeding (including one jaunt at more than 100 miles per hour) but_didn't_get_a_ticket? Personal responsibility, apparently, only applies to the poor. Well, Andre, this song's for you:

Go, USC (which is to say, South Carolina. Not the other one)

According to an article in the Charleston (South Carolina, not West Virginia) Post_and_Courier, a Federal appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that the "USC" letter logo means "University of Southern California" and not "University of South Carolina". What difference does it make? Well, a lot. College sports are big business, both on and off the field. The University of South Carolina Gamecocks may not have had a great season on the field, but they were
Number12 in the country in the net money which their athletic programs brought to the school. Sports merchandise, at least as much as gate receipts from games, means big bucks. The USC or SC logos are a bigger deal to Carolina (South, not North) in baseball than football. Football games, with their omnipresent cheerleaders and spectacle, can highlight their mascots on sports paraphernalia, but a big chicken just looks gaudy on a baseball cap. Guess we got to get Cocky in baseball, too.

Fat, Dumb, and Happy.

Looky here! South Carolina is among the Happiest States in the Country. The article in today's Charleston "Post and Courier" has us at number six, the Yahoo News article has us at number eight. Either way, we're in the top ten.

We're also in the top ten Fattest States, and Dumbest States (as measured by S.A.T. test results). Hmmm. Not sure what to make of that. Guess I'll have a cheeseburger and not think about it.

The Citadel versus Michigan State.

My lovely fiance, Diane, grew up in Michigan, and is a big Michigan State Spartans fan. See? Here's a shot from Spartan Stadium in East Lansing in October. Anyway, as many football fans do at this time of year, she was lamenting what might have been on the gridiron, and expressing hope for the early basketball season. I'd mentioned that the Big 10 teams (all eleven of them) have a Big 10/ACC challenge, and that maybe MSU would play Clemson or something and we could go see them play. She was at the computer, and -lo and behold- Coach Tom Izzo, Sparty, and the rest of 11th ranked crew would be visiting Charleston to play the Citadel at the McAlister Fieldhouse. She scored tickets, and we were on our way.


The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) are the only state-supported military colleges in the country, and The Citadel has always intrigued me. Though I've lived fairly close to Charleston these last 22 years or so, I'd never been to the Citadel. Though there are plenty of Citadel grads in the area, including my running partner, Kevin, most of what I know about the Citadel I learned from Pat Conroy's books. Conroy has not always portrayed his Alma Mater in a flattering light, and his relationship with the Citadel has, in the past, been strained. They've largely patched things up, apparently, and he was at a book signing for his new book, South of Broad, upstairs.

It was interesting to see a cadet in a guardbox wave us in to campus, and respond with "Maam" when Diane asked him a question; to watch students in gray uniforms march ram-rod straight in little narrow paths out of late classes; to see Freshman "knobs" with their shaved heads; to watch the student section singing "Hey, Baby" in unison, just like the fraternity stuff I remembered many, many years ago.

Citadel coach Ed Conroy (cousin of the aforementioned author), had the Bulldogs ready for the game. Though eventually MSU pulled away to win by 13 or so, the contest was a lot better than the Spartans expected. Powered by a meteor-shower of three-point shots, The Citadel battled MSU toe-to-toe for most of the game. I'm marrying in to Spartan fandom, but I may yet be a Bulldog fan, too.