Everyone makes errors
November 12, 2026By Jeff Becraft Cooper Pratt is the rookie shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers… who just recently won the World Series. Cooper made four errors in a short number of…
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Who has seen the wind?
November 11, 2026By Tom Poland When I see photographs of Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park I want to explore a desert right then. Until I do, the fragile deserts along…
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General Joseph Brevard Kershaw: A different kind of cavalier
November 10, 2026Camden was the hometown of some of the best-known South Carolinians during the Civil War. There was Richard Rowland Kirkland, the hero known as the Angel of Marye’s Heights; Maxcy…
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Relic Room open on Veterans Day, and military gets in free
November 10, 2026Veterans Day is about honoring those who have served our country in uniform in the past – and the present. Although Veterans Day is a state holiday, the South Carolina…
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A definition for ‘Team’
November 5, 2026By Jeff Becraft Every Friday email starts off with the same greeting – “Team!” It has been that way for years. Now some people might be wondering what “Team”…
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South Carolina State Museum celebrates 38 years of discovery and looks ahead to ‘Make Way for MORE’ expansion
November 4, 2026As the South Carolina State Museum celebrates 38 years as the state’s primary cultural storyteller, leadership is preparing for a monumental new chapter: an ambitious, multi-phase revitalization designed to reshape…
Read MorePosted in: beaufortcurrent, lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, georgetown-sc-gazette, golden-strip-news, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: festivals-special-events, history, life, local-industry, on-the-move
One Sad Thing About Fall
November 3, 2026By Tom Poland I look forward to fall’s crisp air, college football, and colorful foliage, but with the good comes the sad. Hummingbirds take leave of us. It’s been…
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SCMMS Toy Soldier Show set for Nov. 14
November 3, 2026Earlier this year, The South Carolina Military Miniature Society won first place in dioramas for their miniature version of the Battle of Cowpens at the annual Toy Soldier Show in…
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Being known
October 28, 2026By Jeff Becraft My favorite definition of intimacy is “to be fully known and yet still delighted in.” Now, here is what goes on in a lot of places……
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Something In The Grits Ain’t Gravy
October 28, 2026By Tom Poland Down South we have sayings for every occasion. “Something in the grits ain’t gravy” is a way of saying you smell a rat. Take wrestling. It…
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German POWs in S.C. weren’t like American in the Stalags – Lecture Friday, Nov. 6.
October 28, 2026Free lecture at noon at the museum on Friday, Nov. 6. During the Second World War, the main thing Americans held prisoner by the Germans wanted was to get out…
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Blink Book Review Two-Fer: “It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway” and “Good Apple” by Elizabeth Passarella
October 22, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell South Carolina writer A friend’s recommendation led me to listen to It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway by Elizabeth Passarella. Yet another book I judged…
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Reader’s Digest
October 21, 2026By Tom Poland My Boyhood Read I read my mother’s Reader’s Digests from cover to cover. It’s hard to find one today, but if you do, it will take…
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Blood, death, mourning: Hear spooky folklore at the Relic Room
October 19, 2026Death and mourning were a big part of life in the 19th century. They even left an indelible mark on art and fashion, from such macabre stories as Edgar Allen…
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Meta brings national AI accessibility initiative to Columbia, providing free smart glasses to blind veterans
October 15, 2026Meta is bringing its nationwide artificial intelligence accessibility initiative to South Carolina’s Midlands this week, partnering with the American Council of the Blind to provide free Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: festivals-special-events, health-wellness, life, media, non-profit, on-the-move, veterans
All Along The Watchtower
October 14, 2026By Tom Poland Structures That Command the Eye In my journeys across the South, Georgialina, in particular, I take note of clock towers, watchtowers, and steeples. How can I…
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Kiaris joins Morton & Gettys
October 10, 2026Morton & Gettys is pleased that University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law graduate Frosini Kiaris has joined the firm as an associate. Her practice includes employment…
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The impromptu things of life
October 10, 2026By Jeff Becraft Since I wrote about doing a weekend camp about a week ago with a children’s home in North Carolina, I want to mention something that happened…
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The Country Store
October 7, 2026By Tom Poland The Soul of the South Had Everything “Where should I send you to know the Soul of the South? I’ll send you to the Mast General Store.”…
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Changing chapters
October 7, 2026By Jeff Becraft At about 7:00 a.m. this morning, as Brenda was heading out the door to go to work, she says to me, “Well, this was the last…
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Beauty from ashes
September 30, 2026By Jeff Becraft Last weekend, I had the privilege of speaking at a weekend retreat for Black Mountain Home for Children. That is why there was no Friday email…
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Puttin’ Out The Fire
September 30, 2026By Tom Poland Sometimes It’s Healthier Not To “As night deepened all he could see was the shifting line of fire, like some malfunction in the wiring of the…
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JerryFest returns to Five Points October 4 for a free day of music, community and good vibes
September 29, 2026A free outdoor concert held annually in Five Points will feature regional music acts, two stages, artisan vendors, a Lil’ Hippie Corner and more. JerryFest, a FREE outdoor concert annually…
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The 2026 Greater Cayce-West Columbia Chamber Holiday Parade of Lights being held December 12
September 25, 2026Get ready to light up the streets for the 2026 Greater CWC Holiday Parade of Lights! Businesses, organizations, community groups, schools, families, and festive parade enthusiasts are invited to join…
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Lee’s last campaign brought him to Columbia
September 25, 2026After the war that made him one of the most admired military leaders in history, Robert E. Lee devoted what influence he had to guiding the South toward recovery, stability,…
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The best is not always easy
September 24, 2026By Jeff Becraft A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to speak at the chapel service for Garden City Chapel. So Brenda and I went down to Garden…
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Small Town Trains, Hope For The Future?
September 23, 2026By Tom Poland The road looks just like one on Granddad’s farm running into hardwoods where a spring bubbled in shade. Come sundown in Granddad’s battered old car, we’d…
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The Civil War Changed Funeral Customs
September 16, 2026By Tom Poland A do-it-yourself casket for a pet is as close most get today. I’ve heard of people paying a carpenter to build a casket for a dog,…
Read MorePosted in: beaufortcurrent, lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, georgetown-sc-gazette, golden-strip-news, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: life, on-the-move
Watching hummingbirds
September 16, 2026(opens in new tab) By Jeff Becraft My wife has several hummingbird feeders hanging on our front porch. Four to be exact. Two weeks ago I talked about flies…
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It’s okay to not be okay
September 11, 2026(opens in new tab) By Jeff Becraft In one of his movies, Clint Eastwood says, “Every man needs to know his limitations.” I don’t really remember much about that…
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The Deadly Silo
September 9, 2026By Tom Poland I’ve always looked at silos with wonderment. Silos fill me with a sense of mystery. Just how do they work? Then I began to notice nearly all…
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Pursue that which is most important today
September 2, 2026(opens in new tab) By Jeff Becraft Now, I am not a scientist, and I have never done any study on flies. And I have no desire to even…
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Jackson Station Rhythm & Blues Club
September 2, 2026By Tom Poland October 1977—April 1990 Where The Music Died Now and then a kind of gravity draws me to an old building. I’m driving south on SC Highway 25…
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Blink Book Review: “Woe Is I” by Patricia O’Conner”
September 2, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell I’ve been working my way through some new and not-so-new favorite writing books this summer. One I’ve revisited is the latest edition of Patricia T.…
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LawyerLisa recognized in the 33rd Edition of The Best Lawyers in America
August 31, 2026Managing Attorney, Lisa Hostetler Brown, has been recognized by her peers in the 33rd Edition of The Best Lawyers in America© for 2027 for her exceptional work in Elder Law.…
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Jumping into the action
August 28, 2026(opens in new tab) By Jeff Becraft Years ago, I was on a week-long camp with a children’s home. Halfway through the week on Wednesday, the leader of the…
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Remembering Sacks, Wagons, Indians, & Leather
August 27, 2026By Tom Poland I visited the Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum of South Carolina in Pendleton a few weeks back. If you’re a product of the rural South as I…
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Blink Book Review: “The Book Club for Troublesome Women” by Marie Bostwick
August 26, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell After my mom died in April, I started culling through random photos, grocery lists, checkbooks and other memorabilia she had tucked in long forgotten boxes.…
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Christmas stamps
August 19, 2026By Jeff Becraft Last December, we ran out of stamps. It was late one night and I decided to go to the post office and use their self-service station…
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A Chain-Smoking Cat Saved My Life
August 19, 2026By Tom Poland Maybe I Saved Hers Too Summer 2022, St. Simons Island, I’m sitting around the pool when my niece, Harper, and her friend, Stella, ask me to…
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Blink Book Review: “The Irish Goodbye” by Beth Ann Fennelly
August 19, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell My summer reading challenge continues with another book about writing. But this one doesn’t include a single tip, hint or rule to make my writing better.…
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Free lecture addresses what the Vietnam War meant, and how it ended – Friday, Sept. 4
August 19, 2026Free lecture at noon on Friday, Sept. 4, at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia At first, the Vietnam Memorial in Washington was controversial, especially…
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A Disastrous Revolutionary War Battle
August 12, 2026By Tom Poland Old battlefields seem more like parks. Trying to imagine cannon and cries of the wounded? Difficult, but not always. Farmers’ plows unearthed so many Minié balls…
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The difference that one person makes
August 12, 2026By Jeff Becraft I talked about this a few years ago, but tagging onto what was written a little over a week ago about working together and the difference…
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Blink Book Review: “This Dog Will Change Your Life” by Elias Weiss Friedman
August 11, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell Dog people know exactly how this happens. You pick up a book thinking it will be about dogs, and halfway through you’re smiling (or maybe crying)…
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Challenging some assumptions about rifles & muskets during the Revolution
August 10, 2026There’s an old joke about the American Revolution. It says the Patriots must have won a coin toss at the start, and elected to shoot from behind rocks and trees…
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Memory—The Good, Bad, Ugly & Sad
August 5, 2026By Tom Poland “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” Cormac McCarthy’s words. Lord knows I’d like to forget some things, namely…
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Blink Book Review: “Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences” by Anne Lamott and Neal Allen
August 5, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell I’ve never met an Anne Lamott book I didn’t love. Most I’ve read multiple times. Anne’s writing is saucy, insightful, sometimes a little edgy, and…
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Get Some Windshield Therapy
July 29, 2026By Tom Poland If you need to escape life’s ills, put some glass in front of your eyes and forget your worries on a back road. You’ll discover the bones…
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Blink Book Review: Anna Quindlen’s “More Than Enough”
July 29, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell Anna Quindlen has long been one of my favorite authors, so I downloaded this audiobook without knowing much about this novel. That turned out to be…
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