KEEPING UP WITH the JONES

Today In History: Edward Rutledge is a Reluctant Rebel

2011-06-29T04:23:00.001-07:00

On this day in 1776, Edward Rutledge, one of South Carolina''s representatives to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, expresses his reluctance to declare independence from Britain in a letter to the like-minded John Jay of New York.

Contrary to the majority of his Congressional colleagues, Rutledge advocated patience with regards to declaring independence. In a letter to Jay, one of New York's representatives who was similarly disinclined to rush a declaration, Rutledge worried whether moderates like himself and Jay could "effectually oppose" a resolution for independence. Jay had urgent business in New York and therefore was not able to be present for the debates. Thus, Rutledge wrote of his concerns.

Rutledge was born in Charleston, to a physician who had emigrated from Ireland. Edward's elder brother John studied law at London's Middle Temple before returning to set up a lucrative practice in Charleston. Edward followed suit and studied first at Oxford University before being admitted to the English bar at the Middle Temple. He too returned to Charleston, where he married and began a family in a house across the street from his brother. As revolutionary politics roiled the colonies, first John, then Edward served as South Carolina's representative to the Continental Congress. Neither Rutledge brother was eager to sever ties with Great Britain, but it fell to Edward to sign the Declaration of Independence and create the appearance of unanimity to strengthen the Patriots' stand. At age 26, Edward Rutledge was the youngest American to literally risk his neck by signing the document.

Today In History,1994: Nicole Brown Simpson & Ron Goldman Murdered by ...?

2011-06-12T04:41:00.000-07:00

Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicole's home in Brentwood, California, in what quickly becomes one of the most highly publicized trials of the century. With overwhelming evidence against him, including a prior record of domestic violence towards Brown, O.J. Simpson became the chief suspect.

Although he had agreed to turn himself in, Simpson escaped with friend A.C. Cowlings in his white Ford Bronco on June 17. He was carrying his passport, a disguise, and $8,750 in cash. Simpson's car was spotted that afternoon, but he refused to surrender immediately. Threatening to kill himself, he led police in a low-speed chase through the freeways of Los Angeles as the entire nation watched on television. Eventually, Simpson gave himself up at his home in Brentwood.

The evidence against Simpson was extensive: His blood was found at the murder scene; blood, hair, and fibers from Brown and Goldman were found in Simpson's car and at his home; one of his gloves was also found in Brown's home, the other outside his own house; and bloody shoeprints found at the scene matched those of shoes owned by Simpson.

However, Simpson's so-called "Dream Team" of defense lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, claimed before a national television audience that Simpson had been framed by racist police officers such as Detective Mark Fuhrman. After deliberating for three hours, the jury acquitted Simpson. He vowed to find the "real killers," but has yet to turn up any new leads.

In a civil trial brought about by the families of the victims, Simpson was found responsible for causing Goldman's death and committing battery against Brown in February 1997, and was ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million, little of which he has paid.

In 2007, Simpson ran into legal problems once again when he was arrested for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and taking sports memorabilia, which he claimed had been stolen from him, at gunpoint. On October 3, 2008, he was found guilty of 12 charges related to the incident, including armed robbery and kidnapping, and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

TODAY IN HISTORY,1973: Secretariat wins Triple Crown

2011-06-09T04:29:00.000-07:00

With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America's coveted Triple Crown--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in 2 minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance.

Secretariat was born at Meadow Stables in Doswell, Virginia, on March 30, 1970. He was sired by Bold Ruler, the 1957 Preakness winner, and foaled by Somethingroyal, which came from a Thoroughbred line known for its stamina. An attractive chestnut colt, he grew to over 16 hands high and was at two years the size of a three-year-old. He ran his first race as a two-year-old on July 4, 1972, a 5 1/2-furlong race at Aqueduct in New York City. He came from behind to finish fourth; it was the only time in his career that he finished a race and did not place. Eleven days later, he won a six-furlong race at Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, New York, and soon after, another race. His trainer, Lucien Laurin, moved him up to class in August, entering him in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga, which he won by three lengths. By the end of 1972, he had won seven of nine races. With easy victories in his first two starts of 1973, Secretariat seemed on his way to the Triple Crown. Just two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, however, he stumbled at the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, coming in third behindAngle Light and Sham.

The amazing photo of Secretariat's 31 length victory in the Belmont Stakes, 1973. Jockey Ron Turcotte claimed he did nothing during the race but hold on.

On May 5, he met Sham and Angle Light again at the Churchill Downs track in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. Secretariat, a 3-to-2 favorite, broke from near the back of the pack to win the 2 1/4-mile race in a record 1 minute and 59 seconds. He was the first to run the Derby in less than two minutes and his record still stands. Two weeks later, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Secretariat won the second event of the Triple Crown: the Preakness Stakes. The official clock malfunctioned, but hand-recorded timers had him running the 1 1/16-mile race in record time. On June 9, 1973, almost 100,000 people came to Belmont Park near New York City to see if "Big Red" would become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown. Secretariat gave the finest performance of his career in the Belmont Stakes, completing the 1.5-mile race in a record 2 minutes and 24 seconds, knocking nearly three seconds off the track record set by Gallant Man in 1957. He also won by a record 31 lengths. Ron Turcotte, who jockeyed Secretariat in all but three of his races, claimed that at Belmont he lost control of Secretariat and that the horse sprinted into history on his own accord. Secretariat would race six more times, winning four and finishing second twice.

In November 1973, the "horse of the century" was retired and put to stud at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Among his notable offspring is the 1988 Preakness and Belmont winner, Risen Star. Secretariat was euthanized in 1989 after falling ill. An autopsy showed that his heart was two and a half times larger than that of the average horse, which may have contributed to his extraordinary racing abilities. In 1999, ESPN ranked Secretariat No. 35 in its list of the Top 50 North American athletes of the 20th century, the only non-human on the list.

The REAL History of the Holy City - Merriment!

2011-06-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

In Charleston, change is often a four letter word. More than any American city, Charleston guards its heritage with a passion. A few notable examples include:

1902 - the Powder Magazine (17 Magazine St) was preserved.
1911 - Susan Pringle Frost began purchasing the slums along eastern Tradd Street for renovation.
1913 - Congress authorized the transfer of the Old Exchange Building (122 East Bay St.) to the Daughters of the American Revolution.
1920 - The Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings was established.
1924 - Joseph Manigault House opened as the first house museum, and the Heyward-Washington House was purchased by the Charleston Museum.
1931 – Charleston established the Board of Architectural Review and established the Old and Historic District.

These are only a few of the official acts the city has taken to protect its buildings. But when it comes to protecting the social and cultural heritage of the Holy City it’s not as easy as just passing a city ordinance. After all, the state dance is the Shag, a watered down caucasian version of the much more challenging African-inspired the Charleston. But worse of all is the gradual deterioration of one of Charleston’s longest traditions – merriment!

No more street parties on St. Patrick’s Day. No smoking in ANY building in Charleston. No tailgating at Citadel football games (I guess fireworks at 11 pm after a baseball game in a park named after the current mayor is less disruptive). The only approved street “parties” these days are politically correct cultural events like the Art Walk (even then you can’t carry your topless plastic cup from site-to-site, the MOJO Arts Fesitval and various SPOLETO and Piccolo Spoleto happenings.

By the 1980s all of the “adult clubs” and “massage parlors” that used to be located around the Market area were pushed to the extreme northern end of the city. During the 1990s as the price of real estate began to rise in the downtown area, a new crop of self-important persnickety puritans arrived and slowly strangled the real social character of Charleston. After all, we can’t allow blue collar drunks on the streets of the Holy City having fun, can we?

Well, yes we can. Charleston is called the Holy City due to its number of churches, not due to the behavior of the locals. Maybe if these persnickety puritans had taken the time to learn the “real” heritage of their new city BEFORE they decided to purchase that million dollar home, things might be different. A quick primer on Charleston social behavior:

The city’s namesake, King Charles II was called the Merry Monarch. English historian Samuel Pepys described Charles’ court “as there being so much . . . swearing, drinking and whoring that I do not know what will be the end of it.” Charles admitted to fathering “more than 35 bastards.”

One of the most important men in the establishment of Carolina was Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper. John Dryden noted that Cooper was a man who “loves fumbling with a Wench, with all his heart.” Charles II referred to Cooper as “the greatest whoremaster in England.”

When the first settlers arrived in April 1670, the cargo included 12 tons of beer and 50 barrels of brandy. Seven months later, Captain Joseph West complained that many of the settlers “were so addicted to the Rum, that they will do little whilst the bottle is at their nose.”

In 1768, one hundred and thirty-two taverns were licensed in Charles Town - one for every five adult males. Rev. Charles Woodmason complained that each Saturday so many people in Charleston became so “drunk and stupid, as to be utterly unfit to attend Public Worship on Sunday.” Francis Asbury preached at Old Bethel Church in 1789 and called Charleston the “Sodom and Gomorrah of the South.”

The upper floors of the former Planters Hotel (present location of the Dock Street Theatre) were reserved for “gentlemen and their private guests.” Richard Hofstadter noted: “The Charleston hedonistic life put the other seaboard towns in the shade.” John C. Calhoun became one of Charleston’s most treasured citizens despite the fact that he loathed the city. He called Charleston “intemperate and full of debauchery.”

The Reverend Arthur Crain wrote in 1900: “The city is wide open. No liquor law is being enforced. Drunkenness greets us on every hand. I can meet more drunken men in a 15-minute walk in Charleston than I could in New York, Chicago or any other city.” Six years later the state of South Carolina granted 297 liquor licenses - two hundred and thirteen of them were issued in Charleston. Fifteen bars were located around City Hall and nineteen operated within a block of St. Philip’s Church. During Prohibition, more than 20,000 South Carolinians made a living as a bootlegger.

In October 1942, Charleston police raided Market Street and arrested 626 prostitutes – 346 white and 280 black. Nearly half were found to be infected with venereal disease.

So, welcome to the REAL Charleston, named after the Merry Monarch who fathered more than 35 bastards. The city’s two main rivers are named after “the greatest whoremaster in England,"and until recently we were renowned to be full of debauchery and loose and idle women.

As we approach another summer tourism season I urge everyone to help preserve one of Charleston’s most important heritages: eat drink and be merry, as often as possible. Or, if you’re feeling particularly inspired, eat, drink and be with Mary! And for you cross-dressers – go ahead and eat, drink and BE Mary. After this is the former Sodom and Gomorrah of the South.

FIRST MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION: Charleston 1865.

2011-05-28T05:03:00.000-07:00

A number of towns around the nation claim holding the first Memorial Day, although the distinction generally goes to the town of Waterloo, in upstate New York. Not so fast.

MAY 1, 1865. More than 10,000 people gathered for a parade, to hear speeches and dedicate the graves of Union dead in what is now Hampton Park in Charleston, SC.The group consisted of several thousand black freedmen, northern missionaries and teachers who had arrived in Charleston to teach in freedmen schools post-War.

Hampton Park was originally the Planters Race Course and, during the final months of the Civil War, it was a hellish open-air Confederate prison. A total of 267 Union troops died at the camp, some of whom had been moved from infamous Andersonville in Georgia before it was liberated. The dead were originally buried in a mass grave by the Confederates, but after the war, members of black churches buried them in individual graves at the site of the camp.An arch over the graveyard entrance identified those buried there as "The Martyrs of the Race Course." The Union dead were later moved to national cemeteries.

Union cemetery, 1865 @ Planters Race Course

The Charleston commemoration was referred to at the time as Decoration Day, as were other early Memorial Day observances.The northern troops went home and the memory remained generally with blacks. Memory of the event was suppressed when white Democrats took back control of the state in 1876 and Southern states held their own Confederate Memorial Days.

Hampton Park, 1902

David Blight, a history professor at Yale, has researched the event. "As the Lost Cause tradition set in — the Confederate version of the meaning and memory of the war — no one in white Charleston or the state was interested in remembering the war through this event. At the end of the day you have to ask does it really matter who is first. But if the issue is what is the first event, Charleston occurred a full year earlier."

Memorial Day through the years was generally celebrated May 30. Beginning in 1971, the federal holiday was designated as the last Monday in May.

Hampton Park, today

Oprah Book Club: Hits & Misses

2011-05-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

The best thing about Oprah going off the air is that she will stop recommending bad novels to people too lazy to decide what they want to read.

Since 1996, Oprah has chosen 65 selections for her book club that have engaged, enlightened, entertained, bored and baffled readers. Other than an overabundance of "I'm-a-victim-poor-poor-me" type of stories, there is the out-and-out fraudulent travesty of A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.

Unfortunately, Oprah has bought completely the elite literary sham that for a book to be "taken seriously" it must be overwrought, self-indulgent and mainly ... boring. However, she did occasionally choose a great book, probably by accident.

H I T S

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A LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest K. Gaines. A legitimate classic. Should be read as a companion with To Kill A Mockingbird.

TARA ROAD by Maeve Binchy. Finally, a fun, uplifting book. Oprah should have chosen more than one Binchy novel, instead of the 4 by Toni Morrison, 2 by Wally Lamb, Jane Hamilton, and Kaye Gibbons.

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers. One of the first "adult" novels I read as a teenager that blew me away.

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner. Classic Faulkner weirdness.

NIGHT by Elie Weisel. A genuinely great book.

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett. Possible the best book Oprah chose. Follett's masterpiece.

EAST OF EDEN by John Steinbeck. One of Steinbeck's books (not my first choice) that could have been chosen.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES BY Charles Dickens. The best Dickens book that Oprah could have chosen.

M I S S E S

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THE BOOK OF RUTH by Jane Hamilton. A depressing mess.

SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison. Like everything Morrison writes, it's messy, often unintelligible and perfectly worthy of a Nobel Prize.

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN by Jacquelyn Mitchard. A TV Movie-of-the-Week idea that somehow caught Oprah's attention.

ELLEN FOSTER by Kaye Gibbons. A short novel (144 pages) that seems longer than Gone With The Wind.

SHE'S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb. Here's a two word review: IT SUCKS!

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver. An absolutely incoherent mess.

THE ROAD by Cormac MacCarthy. An awful mess. An example of a literary snob thinking he's being clever when he's really just re-cycling ideas that have been done before. The Road is filled with cliques stolen from (much better) end-of-the-world novels by science fiction writers (gasp!)

A L T E R N A T E S U G G E S T I O N S

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CANNERY ROW and SWEET THURSDAY by John Steinbeck over EAST OF EDEN.

ZOMBIE by Joyce Carol Oates over WE WERE THE MULVANEYS.

CAT'S CRADLE by Kurt Vonnegut.

CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller.

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card.

TODAY IN CHARLESTON HISTORY, 1660: Restoration of the English Throne

2011-05-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

May 24: 1660: Under invitation by leaders of the English Commonwealth, Charles II, the exiled king of England, lands at Dover, England, to assume the throne, ending 11 years of military rule.

The Prince of Wales at the time of the English Civil War, Charles fled to France after Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians defeated his father, King Charles I in 1646. In 1649, Charles vainly attempted to save his father's life by presenting Parliament a signed blank sheet of paper, thereby granting whatever terms were required. However, the Puritan, Oliver Cromwell, was determined to execute Charles I, and on January 30, 1649, the king was beheaded in London.

After his father's death, Charles was proclaimed king of England by the Scots and by supporters in parts of Ireland and England, and he traveled to Scotland to raise an army. In 1651, Charles invaded England but was defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. Charles escaped to France and later lived in exile in Germany and then in the Spanish Netherlands. During Cromwell's rule, the Puritan faction of the English government outlawed anything remotely fun! Taverns, theaters and brothels were closed. Public whistling was banned because we all know that whistling means you're happy, and if you're happy you're having fun, and if you're having fun you must be committing a sin - so you're going straight to hell. It was NOT jolly ole England. After Cromwell's death in 1658, the English Puritan republican experiment faltered.

In 1660, in what is known as the English Restoration, General George Monck met with Charles and arranged to restore him in exchange for a promise of amnesty and religious toleration for his former enemies. On May 25, 1660, Charles landed at Dover and four days later entered London in triumph. It was his 30th birthday, and London rejoiced at his arrival. In the first year of the Restoration, Oliver Cromwell was posthumously convicted of treason and his body disinterred from its tomb in Westminster Abbey, beheaded and hanged from the gallows at Tyburn. It was referred to as the "twice dead body of Cromwell."

Charles II went on to become known as the Merry Monarch, leadingEngland into the era of Eat, Drink and be Merry. He became legendary for his sexual prowess and debauchery. He died in 1685 after fathering more than 30 bastard children, but no legitimate heir to the English throne, which passed to his brother, James II.

Princess Diana was a direct descendant of one of Charles II's illegitimate heirs. When her son, Prince William, becomes the King of England sometime in the future, he will be the first direct heir of Charles II to sit on the throne. Below is a photo taken during the celebration of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, proving, beyond a doubt, that William is most definitely a direct heir of the Merry Monarch.

April Reading List

2011-05-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

CHARLESTON IS BURNING / Daniel J. Crooks, Jr. *** Slight volume covering the history of Charleston's major
fires and fire fighting.

JOHN C. CALHOUN . Margaret L. Coit *** Pretty good (but dated) bio of Calhoun.

PIED PIPER / Nevil Shute *** The only Shute novel I had never read. Good, but not great.

THE PEACH KEEPER / Sarah Addison Allen *** Charming, but v-e-r-y- slight novel. Allen has a great way of
creating characters and making magic seem normal, but she is in danger of becoming a parody of herself.

GIDEON'S SWORD / Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child ** Very poor thriller. Almost as slight as a James
Patterson book.

WHAT THE NIGHT KNOWS / Dean Koontz * Awful. Koontz has gotten progressively worse. I guess some
people only have 30 good books in them! I miss the classic (good) Koontz.

LITTLE BEE / Chris Cleave * Virtually unreadable.

JOHANNES CABAL THE NECROMANCER / Jonathon L Howard. *** Entertaining but way too much cleverness.

LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME: EVERYTHING YOUR AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOK GOT WRONG / James W.
Loewen. *** Excellent review of stories American history textbooks don't teach, but I'm sorry, Mr. Loewen,
everything is NOT about race. Maybe in your mind, but not in most people's.

FOOL: A NOVEL / Christopher Moore ** Docked one star for working too hard to be funny and clever.

ON THE BEACH / Nevil Shute *** Shute's most famous novel, but not his best by any stretch.

FREEDOM / Jonathon Franzen ** It's good to see that Franzen's famous novel THE CORRECTIONS was not an
aberation. This book is quite boring also.

FREE THINGS to do in CHARLESTON, SC

2011-05-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Charleston is the #1 travel destination on the East Coast of the United States according to Conde Nast. Commonly called "America's Most Historic City" and "the most charming city in America", Charleston has great history, architecture, beaches and culture. It is internationally known for it's restaurants, art galleries and upscale shopping. A trip to Charleston can be ... expensive ... especially in an economy that shows little sign of rebounding. So, here are a few things for travelers to do in the Holy City with the best price tag possible ... FREE! Listed alphabetically.

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ANGEL OAK

The oldest tree east of the Mississippi River, this is a 1300 year old live oak tree on Johns Island, between Charleston and Kiawah Island Resort. When you stand beneath the Angel Oak you realize how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of life. Open 10-4 pm.

BLACK CAT TOURS

Black Cat offers two free daytime walking tours every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A 10 am Confederate history tour and a 1 pm Battery Tour. Space is limited to 12 people per tour so Reservations Required.

CIRCULAR CHURCH GRAVEYARD

150 Meeting Street. The oldest graveyard in South Carolina, the unique Circular Church has more than 1oo pre-Revolutionary headstones. Usually open from 10-5 pm.

CHARLESTON CITY HALL

80 Broad Street. Built in 1807 and located at the Four Corners of Law (four corners, four laws: God, Federal, State & City), City Hall is open to the public during the day. The infamous John Trumbull portrait of George Washington hangs inside the building. It is infamous because it features Washington's horse preparing to dump a load of manure on the city.

FOLLY BEACH & EDWIN TAYLOR FISHING PIER

Folly Beach, the Edge of America, is a charming beach community 20 miles south of Charleston. The small downtown area features eclectic restaurants and shops. The Edwin S. Taylor Pier is 24 feet wide, extends more than 1,045 feet into the Atlantic Ocean. The beaches are wide and gorgeous and it is considered the best surfing in the Charleston area.

KARPELES MANUSCRIPT MUSEUM

68 Spring St. The world's largest private collection of documents and manuscripts. Historically fascinating. Tuesday-Friday 10-4 pm.

MAGNOLIA CEMETERY

Steeped in American history on the bank of the Cooper River, Magnolia Cemetery is a 128-acre former rice plantation with more 35,000 graves; among them are 2,200 Civil War veterans, 5 South Carolina governors, 3 U.S. senators, and 2 cabinet members. Not to mention several Charleston scoundrels, gangsters, and madams. Open 10-5 pm.

THE PINK HOUSE

17 Chalmers Street. Built in 1695 and located on a charming cobblestone street, this is Charleston's second oldest structure. It initially housed John Breton's tavern and brothel and is now an art gallery. Open 10-5 pm.

ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH & GRAVEYARD

71 Broad Street. St. Michael's is the oldest church structure in Charleston. The graveyard features two signers of the U.S. Constitution (John Rutledge & Charles Cotesworth Pinckney). George Washington attended services here on May 8, 1791. The steeple was struck several times during the Civil War by Union artillery. The stained glass windows were designed by Tiffany's of New York in 1905 and the steeple still retains its original eight bells, from 1764.
Church and graveyard usually open to the public daily until 4 pm.

THE TAVERN

120 East Bay Street. The oldest building in Charleston, circa 1686. Originally built as a tavern on the Charleston harbor it has been known as Harris' Tavern, Coates Tavern on the Bay, The Tavern on the Bay. During Prohibition (1920s) the building was turned into a barber shop with a free half pint of "hair tonic) to each paying customer. How often do you get to browse in a liquor store that has been selling booze for more than 325 years?

WHITE POINT GARDEN & THE BATTE RY

Corner of East Battery & South Battery Streets. The Battery was constructed in the early 1800s as a seawall and later was used for military use during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. White Point Garden is a charming public park filled with 150-year old live oaks and many statues and historical monuments. Along the Battery wall there are spectacular views of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, Charleston harbor, James Island, Sullivan's Island and Ft. Sumter.

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Enjoy your trip to Charleston!

April 12, 2011 ... 150th Anniversary of The War Between the States

2011-04-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

Ft. Sumter - Charleston harbor

Letter from Brig. Gen. P.G. T. Beauregard (Charleston) to Maj. Robert Anderson (Ft. Sumter) - APRIL 11, 1861.

I am so ordered by my govt. - the Confederate States of America - to demand the immediate evacuation of Ft. Sumter. I await your reply.

P.G.T. Beauregard

Anderson’s reply

I regret that my sense of honor, and of my obligations to MY govt., prevent my compliance of your request. I shall await your first shot, and if you do not batter us to pieces, we shall be starved out in a few days.

Robert Anderson

3:30 a.m. APRIL 12, 1861, Col. James Chesnut delivers this message to Major Anderson

By authority of Brig. Gen. Beauregard, commanding the provisional forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that we will open fire our Batteries on Ft. Sumter in one hour of this time.

Ft. Johnson

4:30 am.

1st SHOT: fired from Ft. Johnson by Lt. James S. Farley – a signal shot.

2nd SHOT: from Ft. Johnson by Lt. W.H. Gibbes.

Edmund Ruffin

3rd SHOT: from Cummings Point fired by Virginian Edmund Ruffin.

Today In History, 1843: FIRE UNCOVERS SECRET TORTURE CHAMBER IN NEW ORLEANS

2011-04-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

A fire at the LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana, leads to the discovery of a torture chamber where slaves are routinely brutalized by Delphine LaLaurie. Rescuers found a 70-year-old black woman trapped in the kitchen during the fire because she was chained up while LaLaurie was busy saving her furniture. The woman later revealed that she had set the fire in an attempt to escape LaLaurie's torture. She led authorities up to the attic, where seven slaves were tied with spiked iron collars.

After Delphine LaLaurie married her third husband, Louis LaLaurie, and moved into his estate on Royal Street, she immediately took control of the large number of slaves used as servants. LaLaurie was a well-known sadist, but the mistreatment of slaves by the wealthy and socially connected was not a matter for the police at the time.

However, in 1833, Delphine chased a small slave girl with a whip until the girl fell off the roof of the house and died. LaLaurie tried to cover up the incident, but police found the body hidden in a well. Authorities decided to fine LaLaurie and force the sale of the other slaves on the estate.

LaLaurie foiled this plan by secretly arranging for her relatives and friends to buy the slaves. She then sneaked them back into the mansion, where she continued to torture them until the night of the fire in April 1834.

Apparently her Southern neighbors had some standards when it came to the treatment of slaves, because a mob gathered in protest after learning about LaLaurie's torture chamber. She and her husband fled by boat, leaving the butler (who had also participated in the torture) to face the wrath of the crowd.

Although charges were never filed against LaLaurie, her reputation in upper-class society was destroyed. It is believed that she died in Paris in December 1842.

Today in History: 1895: Oscar Wilde Arrested.

2011-04-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

Writer Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.

Wilde had been engaged in an affair with the marquess's son since 1891, but when the outraged marquess denounced him as a homosexual, Wilde sued the man for libel. However, he lost his case when evidence strongly supported the marquess's observations. Homosexuality (often called buggery) was classified as a crime in England at the time, and Wilde was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to two years of hard labor.

Wilde was a well-known author by this time, having produced several brilliant and popular plays, including The Importance of Being Ernest (1895). Born and educated in Ireland, he came to England to attend Oxford, where he graduated with honors in 1878. A popular society figure known for his wit and flamboyant style, he published his own book of poems in 1881. He spent a year lecturing on poetry in the U.S., where his dapper wardrobe and excessive devotion to art drew ridicule from some quarters.

His reception in Charleston, SC was decidedly cool. His penchant for ridiculing pomposity and upper class society met with negative reaction among the Charleston aristocracy. He described his interaction with an old Southern woman as ... "While strolling the Battery I remarked on how lovely the moon looked over the water, my elderly companion turned to me and said, "Sir, you should have seen it before the war."

After returning to Britain, Wilde married and had two children, for whom he wrote delightful fairy tales, which were published in 1888. Meanwhile, he wrote reviews and edited Women's World. In 1890, his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published serially, appearing in book form the following year. He wrote his first play, The Duchess of Padua, in 1891 and wrote five more before his arrest. Wilde was released from prison in 1897 and fled to Paris, where his many loyal friends visited him. He started writing again, producing The Ballad of Reading Gaol, based on his experiences in prison. He died of acute meningitis in 1900.

In 1903, a group of Charleston madams published the 8-page pamphlet titled THE BLUE BOOK, which contained advertisements for local brothels. One local Charleston wit could not resist poking fun of Wilde's former legal predicament - notably his arrest on buggery charges - by writing this ditty:

The boy stood on the burning deck with his back up against the mast.

"I will not stir one step," he said, "Until Oscar Wilde has passed."

MARCH READING LIST

2011-04-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

UNDUE INFLUENCE / Steve Martini ** VERY predictable legal thriller. Had it figured out by page 130 and thought: "surely, it can't be that simple." But ... it was. Also, Martini has a choppy prose style which makes his dialogue a chore to get through. Needs to simple it up.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD / Mark Booth *** Exhaustively researched book about world history as told from the viewpoint of the Freemasons.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP / John Irving **** A 12th time re-read. Still great!

THE HUNGER GAMES / Suzanne Collins *** I would have rated this 5 stars except for that fact it is written in present tense, which does nothing to improve the book, and distracts from the narrative. But, it is an excellent YA novel about a futuristic America.

THE REVERSAL / Michael Connelly **** Connelly is the best current crime writer - period. This is an ingenious legal thriller that is really about character reversals.

MINDING FRANKIE / Maeve Binchy **** This is vintage Binchy; full of flawed, flaky characters rallying around one another for support - mainly to support a single father who is suddenly thrust into the care of a infant daughter he did not know he had fathered.

KEEP THE CHANGE / Steve Dublanicia ** Very weak social history of gratuities. Avoid.

THE ALIENIST / Caleb Carr **** Excellent historical thriller.

TODAY IN HISTORY, 1818: Wade Hampton born in Charleston

2011-03-28T06:24:00.000-07:00

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Hampton was born in Charleston, SC and grew up in one of the wealthy families in the South, receiving private instruction. When his father died in 1858 his son inherited a vast fortune, the plantations, and one of the largest collections of slaves in the South.

Although his views were conservative concerning the issues of secession and slavery, and he had opposed the division of the Union as a legislator, at the start of the Civil War, Hampton was loyal to his home state. He resigned from the Senate and enlisted as a private in the South Carolina Militia; however, the governor of South Carolina insisted that Hampton accept a colonel's commission, even though he had no military experience at all. Hampton organized and partially financed the unit known as "Hampton's Legion", which consisted of six companies of infantry, four companies of cavalry, and one battery of artillery. He personally financed all of the weapons for the Legion.

Despite his lack of military experience and his relatively advanced age of 42, Hampton was a natural cavalryman—brave, audacious, and a superb horseman. He was one of only two officers without previous military experience (the other being Nathan Bedford Forrest) to achieve the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate service. On May 23, 1862, Hampton was promoted to brigadier general while commanding a brigade in Stonewall Jackson's division in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Post War, Hampton was offered the nomination for governor in 1865, but refused because he felt that those in the North would be suspicious of a former Confederate general seeking political office only months after the end of the Civil War. However, he did become a leading fighter against Radical Republican Reconstruction policies in the South, and re-entered South Carolina politics in 1876 as the first southern gubernatorial candidate to run on a platform in opposition to Reconstruction. Hampton, a Democrat, ran against Radical Republican incumbent governor Daniel Chamberlain in Charleston. Supporters of Hampton were called the Red Shirts and were known to practice violence. Due to their crude reputation and hopes of alleviating Union suspicion, Hampton used Grace Piexotto's "The Big Brick House", a prominent brothel located at 11 Fulton Street, to assure complete privacy for the Red Shirts' meeting ground, which was mainly served as campaign headquarters.

The 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election was one of the bloodiest (and closest) in the history of the state. Both parties claimed victory. For over six months, there were two legislatures in the state, both claiming to be authentic. Eventually, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Hampton was the winner of the election. President Rutherford B. Hayes stated that "the whole Army of the United States would be inadequate to enforce the authority of Gov. Chamberlain." Hayes then ordered the evacuation of Federal troops in South Carolina. Thus the election of the first Democrat in South Carolina since the end of the Civil War signified the end of Reconstruction in the South.

In 1890, Hampton's niece Caroline, an operating room nurse, married the father of American surgery, William Halsted. It was because of her skin reaction to surgical sterilization chemicals that Halsted invented the surgical glove the previous year.

Hampton died in Columbia in 1902 and is buried there in Trinity Cathedral Churchyard.

Statue of Wade Hampton at South Carolina State House

In Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone With The Wind, Scarlet O'Hara's first husband, Charles Hamilton, served in Hampton's regiment, dying of measles only seven weeks later. As it was fashionable (according to Mitchell) to name baby boys after their fathers' commanding officers, Scarlett's son by Charles is therefore named Wade Hampton Hamilton.

In the North and South trilogy by John Jakes, the character Charles Main serves with Hampton's cavalry throughout the Civil War.

Today In History, 1776: South Carolina Declares Its Independence.

2011-03-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

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The Provincial Congress of South Carolina approves a new constitution and government on this day in 1776. The legislature renames itself the General Assembly of South Carolina and elects John Rutledge as president, Henry Laurens as vice president and William Henry Drayton as chief justice.

John Rutledge

South Carolina took this action towards independence from Great Britain four months before the Continental Congress declared independence and five months before South Carolina learned of the declaration. Rutledge possessed quasi-dictatorial powers as president and commander in chief of the new state. In 1778, he resigned the post in protest over proposed changes to the state constitution. Rawlins Lowndes took over the presidency and instituted the changes Rutledge found objectionable. The executive power changed from a presidency to a governorship and veto power was taken away from the executive. The Senate became a popularly elected body, and the Church of England no longer held status as the state church. However, after the changes had been made, Rutledge was elected governor in 1779, a post he held until 1782.

William Henry Drayton

William Henry Drayton drafted the 1778 constitution that was opposed by Rutledge. The ardent Whig died while serving Congress in Philadelphia on September 3, 1779, at age 37. Rutledge lost much of his personal wealth during the British siege of Charleston, but survived to see the new century dawn before his death in 1800.

Henry Laurens only served as vice president of South Carolina until June 1777. He was elected to the Continental Congress in January of that year and became the president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation on November 1, 1777, a position he held until December 9, 1778. Beginning in 1780, Laurens served 15 months of imprisonment in the Tower of London after being taken captive on a Congressional mission to Holland. He spent the last years of his life in retirement on his plantation, where he lived until his death in 1792.

Happy 100th Frank Gilbreth, Jr.

2011-03-17T05:11:00.000-07:00

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On this St. Patrick's Day, everyone in Charleston should take a moment to remember one this city's most beloved adopted citizens, Frank Gilbreth, Jr. Gilbreth was born on March 17, 1911 and died in Charleston in 2001. He had a successful career as an author and newspaper executive but for more than 40 years he was more well known to Charleston readers of the Post and Courier as Lord Ashley Cooper, the author of the most popular column in Charleston history, "Doing the Charleston." During the 1960s-90s when most Charlestonians would open the paper often the first thing they turned to was not the funny papers, or the sports page ... it was Lord Ashley Cooper.

Before he became a Charleston icon, Gilbreth authored a family memoir with his sister Elizabeth Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen. The book is an American humor classic, and still one of the funniest books I have ever read. It details their life growing up as two of 12 children of "motion and efficiency expert" Frank Gilbreth. Frank, Sr preferred a large family because he claimed that children were "cheaper by the dozen." More than 60 years after its publication, the book is still in print. The Charleston County library system has several copies available.

The book was turned into a classic 1950 movie starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy. If you have never seen it, please put it on your NetFlix list. (Forget the more recent Steve Martin / Bonnie Hunt films of the same title. The title is all they share with the original.)

"Doing the Charleston" was Gilbreth's long-running column under the Lord Ashley moniker. Readers provided much of the content with their contributions, usually humorous, about the local scene. As such it was a repository of local lore, custom and history, often irreverent.

Some of the best Lord Ashley Cooper quips:

"In aristocratic Charleston, money won't buy you friends, but it can make you a more socially acceptable bunch of enemies."
"It takes a Charleston gentleman of the old school to make his company feel at home when he wishes that's where they were."

The centennial of his birth seems to be a good time to reflect on the wit and wisdom of an adopted Charleston curmudgeon.

FEBRUARY 2011 READING LIST

2011-03-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

THE GIVEN DAY / Dennis Lehane **** Outstanding historical fiction, dealing with the Boston Police strike, WWI, and the Spanish flue epidemic.

THE SUMMONS / John Grisham * Awful. Poor plotting, zero character development. Avoid at all costs!

THE DUMBEST GENERATION / Mark Bauerlein *** So-so book about how modern technology is NOT making future generations most educated or informed.

THE CLINIC / Jonathon Kellerman *** Good, not great, Alex Delaware novel.

LIES THE GOVERNMENT TOLD YOU / Andrew Napolitano ** V-e-r-y dry book about ways in which the federal govt. has over reached it's authority. Nothing I didn't already know. Disappointing.

THE HUNT CLUB / John Lescroart **** Very good P.I./legal/police thriller.

EMPIRE OF ILLUSION: THE END OF LITERACY AND THE TRIUMPH OF SPECTACLE / Chris Hedges **** Often brilliant examination of how American culture has deteriorated by several colluding factors.

OLD CITY HALL / Robert Rotenberg **** Outstanding crime novel!

CHINABERRY SIDEWALKS / Rodney Crowell *** Good but overly-folksy memoir of the early life of one of America's greatest songwriters. As much as I love Crowell and his music, this book was slow-going in some sections. Here's hoping Crowell will, at some time, write a memoir of his creative life, writing and recording some of the greatest song of the past 30 years.

THE LOST GATE / Orson Scott Card *** Excellent modern day fantasy. Docked at least one star because the middle 1/3 is s-l-o-w going. Card is a writer always worth the time and effort, but here's hoping Vol. 2 of this trilogy picks up steam.

TREASURE HUNT / John Lecroart *** Decent sequel to The Hunt Club.

FAB: AN INTIMATE LIFE OF PAUL MCCARTNEY / Howard Sounes *** Pretty good bio of Sir Paul. Learned a few tidbits I didn't know. Biggest drawback: book was published in a font that made it difficult to read. The publisher should know better.

PAINTED LADIES / Robert B. Parker ** Another painful Spenser novel. And you wonder why I keep reading these books? Well, the first 15 Spenser books were brilliant, but the next 20 have been scattershot. Since Parker died last year, I decided I should go ahead and read every Spenser book, no matter how bad. Again, the scenes with Susan Silverman (the most annoying character ever invented) are painful. Reading those scenes is like being hooked up to The Machine from The Princess Bride.

HELL'S BAY / James Hall **** Excellent Florida-based crime novel featuring Thorn.

THE SUSPECT / John Lescroart *** Lescroart's crime books are fairly lightweight, but they are well-written and peopled with great characters.

THE TRILLION DOLLAR CONSPIRACY / Jim Marrs *** Another well-researched book of behind-the-scenes history by Marrs.

TODAY IN HISTORY, 1861: Beauregard Takes Command of Charleston

2011-03-03T18:18:00.001-08:00

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard became the first Confederate general officer, appointed a brigadier general in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on March 1, 1861. Two days later, March 3, Beauregard arrived in Charleston and inspected the city's defenses with Gov. Andrew Pickens and found them "in disarray." Beauregard's main job was to secure Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor, which was manned by the 1st U.S. Artillery regiment commanded by Major Robert Anderson. Ironically, Major Anderson had been Beauregard's artillery instructor at West Point; the two had become close friends, and Beauregard had become Anderson's assistant after graduation

Beauregard sent several cases of fine brandy and whiskey and boxes of cigars to Anderson and his officers at Ft. Sumter. Anderson ordered that the gifts be returned. By April the Union troops had positioned 60 guns, but they had insufficient men to operate them all. Of the three levels of fort, the second tier of casemated gun positions was unoccupied.

Beauregard made repeated demands that the Union force either surrender or withdraw and took steps to ensure that no supplies from the city were available to the defenders, whose food was running low. A trained military engineer, he built-up overwhelming strength to challenge Fort Sumter.

Fort Moultrie had three 8-inch Columbiads. two 8-inch howitzers, five 32-pound smoothbores, and four 24-pounders. Outside of Moultrie were five 10-inch mortars, two 32-pounders, two 24-pounders, and a 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore.
The floating battery next to Fort Moultrie had two 42-pounders and two 32-pounders on a raft protected by iron shielding.
Fort Johnson on James Island had one 24-pounder and four 10-inch mortars.
At Cummings Point on Morris Island were stationed seven 10-inch mortars, two 42-pounders, an English Blakely rifled cannon, and three 8-inch Columbiads, the latter in the so-called Iron Battery, protected by a wooden shield faced with iron bars.

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, Lt. Henry S. Farley, acting upon the command of Capt. George S. James, fired a single 10-inch mortar round from Fort Johnson. The shell exploded over Fort Sumter as a signal to open the general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars at Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson, the floating battery, and Cummings Point. Under orders from Beauregard, the guns fired in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor, with 2 minutes between each shot; Beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition, which he calculated would last for only 48 hours.

The Union garrison surrendered the fort to Confederate personnel at 2:30 p.m., April 14. No one from either side was killed during the bombardment.

Beauregard became the Confederacy's first national hero for his resounding victory of the Union troops. He was called to Richmond and on July 21, 1861, he was also victorious at the Bull's Run (First Manassas.) After that battle he advocated the use of a new battle flag, he had designed, the famous "Stars and Bars." It became the most famous flag of the South.

CHINABERRY SIDEWALKS: A Review

2011-02-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

I've been a Rodney Crowell fan since 1978. He is, to be blunt, one of the great American songwriters of the last 40 years and I have listened to his music for 1000s of hours. What little guitar playing I learned, I learned so I could play Crowell's songs. During the 70s and 80s Nashville artists waited for new Rodney songs to record. He has also recorded thirteen LPs (or CDs) since 1978, charting eight Top Ten Country songs, including five consecutive #1 hits, in 1988-89. Here is one of the all time great Crowell songs.

And now Crowell has written a memoir about his early life growing up in hardscrabble Houston, Texas in the 1950s. Crowell's former wife, Rosanne Cash, published an amazing memoir last year, Composed, which was less a memoir of her public life, than an intense meditation on how her life influenced her artistically. I was hoping for something like that from Crowell, but not this time out. It is a study of his life as a child, and tells the story of his parent's life more than his own.

Most reviews are giving the book a home run ... I have to differ. First of all, it is written in too much of a folksy, aw shucks style, peppered with down home expressions that most of us heard while growing up, but left behind as we moved out into the world. Crowell and his editor obviously had never read the old adage, "a little bit goes a long way." It also is a bit clunky at times jumping from chapter to chapter, back and forth in time. There is an endless chapter about attending pentecostal church meetings that wears out its welcome after the first 2000 words, but goes on and on and on.

Here's hoping Crowell has another memoir in the works that will illuminate his professional career as a songwriter and musician. Until then, I recommend you pull out your copies of Diamonds & Dirt or Fate's Right Hand and enjoy the music!

TOP TEN SONGS ABOUT MASTURBATION

2011-02-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

Note to the reader: Before anyone argues that THE STROKE by Billy Squier should be on this list, go listen to the song again. The lyrics are about psychological manipulation.

DARLING NIKKI by Prince

These dirty lyrics inspired Tiper Gore to force the record companies to play WARNING: EXPLICIT LYRICS stickers on their CDs. Thanks Tipper. By the way, when's the last time you gave Al a massage? That's what I thought.

ROSIE by Jackson Brown

My personal favorite, and maybe the most clever.

Rosie you're all right -- you wear my ring

When you hold me tight -- baby, that's my thing

When I turn out the light -- I've got to hand it to me

Looks like it's me and you again tonight, Rosie.

SMUT by Skyhooks

So much for subtle lyrics.

Slip into a cinema and give yourself a treat,
Better take a raincoat could be sticky on the seat,
Open up you Twisties and open up your fly,
Pictures start to flicker as your hand moves down your thigh.

TURNING JAPANESE by The Vapors

A song that needs no explanation.

WHEN I THINK ABOUT YOU I TOUCH MYSELF by The Divinyls

An obvious choice.

VIBRATOR INDEPENDENT by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper

The funniest song on this list, hands down. :-) Poor Mojo's girlfriend has become addicted to her battery operated device, much to his frustration and consternation.

DANCING WITH MYSELF by Billy Idol

No explanation needed.

IMAGINARY LOVER by The Atlanta Rhythm Section

Imaginary lovers, never turn you down

When all the others turn you away, they're around

It's my private pleasure, midnight fantasy

PICTURES OF LILY by The Who

Lily must have been smokin!

SHE BOP by Cyndi Lauper

"I wanna go south and get me some more."

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

PRAYING HANDS by Devo

Possible the oddest song here, but it's DEVO!

you got your left hand /you got your right hand
the left hand's diddling while the right hand goes to work
you got both hands you got praying hands

MY DING-A-LING by Chuck Berry

Poor Chuck. He wrote dozens of classic songs but his only #1 hit was this

clunky ode to his manjunk.

TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY: Small's Paradise

2011-02-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

Small’s Paradise (2294½ Seventh Avenue near 135th Street, New York) was owned and operated by Edwin Smalls and was one of the premier nightspots in Harlem during the late 1920s. Smalls, a former elevator operator, was a descendant of Captain Robert Smalls, a former slave who became a captain in the Union navy and later a congressman from South Carolina.

Small’s Paradise was one of the most successful and best-known nightclubs in the history of Harlem, and the most prestigious club owned by an African American. Its reputation for first-class musical acts, elaborate floor shows, and dancing waiters attracted thousands of patrons who were eager to participate in the exciting nightlife of Harlem during the Roaring Twenties.

By the time he opened the Paradise in the autumn of 1925, Ed Smalls was already an experienced nightclub owner. Since 1917 he had been running a popular joint in Harlem called the Sugar Cane Club, which catered primarily to an African American clientele. But Small’s Paradise was a much more elaborate venture, and one designed to attract not just local Harlemites but also moneyed white revelers from downtown. When the Paradise opened its doors on 26 October 1925, Smalls marked the occasion by throwing a spectacular gala. . Of course, national Prohibition was in full force at the time, but patrons at Small’s could either drink discreetly from their own bottle or flask of hooch, or else buy bootleg liquor from the waiters (at an exorbitant price).

Nearly 1,500 guests jammed themselves into the brand-new basement club and danced to the tunes of Charlie Johnson’s Paradise Orchestra, which would serve as the house band for the next ten years. Johnson's Orchestra through the years featured several South Carolina musicians, including Gus Aiken and Jabbo Smith from the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston.

In 1929, the entertainment magazine Variety listed eleven major nightclubs in Harlem that catered to a predominantly white crowd. The four most popular were Small’s Paradise, the Cotton Club, Barron Wilkins’s Exclusive Club, and Connie’s Inn. Many wealthy white curiosity seekers actually preferred some of the other big-name clubs—especially the Cotton Club and Connie’s Inn—to Small’s Paradise, because these other clubs were owned by whites and admitted only white patrons. While the entertainers and the waiters at these establishments were almost exclusively black, African American customers were firmly turned away unless they were true celebrities, such as the dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.

Small’s Paradise, in contrast, appealed to whites who wanted to attend a club where African Americans made up a sizable portion of the audience. But despite the racially integrated nature of Small’s Paradise, all its patrons were financially well-off; the high prices for both food and liquor were enough to force most working-class Harlemites to seek out a more affordable speakeasy. Although Small’s was not as expensive as Connie’s Inn, for example, an average tab at Small’s was about $4 per person in 1929, when the average domestic laborer in Harlem earned between $6 and $12 a week.

One of the signature features of Small’s Paradise was its dancing waiters, who would balance heavy trays full of bootleg liquor while dancing the Charleston, sometimes on roller skates, as they moved among the tables. Small’s also carved out a niche for itself in the competitive nightclub business by staying open much later than most other clubs, including the aristocratic Cotton Club. After other cabarets closed down at three or four o’clock in the morning, black and white patrons alike would descend on Small’s Paradise for one of its famous early-morning “breakfast dances.”

The floor show, complete with twenty-five or thirty dancers and showgirls and two dozen musicians, would go on at six o’clock in the morning, and the dancing might last until noon or even later. The entertainment at Small’s was always first-rate, and some of the most famous musicians of the Harlem Renaissance played there, including Willie “the Lion” Smith and Duke Ellington. And in the early-morning hours, many of the finest musicians in Harlem who were engaged by other clubs met at Small’s for impromptu jam sessions.

More than most nightclubs in Harlem, Small’s Paradise figured prominently in the lives of many important artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Alain Locke, Harold Jackman, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. Even William Faulkner is said to have attended a party at Small’s during a visit to New York.

One of the club’s most loyal customers was Carl Van Vechten, the wealthy white writer who helped launch the careers of many famous figures of the renaissance. In fact, some critics claim that Van Vechten based his description of the Black Venus, a nightclub prominently featured in his controversial novel Nigger Heaven, on his experiences at Small’s Paradise. After Nigger Heaven was published in 1926, the managers of Small’s were so offended by its portrayal of Harlem that they permanently banned Van Vechten from his favorite watering hole, much to his dismay.

Small’s Paradise holds the distinction of being the longest-operating nightclub in Harlem, witnessing the rise of not just jazz but rock and roll and even disco before it finally closed its doors in 1986. After Ed Smalls sold the business, the Paradise changed hands a number of times.

Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain owned the club briefly in the 1960s, renamed it Big Wilt’s Small’s Paradise, and featured Ray Charles as his star performer. Although the doors have now closed on Small’s Paradise, the frequent references to the club in newspapers, essays, autobiographies, and fiction from the 1920s testify to its enduring legacy as one of the most popular racially integrated nightclubs of the Harlem Renaissance.

JANUARY 2011 READING LIST

2011-02-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

PATHFINDER / Orson Scott Card **** Outstanding science fiction! Forget that this is marketed as a YA novel. This novel is filled with complex time-travel plot lines and fully developed characters. Oddly enough, as I was writing this mini-review, Card was having a mini-stroke at home in Greensboro, NC. Be well, Orson!

VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE'S RAGTIME REVOLUTION/ Eve Golden *** Informative, but rather dry history of the famous dance team.

OUTLANDER / Diane Gabaldon ** Ms. Gabaldon, it's okay for your book to end!!! Waaaay too long.

THE BRASS VERDICT / Michael Connelly **** Connelly is not just one of the best thriller / mystery writers working today, I will argue he is one of the best writers, period. You can have your Michael Chabons and Jonathon Frazens. I'll take Connelly. At least his books make sense, are entertaining and the author is not constantly trying to prove to the reader how clever he is.

LAST CALL: THE RISE AND FALL OF PROHIBITION / Daniel Okrent. ***** The BEST history of Prohibition and the 1920s I've ever read. Highly recommended.

PARANOIA / Joseph Finder ** Sub-par thriller. The main problem is the main character - a slacker at a high tech firm who is blackmailed into becoming a spy for a rival company. The suspension of disbelief quote is too high. Second problem, by page 150 I had already guessed the entire plot and was not surprised by the ending.

TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD / Paul Levine *** Entertaining lawyer thriller featuring second-rate lawyer Jake Lassiter.

MOONLIGHT MILE / Dennis Lehane *** Pretty good mystery novel featuring married private detectives Kenzie and Gennaro.

SHUTTER ISLAND / Dennis Lehane **** Another excellent psychological mystery with a killer twist at the end. I'm very hesitant about watching the movie based on this novel due to the fact that it stars Leo and is directed by the most over-rated director in cinema history, Scorsese.

NIGHT VISION / Paul Levine *** Second novel featuring Miami lawyer, Jake Lassiter. Entertaining, but Lassiter who is NOT the new Travis McGee, not matter what some idiot reviewer from LA Times claims.

STOMP AND SWERVE: AMERICAN MUSIC GETS HOT, 1843-1924. **** Excellent and very readable history of American music, from minstrel to jazz.

GONE BABY GONE / Dennis Lehane. **** Excellent Kenzie and Gennaro mystery novel.

BLACK BOTTOM STOMP / David A. Jasen & Gene Jones. *** Profiles of eight early jazz musicians.

JAZZ AND BLUES MUSICIANS OF SOUTH CAROLINA / Benjamin Franklin V. *** Hit and miss interviews with 19 South Carolina musicians. Notable due to the last interview of the forgotten, but brilliant early jazz master, Jabbo Smith.

DEJA DEAD / Kathy Reichs. *** Not sure why I've never read this series. Similar to Patricia Cornwell's series. Here's hoping Reichs doesn't make the same mistake. Cornwell's books have become unreadable and silly.

TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY: Charleston Jazz Drummer's 60+ Year Career.

2011-02-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

Born in the Appalachians, drummer Tommy Benford (April 19, 1905 – March 24, 1994) and his brother, tuba player Bill Benford, unfortunately wound up as orphans. Both boys ended up in the Jenkins Orphanage (Charleston, SC) and greatly benefited from the extensive musical training offered there. By 1914, Tommy Benford was traveling with the Jenkins Band up and down the East Coast. He also accompanied the Jenkins Band to perform at the London Expo. The Expo came to an abrupt end due to the outbreak of the First World War.

Benford began studying drums privately with Steve and Herbert Wright (both from the Jenkins Band) shortly thereafter and his performances with the Green River Minstrel Show circa 1920 are considered to be his first professional engagements.

Soon thereafter, Benford began drumming with the Marie Lucas Orchestra, and was based out of Washington, D.C. The capitol city was a hotbed of new jazz developments in the '20s, and the drummer began playing with Elmer Snowden, Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington.

Audio clip of Tommy Benford playing drums with Jelly Roll Morton, performing the "Shreveport Stomp."

During the 1930s Benford recorded prolifically with many jazz greats of the genre, including guitarist Django Reinhardt, Sidney Bechet, and Coleman Hawkins.

"Honeysuckle Rose" by the Coleman Hawkins All Star Jam Band (Benford, drums; Hawkins, sax; Reinhardt, guitar; Stephane Grappelly, piano.)

During the 1960s, Benford was still working as a professional drummer, the epitome of straight-ahead swing, for bandleaders Joe Thomas and Ed Hall. Students of drumming still study Benford's technique, in which he accents the second and fourth beats of a measure on recordings with Morton from the late '20s. . As he got older, Benford worked with the Saints & Sinners band. As late as the 1970s Benford was playing lengthy tours with the Clyde Bernhardt Orchestra, indicating great health for a man who had been playing drums since before World War I.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Youngest Person Executed in America

2011-02-03T04:11:00.000-08:00

Too Young To Die: The Execution of George Stinney (1944)

This is the sad saga of the youngest person ever executed in the United States. It was the inspiration of the 1989 Edgar Award winning book as Best First Novel, Carolina Skeletons, by David Stout. The book became the basis for the 1992 movie of the same name starring Lou Gossett, Jr. and Bruce Dern.

For such a small town, Alcolu, SC can claim to be the home of some notable Americans. Althea Gibson, first African-American woman to play tennis at Wimbledon and Peggy Parish author of the famous “Amelia Bedelia” children books were born in the town. It can also boast to being the birthplace to five South Carolina governors. Most of the residents, black and white, worked the Alderman Lumber Company Mill, or farmed, or both.

In 1944, most people in the tiny mill town were just trying to get by and hoping the few local boys who were serving in the war would make it back home. The most recent American casualty totals for World War II had just recently been released - 19,499 killed, 45,545 wounded, 26,339 missing and 26,754 captured. Every day the newspaper was filled with death tolls, descriptions of war horrors, and though no one knew it, the worst was yet to come. The D-Day invasion of Normandy was two and a half months away.

March 24, 1944. Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, went to pick flowers that afternoon. Betty June asked permission to take a pair of scissors and then told her family, “We'll be back in about thirty minutes.” The girls rode off together on one bicycle and never returned. No one was concerned. The girls often played on this side of town, and several people saw the familiar scene of the two girls riding double.

They passed by the Stinney house. Even though the Stinneys were black, both girls knew the Stinney kids. Katherine Stinney and her older brother, George, Jr., were in the front yard. “We're looking for maypops,” Betty June said. “Do you know where they are?”

Katherine told them “no,” and the two girls rode off on their bikes.

When the two girls didn't return by dark the Binnicker family was panicked. Soon a town-wide search was launched, with hundreds of volunteers. They searched through the entire night. About 7:30 a.m. the next morning some men found several small footprints in the soft ground and followed the footprints along a narrow path on the edge of town where they found the pair of scissors lying in the grass nearby. Following the path with more urgency they searchers discovered a large ditch filled with muddy water. They could see the outline of a bicycle beneath the murky surface. Scott Lowden jumped into the water and the bodies of the two girls were dragged out. Both girls had severe head wounds - Mary Emma's skull was fractured in five different places and the back of Betty June's skull was smashed.

Within a few hours, local sheriff's deputies arrested George Stinney, Jr. His youngest sister, Katherine Stinney Robinson, later recalled, “And all I remember is the people coming to our house and taking my brother. And no police officers with hats or anything—these were men in suits or whatever that came. I don't know how they knew to come to that house and pick up my brother.”

George was taken to the sheriff's office where he was interrogated. In 1944, there were no Miranda Rights to be read to the accused. George was locked in a room with several white officers. Neither of George's parents were allowed to see him. Within an hour, Deputy H.S. Newman announced that Stinney had confessed to the murders. Stinney told police that he wanted to have sex with Betty June but the only way to get her alone was to get rid of Mary Ellen. But Betty June fought him, so he killed her too. Stinney then led the police to the scene where they found a 14-inch long railroad spike. Deputy Newman wrote a statement on March 26, 1944 and described the events.

I was notified that the bodies had been found. I went down to where the bodies were at. I found Mary Emma she was rite (sic) at the edge of the ditch with four or five wounds on her head, on the other side of the ditch the Binnicker girl, were (sic) laying there with 4 or 5 wounds in her head, the bicycle which the little girls had were beside of the little Binnicker girl. By information I received I arrested a boy by the name of George Stinney, he then made a confession and told me where a piece of iron about 15 inches long were, he said he put it in a ditch about 6 feet from the bicycle which was lying in the ditch.

The town was horrified by the crime and overwhelmed with grief. Both girl's parents worked at the Alderman Lumber Mill, as well did Mr. George Stinney, Sr. Within a few hours the grief among the mill workers had quickly transformed into a seething anger.

March 26. About forty angry white men headed for the Clarendon County Jail and demanded mob justice, but sheriff's deputies were one step ahead of the folks. They had moved Stinney fifty miles to Columbia.

B.G. Alderman, owner of Alderman's Lumber Mill, fired George's father. The Stinney family lived in such fear of their lives that they moved from town in the middle of the night, abandoning their son to his fate.

George Stinney, Jr. was fourteen years, five months old when he went on trial. The first recorded execution of a juvenile in America was Thomas Graungery, aged 16 of Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, who was hanged for bestiality. On March 14, 1794 two young slave girls, “Bett, age 12” and “Dean, age 14” were executed for starting a fire that burned down a portion of Albany, New York. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court passed a ruling that “prohibits the death penalty for juvenile offenders whose crimes were committed before they were 16.” Prior to 1988 there was no age limit for executions.

Lorraine Binniker Bailey was Betty June's older sister. She recalled that “Everybody knew that he done it - even before they had the trial they knew he done it. But, I don't think they had too much of a trial.”

Katherine Stinney Robinson later recalled, “I remember my mother cried so. She cried her little eyes all swollen. I would hear her praying. She said, 'I just want you to change the minds of men. Because my son didn't do this.' But it wasn't long after that that they just did it. He was gone.”

The court appointed 30-year old Charles Plowden as George's attorney. Plowden had political aspirations and the trial was a high-wire act for him. His dilemma was how to provide enough defense so that he could not be accused of incompetence, but not be so passionate that he would anger the local whites who may one day vote for him.

April 24. More than 1500 people crammed into the Clarendon County Courthouse. Jury selection began at 10 a.m. and was finished just after noon. The jury contained twelve white men. Due to the nature of the crime, and the passion of the community, it certainly would have been in George Stinney's favor to have a change in venue. But defense attorney Plowden made no motion.

After a lunch break the case was heard before Judge Stoll. Plowden did not cross-examine any of the prosecuting witnesses. His defense consisted of claiming that Stinney was too young by law to be held responsible for the crimes. In response, the prosecution presented Stinney's birth certificate stating that he was born on October 21, 1959, which made him 14 years and five months old. Under South Carolina law in 1944 an adult was anyone over the age of 14.

The case had begun at 2:30 p.m. and closing arguments were finished by 4:30. The jury retired just before 5:00 p.m. and deliberated for ten minutes. They returned with the verdict “guilty, with no recommendation for mercy.” The case took less than three hours to decide. Judge Stoll sentenced Stinney to die in the electric chair at the Central Correctional Institute in Columbia.

When asked about an appeal Defense Attorney Plowden stated that there was nothing to appeal and the Stinney family had money to pay for a continuance of the case.

Several local churches in conjunction with the NAACCP appealed to Governor Olin D. Johnston to stop the execution. The governor's office received letters for mercy. Most cited Stinney's age as the mitigating factor why the execution should be dropped. One message was as direct as could be in 1944 by stating “Child execution is only for Hitler.” The Tobacco Worker's Union, the National Maritime Union and the White and Negro Ministerial Unions of Charleston asked Governor Johnston to commute the sentence to life imprisonment.

However, there were just as many, if not more, in favor of the execution and encouraged the governor to be strong. One of the more blunt letters to the governor stated, “Sure glad to hear of your decision regarding the nigger Stinney.”

The governor decided to do nothing. He let the execution proceed.

June 16, 1944. At 7:30 p.m., George Stinney, Jr. was fitted into the electric chair. It had been designed for grown men, not children. He was five feet, one inch tall and weighed ninety pounds. The guards had a hard time strapping him into the seat. The mask over his face did not fit properly. When the switch was thrown, the force of the electricity jerked the too-large mask from his face and for the final four minutes of his life, the spectators in the gallery had a full view of Stinney's horrified face as he was executed.

Stinney's sister, Katherine Stinney Robinson, was interviewed on the fiftieth anniversary of her brother's execution and said, “He was like my idol, you know. He was very smart in school, very artistic. He could draw all kinds of things. We had a good family. Small house, but there was a lot of love. It took my mother a long time to get over it. And maybe she never got over it.”

The time span of the entire episode, from the girls' death to Stinney's execution, was eighty-one days.

From South Carolina Killers: Crimes of Passion (2007) by Mark Jones

Today in History, 1958: Murder in the Heartland

2011-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

While everyone else notes the Challenger disaster anniversary today, I would like to mention an infamous murder spree.

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Charles Starkweather, a 19-year-old high-school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska, and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, killed a Lincoln businessman, his wife and their maid, as part of a murderous crime spree that began a week earlier and would ultimately leave 10 people dead. The killer couple’s deadly road trip, which generated enormous media attention and a massive manhunt, came to an end the following day, when Starkweather and Fugate were arrested near Douglas, Wyoming. The crimes later inspired a slew of books, movies and music, including Terence Malick’s 1973 film "Badlands," starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 song "Nebraska."

Growing up, Charles Starkweather (1938-1959) was bullied and did poorly in school. He later idolized James Dean and identified with the actor’s rebellious, outsider image. Starkweather committed his first murder on December 1, 1957, when he robbed a gas station and killed the attendant. Reportedly, an attendant at the station had previously refused Starkweather’s attempt to buy a present for Fugate (1943- ) on credit.

Starkweather turned serial killer on January 21, 1958, when he shot Fugate’s stepfather and mother after arguing with them at their home, and strangled Fugate’s two-and-a-half-year-old sister. Starkweather and Fugate remained holed up at the scene of the crime for several days, before taking off in Starkweather’s car and murdering three more people--a farmer and two teenagers--on January 27. On January 28, the couple killed another three people--the Lincoln businessman, his wife and their maid. Starkweather and Fugate’s final victim, a shoe salesman, was killed on January 29; the couple was captured later that day.

Starkweather and Fugate were convicted of murder. He was given the death penalty and died in the electric chair on June 25, 1959. Fugate was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1976.

The Most Important Day In American Musical History

2011-01-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

Here is the Introduction of my current writing project, titled Doin' the Charleston: The Music and Dance That Defined a Generation.

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The Most Important Day in American Musical History

Thursday, May 2, 1912. The concert that night was an unusual affair, a benefit for the Music School Settlement for Colored People, a Harlem institution for artistically gifted children. This was going to be the largest group of African-American artists ever gathered in New York to perform together in the most famous white-owned, white-operated theater in the United States - Carnegie Hall. More than three hundred black American musical artists were scheduled to perform before a sold-out mixed race audience on the same stage that had hosted Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Arthur Rubinstein.

David Mannes, concertmaster of the New York Symphony believed that music was the universal language and that this concert would bring whites and blacks together in a way most never believed possible. Mannes was, to be honest, a bit naïve and more hopeful than most white Americans at the time. The majority of whites did not understand black music and derisively called it “coon” music. It was considered to be vulgar, crude and primitive, little more than chants brought over by African slaves to sing on the plantations. Certainly black music was not the equal to the symphonies of the current European masters. This "coon music" had no Brahms, no Puccini, no Gilbert and Sullivan. It probably didn’t even have a John Phillip Sousa.

Obviously, the concert was a risky venture for Mannes and things were not looking positive. He feared the concert would play to a half-empty house. Two days before the big night and barely 1000 tickets had been sold; Carnegie Hall held 2800 people.

That would be a public relations disaster not only for Mannes personally, but also for the school he was attempting to benefit. Despite his increasing fear and nervous reservations, Mannes had extreme confidence in the black musician who had convinced him to host the event – James Reese Europe.

Jim Europe was the head of the first black music society in New York, the Clef Club. Although some members of the Clef Club were professional jazz musicians, Mannes knew that most of them were also “barbers, waiters, red caps, bell-hops” and could only attend rehearsals only when their other jobs allowed. Mannes' confidence was not bolstered when he discovered some of these “musicians” could not even read music! His deepest fear was that the concert would be not be just a "production of chaos,” but an out-and-out disaster.

Will Marion Cook was also skeptical. A brilliant violinist and classical composer, who had studied in Germany and performed for the English royal family, Cook was mercurial, moody, prone to quick anger. Several years before Cooke had become enraged when a newspaper reporter had called him “the world’s greatest Negro violinist.” He sought out the reporter at his newspaper office and declared, “I am not the world’s greatest Negro violinist. I am the greatest violinist in the world!” Cook was hesitant to participate in the Carnegie Hall concert due to the fear that it might “set the Negro race back fifty years.” But in solidarity to his fellow black musicians, he decided to take his place in the string section of the Clef Club Orchestra and hope for the best.

The night before the concert a local New York paper published a story which concluded, “The Evening Journal hopes that many of its readers will attend the concert, enjoy it and perhaps find prejudice based on ignorance give place to sympathy and good will.”

The concert sold out. More than one thousand people showed up at the box office that evening. The audience contained the elite of white and black New York society and culture. The best white musicians arrived. Music editors from the papers were in attendance. Prominent black ministers, lawyers and businessmen were present. Less than half an hour before the concert hundreds of people were still arriving by cabs, subway, buses, and on foot. Blacks and whites, all elegantly dressed, were seated together in the grand hall. In most theaters at that time, blacks were still forced to sit in the far left of the theater or in the balcony. No one was sure what to expect, or how to behave so when Jim Europe walked on stage before the 125 piece Clef Club Orchestra there was a palatable anticipation in the audience. He raised his baton to cue his musicians and as the first notes of Reese’s composition “The Clef Club March” filled the hall American music was never the same again.

Gunther Schuller wrote that Reese “had stormed the bastion of the white establishment and made many members of New York's cultural elite aware of Negro music for the first time.”

America was in the midst of an amazing transformation during this time. The United States was doubling its size, admitting twelve new states. Within the next eight years seven new constitutional amendments would be made into law. The population doubled, as did the number of foreign-born citizens. Americans were becoming more diverse, more urban, and more mobile. But in the shabby old city of white Charleston, most of the tried and true conventions still applied. Despite the encroachment of modern life, formal rules of conduct in Charleston were well-defined. Etiquette, cleanliness and polite conversation in the parlor were all components of the finer southern lifestyle. For many, the rules of etiquette defined a civilized society. Blacks were still expected to address whites as “massa” and “missus.” If they were employed by a white family, blacks were only to use the back door, never the front street entrance.

No one could have anticipated that the political and social fall-out from this concert would resonate across America, and ultimately, the world. It would not only give legitimacy to African-American music in mainstream (white) culture, it would, over the next decade, ignite the largest dance craze in American history. And to prove that God does have an ironic sense of humor, the most overt symbol of this upheaval would bear the name of the “most mannerly city” in America. Within a decade millions of people across the world would be “doin’ the Charleston.”

Today in History -1959: "Alfalfa" Killed

2011-01-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

Carl Dean Switzer, the actor who as a child played "Alfalfa" in the Our Gang comedy film series, died at age 31 in a fight, allegedly about money, in a Mission Hills, California, home. Alfalfa, the freckle-faced boy with a warbling singing voice and a cowlick protruding from the top of his head, was Switzer's best-known role.

As a child, Switzer, who was born August 7, 1927, entertained people in his hometown of Paris, Illinois, with his singing. On a trip to California to visit relatives, Switzer's mother took Carl and his brother to the Hal Roach Studios, a film and television production company that launched the careers of comedy legends like Laurel and Hardy. The Switzer brothers were signed by Hal Roach and Carl was cast as Alfalfa in the Our Gang series, which Roach began producing as silent films in the early 1920s.

Our Gang revolved around a group of ragtag children and their adventures. Along with Alfalfa, other popular characters included Spanky, Buckwheat and Darla. Our Gang was considered groundbreaking in that it featured white and black child actors interacting equally. Switzer played Alfalfa from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s. In 1955, the Our Gang films were turned into a hugely popular TV series called The Little Rascals; however, Switzer never received any royalties from the show.

After Our Gang, Switzer found small roles in movies and on television, but his most successful days in Hollywood were behind him. He made money working odd jobs, including stints as a hunting guide and bartender, and had several run-ins with the police.

On January 21, 1959, Switzer and a friend went to the Mission Hills home of Moses "Bud" Stiltz, to collect a debt Switzer believed he was owed. A fight broke out, during which Stiltz shot and killed Switzer. A jury later ruled the incident justifiable homicide.

TODAY IN HISTORY: The First Shot of the Civil War - Yes, or No?

2011-01-09T06:17:00.000-08:00

For 150 years, cadets at The Citadel, a military school in Charleston, SC, have been claiming the honor of firing the first shot of the Civil War. Today, on the 150th anniversary of that event, here is what happened.

Dec. 30, 1860. Pres. James Buchanan orders General Winifield Scott to reinforce Maj. Robert Anderson at Ft. Sumter (Charleston, SC.)
Jan. 5, 1861. A civilian supply ship, Star of the West, sails from New York with 250 Federal troops and supplies.
Jan. 9. 1861. Star of the West enters Charleston harbor and is sighted by sentries posted on Morris Island. More than 300 SC troops were stationed on Morris Island, including 40 Citadel cadets.
7:00 am. Maj. P.F. Stephens orders troops to open fire. Cadet G. E. Haynesworth pulled a lanyard and opened fire on an unarmed civilian vessel. Seventeen shots were fired, three of them direct hits. Star of the West retreated.

The next morning, the Charleston Mercury newspaper read:
Yesterday will be remembered in history. The expulsion of the Star of the West from Charleston harbor yesterday morning was the opening ball of the Revolution. We are proud that our harbor has been so honored. The state of South Carolina, so long and so bitterly reviled and scoffed at, has thrown back her enemies.

Lt. Smith on the Star of the West said: "The people of Charleston pride themselves on their hospitality, but it has exceeded my expectations. They gave us several balls before we landed."

Is opening fire on an unarmed civilian vessel who doesn't (who CAN'T) return fire enough to be considered the "first shot of the war?"

If a tree falls in the woods and no one can hear it, does it make a sound? If Glenn Beck tells you to buy his book, should you? If Bill Clinton tells you he did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, did he? If Al Gore tells you to believe in global warning, should you?

You be the judge.

2010 Review: Best & Worst

2011-01-01T06:10:00.000-08:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

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MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENT OF THE YEAR

I joyously became Mr. Rebel Sinclair on January 20.

MOST SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS

1^st Place: The WikiLeaks scandal.

2^nd Place: The Tea Party Effect.

The effect and ramifications from the WikiLeaks and the Tea Party influence on elections will linger for the next decade. Things like the Gulf Oil Spill, war in Afghanistan and earthquakes in underdeveloped countries are mere blips – we always have disasters and wars.

SOUTH CAROLINA’S MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENT

Election of the first female governor, Nikki Haley, or as she is known in political circle, Nookie Haley. I voted for her for that reason. Hoping and praying we get another good juicy sex scandal from our governor this year. Note to the Charleston Post & Courier: Univ. of South Carolina’s athletic achievements were NOT the biggest story in the state in 2010.

FAVORITE NOVELS of 2010

The Girl Who Chased the Moon / Sarah Addison Allen. Allen writes quirky little books full of magic, wonder and romance. I highly recommend all three of her novels.

61 Hours / Lee Child. It’s not often that the 15^th book in a series is the best, but this may be the best ‘Jack Reacher’ book yet. A great thriller.

Fatal Error / F. Paul Wilson. Over the past 20 years, Wilson has been writing one of the most entertaining sagas in fiction, the life of Repairman Jack. These books are a rich combination of action, sci-fi, horror and mystery. And according to the reality contained within these books … the end of the world is one book away.

Fall Of Giants / Ken Follett. Follett is THE current master of historical fiction. This is Vol. 1 of a trilogy.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest / Stieg Larsson. The conclusion of the Millennium Trilogy is an outstanding crime novel.

MOST PERSISTENT HILARIOUS NEWS HEADLINE

Unemployment rises ‘unexpectedly’

Unexpected for whom? Only for the news people and Obama’s White House staffers. For the rest of us, it was never ‘unexpected’ when the unemployment figures kept rising.

MOST DISAPPOINTING MUSIC RELEASE

Charleston, SC, 1966 / Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker’s 2010 country release was named in homage to one of the greatest country LPs of the past 30 years, Radney Foster’s seminal Del Rio, Tx, 1959. Both albums were named after each man’s respective hometowns and their birth years. Darius and Radney have become friends and musical buddies through the years while Radney has helped ease Darius’ transition into mainstream county music. However, Radney’s LP was filled with brilliant self-penned songs of soul-searching angst and universal truths, while Darius’ CD is middle-of-the-road mainstream country at its finest (or worse.) Twenty years from now, music critics will NOT be listing Charleston, SC, 1966 as one of the most influential records. Sooner or later, Darius will get around to creating a classic but this is not it.

Note: In case anyone interested, Radney Foster is coming to perform at the Windjammer this May14. I’ll see you there.

FAVORITE MUSICAL RELEASE

Mojo / Tom Petty. Great rock and roll. Petty is one of those artists who started out good and slowly crept into greatness, and has managed to sustain that greatness for more than 20 years, with very little letdown. Petty’s quasi-reggae workout, “Don’t Pull Me Over” will have you tapping your toes with a smile on your face.

Memphis Blue / Cyndi Lauper. Yes, a blues album by the girl who just wants to have fun. And this is loads of fun. Not to be missed.

LEAST SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE YEAR

Joe Riley seeks 10^th term as Charleston mayor.

As long as he can continue to brainwash all the SOBs, why wouldn’t he keep running for mayor? But of course, history does prove that Charleston has never been known for its intelligence.

THIS YEAR’S ‘ AVATAR

Definition: a movie that was hyped by everyone that turned out to be completely awful. You know, like Avatar.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Not only was it a bad movie, it also ripped off its subtitle (with a slight re-wording) from a great Neil Young LP. Oliver Stone is the 2^nd most overrated director of the last 30 years.

WORST NOVELS I READ THIS YEAR

The Ghost / Robert Harris. A joke of a book. My review on Amazon has created a lot of hate-filled responses. I pointed out a huge lapse in the main character’s behavior and for some reason it pissed off a lot of people who were loving the book because its liberal political ideology. It’s not my fault these people want to passionately defend a poorly written book. Read my review.

Revolutionary Road / Richard Yates. When the academia critics all pontificate that a book is “brilliantly written” that’s my clue to leave it alone. However, I was forced to read this book in college in the 1970s and found it awful (my professor found it “brilliant” of course) so when all the hype of the movie came out, I gave it another reading. IT STILL SUCKS. Truly a piece of 60s crap. People this tortured over their lives, deserve to be depressed and alcoholics. Superficial and silly.

THE PASSAGE / Justin Cronin. Over-hyped horror novel. This year's The Road. Read my review.

Freedom /Jonathon Frazen. Rule #1: Fiction should be entertaining. Rule #2: Fancy writing should not get in the way of the story. Mr. Frazen, try following the rules next time out.

Men and Dogs / Katie Crouch. So bad, there is no way to describe it. Read my review (it’s better than the book.)

JOKE OF THE YEAR

What’s the difference between a lawyer and a prostitute?

A prostitute won’t screw you after you’re dead.

MOST USELESS PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC EYE

1^st Place (Tie): Sarah Palin / Keith Olbermann

Runner Up: Lady Gaga

BEST NON-FICTION BOOKS

Composed / Rosanne Cash. This is NOT a by-the-numbers biography; Cash focuses her memoirs on the journey she took to become a great songwriter. Fabulous and poignant.

Last Call / Daniel Okrent. THE definitive history of Prohibition and the Roaring 20s. Outstanding!

Me, the Mob and the Music / Tommy James. James recounts (with some good humor and bits of harsh honesty) his odd and wildly successful career as a 60s and 70 hitmaker, while under contract to the "Godfather of the music industry", Morris Levy. This HAS to become a movie!!!!

SIGNS THAT THE APOCALYPSE IS PENDING

Snow on the ground twice in Charleston, SC in the same year – February and December, 2010.
Keith Olbermann is still taken seriously.
More people know who the Kardishians are than who Nevil Shute was.
Lady GaGa is considered a musician.
Jane Fonda is being marketed as sexy.
Michael Vick is out of jail.
NASA has been releasing information about what’s out there, subtly preparing the TV news-watching masses for some of the reality that is coming in the next two decades.

Paranormal State: 1 , Bulldog Tours: 0

2010-10-27T06:54:00.001-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com
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FULL DISCLOSURE: This is the first episode of A & E's Paranormal State I have ever watched. I am also an eighth generation native South Carolinian. I have been a Charleston tour guide for ten years and the author of four books about Charleston and South Carolina history. Until 2006 I worked for John Laverne and Bulldog Tours and regularly gave the tour in the Old City Jail. One of the main reasons I left Bulldog Tours was Mr. Laverne's business model and philosophy - quantity over quality, more tours & more people versus less tours & higher standards.

The cast of the A&E TV show PARANORMAL STATE was in Charleston during August 2010 to film an episode titled "Spirits in the Slave Dungeon." If this is an indication of a typical episode, then I am perplexed with the show's popularity. It was filled with historical inaccuracies and the entire show was built upon several of those inaccuracies. During my research before watching the episode (yes, I research things beforehand ... it's called being prepared, maybe the PS guys should try it) I came across dozens of stories that called into question the ethical standards of the show. Claims of staged scenes, and faked paranormal effects seem to be a common theme. So, I watched ...

First Impressions: I almost never watch TV; I do not have cable or a satellite dish at home so I watched the episode on YouTube. I am also always skeptical of the accuracy of anything done on TV for entertainment. My first clue that this show was going to be bad was the title of the episode, "Spirits in the Slave Dungeon."

First of all, the Old City Jail was not a "dungeon" and was not the location for the imprisonment of slaves, despite what Dr. Powers later says on camera. The slave "Sugar House" location was next door to the jail - more about that later.

Second clue that this show was going to stretch credibility: Michelle Belanger is part of the show's cast - the self-proclaimed so-called psychic vampire, hermaphrodite, goth vocalist, erotic novelist and attention whore. My confidence level was not leaping into the stratosphere.

I was first struck by how staged the entire show was. As the group is walking up the stairs into the jail one of the cast members asks: "Why did you bring us here?" Ryan answers: "We're here to investigate this place," and they all look surprised.

Hello! Aren't you guys doing a television show about paranormal activity? Don't you see the cameras filming you? Don't you travel across America and do this EVERY week? At that moment I knew the entire show was going to be very bad. I wasn't disappointed.

Unfortunately, no one can go to the jail without hearing some version of the story of Lavinia Fisher. Yes, she and her husband were imprisoned in the Charleston city jail, and they may have been guilty of murder (probably 3 victims, not 15) and she was executed in Charleston, but not in her wedding dress. However, she was never held in that small jail cell they showed on camera, mainly because that cell didn't exist until two years ago. So I'm not sure how a disembodied arm covered in lace can appear in a cell that was built as a tour effect.

However, I did love the fact that Ryan asks Bulldog Tour owner, John Laverne, about the ethical and moral dilemma of using the jail for entertainment purposes. Hey Ryan! What are you doing? You do a TV show that uses haunted locations for entertainment purposes. It's like Keith Olbermann asking Joy Behar, "How does it feel to be a pompous blowhard?"

However, Mr. Laverne's answer is the most illuminating, and factually accurate part of the show. In response to being asked if he thinks about the ethics of his company using the building for entertainment he answers, "Not so much. Honestly, I'm not a sensitive person when it comes to the spirit world ... if I've ticked off the ghosts in this building, I apologize," and he laughs.

Ryan then asks Laverne that if all ghosts of this building were able to be freed, how would Laverne feel about that. Laverne answers: "That's right up there with we're going to instill peace on Earth and we're all going to get along. If the ghosts don't want to be here, sure, let them move on, and we'll go to the next haunted location in town."

Good to know what Laverne's priorities are for his company ... not accuracy, not heritage, not respect for a historic location. Money.

The PS team then sits in the courtyard of the restaurant 82 Queen to discuss the first night's investigation. And they immediately begin to complain that the tour guide only talked about white prisoners. They didn't talk about the slaves. Michelle Belanger, so-called psychic, claims she got an image of a black man being whipped and screaming "I'm innocent!" At this point it became clear that they had decided focus on the slave history of the jail, even though they had yet to hear any evidence that there is slave history in the building.

Hey guys, maybe the tour guide didn't talk about slave history at the jail because there isn't very much of it documented. Not at that location. That's the pesky thing about history. Most slaves could never read or write, but whites could and most whites of the 18th and 19th century wrote very little about slaves.

Michelle Belanger then goes to interview Dr. Bernard Powers of the College of Charleston history department. That's like sending Lady GaGa to interview George Gershwin. Dr. Powers then says: "that jail was sometimes referred to as the Sugar House, where slaves were sent to be punished to sweeten them up."

Dr. Powers, let me correct your statement. The jail sat at 21 Magazine Street and the Slave Workhouse was located at 15 Magazine (according to the "1739 Iconography.") The Work House was a converted sugar warehouse. It was a common expression for a white slave owner to threaten a slave by saying, "Don't make me send you to Charleston for a little sugar."

Two slaves, Dolly and Liverpoole, were "burnt on the Work-house Greene" in 1769 for "poisoning an infant." In 1826, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach described the Work House as "having 40 inmates of both sexes." The Work House was torn down after extensive damage from the 1886 Charleston earthquake.

Then Michelle tells the group that she thinks the history of the jail has been "whitewashed." You think, Michelle? Of course it's whitewashed. Bulldog doesn't give history tours in the jail, they give ghost tours. The public doesn't want a history tour, they want a haunted house atmosphere, and Mr. Laverne is more than happy to provide it. Why do you think the jail tour schedule runs every half hour, every night? So 200 people per night can be pushed through that building @ $18 per person, seven nights a week. Most tourists will not purchase a ticket for the Historic Jail Tour, but the Haunted Jail Tour is always an easy sell. As Mr. Laverne said, "I'm not sensitive to the spirit world." If he could no longer market the jail to the public he would happily "go to the next haunted location in town." And this is a man who operates that somehow was voted the BEST TOUR COMPANY IN CHARLESTON in 2010, even though they have the worst reviews of any Charleston tour company.

Given Michelle's concern over the use of this building for entertainment, I wonder how she would feel about Laverne's annual spring party he throws for the hospitality industry of Charleston at the jail - complete with strippers, food, booze, fire-eaters and other entertainment on this "hallowed" ground.

However, at this point in the show, the decision had obviously been made to focus exclusively on the slave history in the jail. And then we have the odd, wacky appearance of Dr. O. (Cultural Anthropologist) who claims that he woke up and the spirits told him to come to the jail.

What no one mentions is - Dr. O hangs around the jail often. It's not some mystical event when he shows up. He probably saw the TV cameras the day before. But Dr. O goes on to school the PS folks on how to cleanse the site from the slave spirits by leaving fruit and lighting candles. That is all well and good but again ... and this is beginning to sound like a broken record ... do it next door at the site of the Work House!

After Dr. O leaves, a thunder storm arrives! Amazing, a thunderstorm in the south on a hot summer August night! That can't be coincidence, right? After all, Charleston never has pop-up thunderstorms during the summer that last 30-40 minutes and suddenly go away, right? (Sarcasm) So, the team sets out the candles and fruit and after the offering, the storm subsides! Will miracles never cease? I guess the spirits were soothed so the storm suddenly ended.

The last segment features John Laverne and Dr. O in a strained meeting facilitated by Ryan, discussing Bulldog's use of the location for entertainment versus respecting the history and legacy of the site. Laverne claims that he wants to be a good "steward of the building." And Bill Clinton did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, either. Being a good steward means more than just paying tens of thousands of dollars to have access to a location to give tours on the site.

According to the information presented during the credits scroll, we learn that Dr. O has been offered a "consulting position with Bulldog Tours."

Conclusion: Paranormal State is a very lame show, filled with sketchy information and wild leaps of logic. One of the main investigators has a proven track record of deception and the show itself has been accused of unethical behavior. If this is an indication of the quality of the glut of paranormal reality shows on TV, then I certainly haven't missed a single thing by never watching them.

Did anyone on the show do any research to validate Dr. O's claims? Did anyone on the show do any advance research of the jail before they arrived? If so, they would have known the difference between the jail and the Work House. There are at least 200 Charleston tour guides who could have told them the difference.

It's ironic that even though PARANORMAL STATE made little attempt at getting to the truth of City Jail, it did manage to illuminate the reality of Charleston's largest walking tour company - MONEY TRUMPS EVERYTHING.

So, all-in-all. Grade D.

THE TEN MOST PROFOUND MUSICAL QUESTIONS

2010-09-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

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THE TEN MOST PHILOSOPHICAL MUSICAL QUESTIONS

WHO ARE YOU? The Who
DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? Chicago
WHAT IS LIFE? George Harrison
WHY CAN'T HE BE YOU? Patsy Cline
WHY WALK WHEN YOU CAN FLY? Mary Chapin Carpenter
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? Jimi Hendrix
WHAT'S GOING ON? Marvin Gaye
DO YOU FEEL LIKE WE DO? Peter Frampton
WHY DON'T YOU QUIT LEAVING ME ALONG? Rosanne Cash
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? Pink Floyd

SOME OTHER MUSICAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ARE YOU READY FOR THE LOVE? Elton John
Thanks for the offer, Elton, I'll decline.
AIN'T IT FUNKY NOW? James Brown
If not now, it will soon be.

BABY, WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME? Louis Prima (and dozens of other singers)
No, I've found a better place. Ever heard of San Jose?

CAN WE STILL BE FRIENDS? Todd Rundgren
Absolutely! As long as I don't have to see you.
CAN'T YOU SEE? Marshall Tucker Band
Ironic ... since the band's name was taken from a blind piano tuner in Spartanburg, SC.

DO YA THINK I'M SEXY? Rod Stewart
No.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE? Huey Lewis and the News
Yes.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? The Lovin' Spoonful
Absolutely!
DO YOU LOVE ME? The Contours and The Dave Clark Five
Probably not.
DO YOU LOVE AS GOOD AS YOU LOOK? The Bellamy Brothers
Yes.
DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE? Dionne Warrick
Yes, I do. Here's the driving directions.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? Lee Michaels.
Hoo!
DO YOU WANNA DANCE? Bobby Freeman, The Beach Boys, Del Shannon, The Ramones, Dave Edmunds Yes. Let's do The Horizontal Bop or The Charleston.
DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW THAT YOU'RE OUT? ABBA
If you're from West Virginia, the mother is probably out with the daughter.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? Credence Clearwater Revival
Yes, and it's clear water!
HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE? The Bee Gees
Deep enough to produce an echo.
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA? The Sound of Music
By going to San Jose.
HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART? The Bee Gees
By getting some deep love.
HOW YOU GONNA KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM AFTER THEY'VE SEEN PAREE? The Hellfighters Band
One of the greatest protest songs that the 60s Civil Rights movement never embraced. Thousands of black American soldiers fought in Europe and returned to an America that was still rife with Jim Crow laws. After being treated like soldiers and human beings in France, they were in no mood to remain second class citizens in their own country. Listen to it!

IF I SAID YOU HAD A BEAUTIFUL BODY WOULD YOU HOLD IT AGAINST ME? The Bellamy Brothers These guys should get an award for having the guts to actually write a song with this title.
IS THIS LOVE? Bob Marley
Yes, but it's not that deep.
IS SHE REALLY GOING OUT WITH HIM? Joe Jackson
Absolutely! Have you seen her body?
IS YOU OR IS YOU AIN'T MY BABY? Louis Prima
Ain't.
SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? The Clash
Depends on how deep your love is. Mainly, I vote "go."

WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED? Jimmy Ruffin
They end up being South Carolina Gamecock football fans.
WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? The Supremes
I believe it's in San Jose.
WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? Dire Straits
San Jose, to look for our love.
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU? The Grass Roots
Looking for love in all the wrong places, including San Jose.

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Tina Turner
Absolutely nothing if you do it wrong. Everything if you do it right.
WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING? Elvis Costello
Are you kidding me? All three are hilarious. If you don't agree, then you're too uptight.
WHO WILL THE NEXT FOOL BE? The Amazing Rhythm Aces
I think I know who it is.
WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN? Credence Clearwater Revival
Al Gore.

WHO'S CRYING NOW? Journey & The Amazing Rhythm Aces (different songs)
Al Gore.
WHO'S GONNA FILL THEIR SHOES? George Jones
Lady GaGa and Justin Beider.
WHO'S SORRY NOW? Connie Francis
Probably you ... for reading this far.

WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS? War
Because you thought I was serious with the Lady GaGa and Justin Beider suggestion.
WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD? The Beatles
It's dangerous and there's probably a dead skunk in the middle.
WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE? Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
While looking for something deep in all the wrong places in San Jose it seemed like the thing to do.

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN? Nitty Gritty Dirt Band ( and 100+ other artists)
I'm afraid it already has.
WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW? The Shirelles
Depends on how shallow your love is.

WOULDN'T IT BE NICE? The Beach Boys
Absolutely!
WOULD YOU LAY WITH ME (IN A FIELD OF STONE?) Tanya Tucker
Twenty years ago Tanya, YES!. But now ... not gonna happen.

Supicious Reviews for "Best Tour Company"

2010-07-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

For full disclosure: I am a Charleston tour guide, author and co-owner of Black Cat Tours.

My walking tour business is one of many in Charleston that utilizes a ticket broker called Zerve. One of the positive aspects of Zerve is that the customers who purchase tickets have the opportunity to review the activity they attended with no possibility of alteration by the owners of the company. Zerve prides itself on the real and unedited feedback from customers.

But recently there were a series of tour reviews for Bulldog Tours, voted Best Tour Company in 2010 by readers of the Charleston City Paper. Many people in the tourism community were a bit shocked when Bulldog won this award. Obviously, the voters had not bothered reading the Zerve reviews for Bulldog.

What makes the reviews suspicious? They were posted by the same person for four different tours ON THE SAME DAY. The tours were taken at 7:00 pm (2 tours, Haunted Jail Tour & Ghost and Dungeon Tour), 7:30 pm (Ghost & Graveyard Tour), and 8:00 pm (The Dark Side of Charleston.) How do you take four tours concurrently?

All Zerve customers are identified by a Zerve ID, in this case the name is GlenZim. In one tour review GlenZim identifies himself as Male 30-39, Couple on a date. In two tours he is 40-49, Family with children. In the fourth he is once again 40-49, Local Group of Friends. Which is it, GlenZim?

And then we get to the "reviews." All four of them read like PR copy from Bulldog's web site descriptions. And the "reviewer" goes out of his way to address and rebutt the most constant complaints about each tour. Almost every review of The Dark Side tour mentions the tour guide "has an odd accent and talks so fast no one can understand him." So GlenZim makes sure he mentions that the "tour guide had a southern accent but was not too difficult to understand and told us many people have trouble understanding him."

The reviewer made sure to mention he'd seen "the dungeon featured on the travel channel years ago and jumped at the idea of taking a "ghost tour" to see it in person."

Then he addressed the issue of group size, a common complaint for tourists that the groups are too large. GlenZim says: "There were so many people for the graveyard and we were scared we would be put into some huge group. Not to worry, because they broke us down into reasonably managed groups of 15-20 or so." Note: the city of Charleston limits walking tour groups to 20 or less.

Why do you need to have someone (employee, friend etc ..) purchase tickets for all of your tours and write glowing reviews? If I'm willing to let my tours (and subsequent reviews) speak for themselves, shouldn't the "Best Tour Company" in Charleston be willing to do the same?

-------------------------------

Below are the four unedited Bulldog reviews cut & pasted from Zerve's website. Or, you can go on-line and read them here.

Knowledgeable tour guide and interesting tour

The Darkside of Charleston Tour (Rated R)

Fri, Jul 16 8:00 PM GlenZim Male 30-39 Domestic Tourist(s) Couple on a Date

The tour guide had a southern accent but was not too difficult to understand and told us many people have trouble understanding him, so just to ask him to repeat something if we needed. Seemed like an odd guy at first but ended up being very nice, helpful and knowledgeable. The tour itself was a great look at the city that you won’t see somewhere else. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Great Entertainment

The Charleston Ghost and Graveyard Tour

Fri, Jul 16 7:30 PM GlenZim Male 40-49 Domestic Tourist(s) Family With Children

When we first got there, we were a little nervous because there were so many people there for the graveyard tour and we were scared we would be put into some huge group. Not to worry, because they broke us down into reasonably managed groups of maybe 15-20 or so. Our tour guide was a young man who had the perfect mix of humor and history. He took us to several different places around town, but the highlight was getting to pass by another tour group as we were entering the graveyard that they couldn’t access! We felt very privileged. There were lots of other tour groups out on the streets, but it didn’t seem overly crowded, as some of the other reviews have said. We had a great time and would recommend it to others!

Fun for the whole family

The Charleston Ghost and Dungeon Tour

Fri, Jul 16 7:00 PM GlenZim Male 40-49 Unspecified Family With Children

I had seen the dungeon featured on the travel channel years ago and jumped at the idea of taking a “ghost tour” to see it in person. We had a great tour guide, kept us entertained even though it was terribly hot outside (bring some water, you’ll need it!). We even got some “orbs” in our camera that we discovered when we got back to the hotel. It wasn’t too scary, but I definitely got a chill up my spine from some of the stories. My kids loved the tour as well, I would recommend it for all ages and our tour guide was able to engage everyone present.

Great Tour in a CREEPY Building.

The Charleston Haunted Jail Tour

Fri, Jul 16 7:00 PM GlenZim Male 30-39 Local Group of Friends

I read all of the reviews on here extensively before I went on the tour, so I sort of knew what to expect. The tour guide told us stories of how they kept the inmates there and about several different personal experiences that she had there. Very creepy indeed. The building is under “restoration”, as the building arts college students do use it to practice their craft, but they are trying to keep the building from crumbling underneath them so the tour guide said that different rooms are open on different days as they stabilize flooring, etc. We toured the basement, 2nd floor and 3rd floor on the day we were there. She also told us that a portion of the ticket price goes toward the preservation of the building and the college, so I felt good for helping to save such a historic and CREEPY building! Also, it’s not air conditioned in there, so it’s HOT (you can see how the prisoners felt)-but worth it!

MarkJonesBooks.com
BlackCatTours.com

AVATAR: A Review

2010-06-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

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Was there some other movie last year called Avatar? I remember everyone raving about this fabulous movie that was going to redefine cinema. Surely, this is not the same Avatar I just watched. The one that takes place on some planet called Pandora.

First of all, it stole the plot line from a 2nd rate animated movie from the 1990s, FernGully. Every character was as shallow a belly-button swimming pool. You got the gung-ho military guy who only wants to kill and blow stuff up. You also have the corporate CEO, who only cares about profits ... so if you have to kill and blow things up, fine with him. You have the researchers, who are compassionate human beings and self-righteous. And then, you have this indigenous population called Na'vi, whose so-called culture is nothing more than recycled Native American ("Injuns," they used to be called in Hollywood, when they were played by dark-skinned Jews or Italian actors) traditions.

For a movie billed as so inventive, how did I know the entire plot within 10 minutes. How could I recite the dialogue before the characters even uttered the words? This is a 45-minute film stretched to almost 3 hours.

Stay away from this piece of excrement, and someone please direct me to that other Avatar movie everyone was talking about.

TODAY IN HISTORY, June 6

2010-06-08T05:29:00.001-07:00

1845. Andrew Jackson, seventh president, dies

Jackson is linked in history to Charleston, SC for two reasons.

ONE: His mother, Elizabeth, volunteered as a Revolutionary War nurse in Charleston. During an outbreak of cholera on-board a medical ship in Charleston harbor, Jackson succumbed to the disease and was buried in Charleston in an unmarked grave. (Subsequently discovered to on the campus of the College of Charleston.)

TWO: The Petticoat Affair.

Margaret "Peggy" O'Neale was the daughter of William O'Neale, who owned a Washington, D.C. boarding-house called the Franklin House. It was a social center of politicians. He and his wife ensured Margaret was well-educated, and was well known for her ability to play the piano. In 1816 she married her first husband John B. Timberlake, a purser in the U.S. Navy. She was 17, and he was 39. He had been heavily in debt for years. Peggy was renowned for having a "vivacious" temperament. They had three children together, with one dying in infancy.

Margaret Timberlake and her husband, John, had been friends with Senator John Henry Eaton since they met in 1818, when Eaton was a 28-year-old widower and newly elected US Senator. After Timberlake told him about her financial problems, Eaton tried to get the Senate to pass a petition to pay debts accrued while Timberlake was in the Navy, but was unsuccessful.

With the encouragement of President Andrew Jackson, who liked them both, Peggy Timberlake and Eaton married shortly after her husband's death, although according to the social mores of the day, it would have been more proper for them to wait a longer time. Their action scandalized respectable people of the capital, especially many women. Second Lady Floride Calhoun, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun led a phalanx of other Cabinet wives in an "anti-Peggy" coalition. Prominent women snubbed Margaret Eaton.

Martin Van Buren, a widower and the only unmarried member of the Cabinet, allied himself with the Eatons. Jackson was sympathetic to the Eatons, in part, perhaps, because his own beloved late wife, Rachel Robards, had been the subject of innuendo. Jackson believed such rumors were the cause of her heart attack and death December 22, 1828, several weeks after his election. (Her first marriage had not yet been legally ended at the time of her wedding to Jackson.) Even Rachel's niece Emily Donelson, whom Jackson called on as his "First Lady," sided with the Calhoun faction.

Jackson appointed Eaton as his Secretary of War, hoping to limit the rumors, but the scandal intensified. Jackson felt political opponents, especially those around Calhoun, were feeding the controversy. The controversy finally resulted in the resignation of almost all members of the Cabinet over a period of weeks in the spring of 1831. Postmaster William T. Barry would be the lone member to stay.

Jackson elevated Van Buren as his favorite and replaced Calhoun as vice presidential running mate in his re-election campaign. Van Buren thus became the de facto heir to the Democratic Party. Although Emily Donelson had supported Floride Calhoun, Jackson kept his niece as his official hostess.

John Calhoun and his wife returned to South Carolina. In 1832 he won a seat in the U.S. Senate. He advocated states' rights, slavery, and economic issues affecting the South, eventually including secession from the Union.

TODAY IN HISTORY, June 7: JAMAICAN PIRATE HAVEN DESTROYED BY EARTHQUAKE

2010-06-07T04:31:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1692, a massive earthquake devastates the infamous town of Port Royal in Jamaica, killing thousands. The strong tremors, soil liquefaction and a tsunami brought on by the earthquake combined to destroy the entire town.

Port Royal was built on a small island off the coast of Jamaica in the harbor across from present-day Kingston. Many of the buildings where the 6,500 residents lived and worked were constructed right over the water. In the 17th century, Port Royal was known throughout the New World as a headquarters for piracy, smuggling and debauchery. It was described as "most wicked and sinful city in the world" and "one of the lewdest in the Christian world."

Earthquakes in the area were not uncommon, but were usually rather small. In 1688, a tremor had toppled three homes. But four years later, late in the morning on June 7, three powerful quakes struck Jamaica. A large tsunami hit soon after, putting half of Port Royal under 40 feet of water. The HMS Swan was carried from the harbor and deposited on top of a building on the island. It turned out to be a refuge for survivors.

Residents also soon discovered that the island of Port Royal was not made of bedrock. The relatively loosely packed soil turned almost to liquid during the quake. Many buildings literally sank into the ground. In the aftermath, virtually every building in the city was uninhabitable, including two forts. Corpses from the cemetery floated in the harbor alongside recent victims of the disaster.

On the main island, Spanish Town was also demolished. Even the north side of the island experienced great tragedy. Fifty people were killed in a landslide. In all, about 3,000 people lost their lives on June 7. There was little respite in the aftermath--widespread looting began that evening and thousands more died in the following weeks due to sickness and injury. Aftershocks discouraged the survivors from rebuilding Port Royal. Instead, the city of Kingston was built and remains to this day the largest city in Jamaica.

TODAY IN HISTORY, June 6. D-DAY.

2010-06-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

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Although the term D-Day is used routinely as military lingo for the day an operation or event will take place, for many it is also synonymous with June 6, 1944, the day the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War II. Within three months, the northern part of France would be freed and the invasion force would be preparing to enter Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet forces moving in from the east.

With Hitler's armies in control of most of mainland Europe, the Allies knew that a successful invasion of the continent was central to winning the war. Hitler knew this too, and was expecting an assault on northwestern Europe in the spring of 1944. He hoped to repel the Allies from the coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet Union in the east. Once that was accomplished, he believed an all-out victory would soon be his.

On the morning of June 5, 1944, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious military operation in history. On his orders, 6,000 landing craft, ships and other vessels carrying 176,000 troops began to leave England for the trip to France. That night, 822 aircraft filled with parachutists headed for drop zones in Normandy. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion.

By dawn on June 6, 18,000 parachutists were already on the ground; the land invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches; so did the Americans at Utah. The task was much tougher at Omaha beach, however, where 2,000 troops were lost and it was only through the tenacity and quick-wittedness of troops on the ground that the objective was achieved. By day's end, 155,000 Allied troops--Americans, British and Canadians--had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches.

For their part, the Germans suffered from confusion in the ranks and the absence of celebrated commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was away on leave. At first, Hitler, believing that the invasion was a feint designed to distract the Germans from a coming attack north of the Seine River, refused to release nearby divisions to join the counterattack and reinforcements had to be called from further afield, causing delays. He also hesitated in calling for armored divisions to help in the defense. In addition, the Germans were hampered by effective Allied air support, which took out many key bridges and forced the Germans to take long detours, as well as efficient Allied naval support, which helped protect advancing Allied troops.

Though it did not go off exactly as planned, as later claimed by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery--for example, the Allies were able to land only fractions of the supplies and vehicles they had intended in France--D-Day was a decided success. By the end of June, the Allies had 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy and were poised to continue their march across Europe.

The heroism and bravery displayed by troops from the Allied countries on D-Day has served as inspiration for several films, most famously The Longest Day (1962) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). It was also depicted in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers (2001).

Today in History, 1976. THE GIG THAT CHANGED THE MUSIC WORLD

2010-06-04T04:00:00.001-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com
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You've heard of "the day the music died." How about "the day music was rejuvenated?"

Millions of people claim to have been at Woodstock when only 500,000 or so were really there, but in proportion, the Sex Pistols’ appearance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, on June 4, 1976 was attended by less than 50 people, but had almost as great as impact as the overly-revered hippie love fest.

The Sex Pistols had been playing together under that name for only seven months, and though their look, their sound and their nihilistic attitude were already in place, they and the entire British punk scene were still a few months away from truly breaking out. They had drawn just enough attention in the British music press, though, to inspire two young men from Manchester named Howard DeVoto and Pete Shelley to go down and see them play in London in February. From this experience, two things happened: DeVoto and Shelley arranged for the Sex Pistols to come up north and play the Lesser Free Trade Hall; and then they formed their own new band, called the Buzzcocks. News of the June 4 gig in Manchester spread mostly by word of mouth, such that on the night of the show, perhaps as few as 40 people showed up in a room that could hold hundreds. In that small crowd, however, were some names that would help shape the course of pop music over the next decade:

Howard DeVoto and Pete Shelley: Their band, the Buzzcocks, would go on to enjoy enormous popularity and influence in the UK both during and after the punk era.

Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook: The very next day, Hook would buy his first guitar, and the three young Mancunians would become a band. That band—originally called the Stiff Kittens and later Warsaw—was Joy Division, one of the best-known and most influential of all the early New Wave bands

Mark E. Smith: Following the Sex Pistols gig, he started The Fall, a post-punk band that never had a true hit record but influenced generations of followers from Nirvana to Franz Ferdinand

Steven Patrick Morrissey: The last of these notables to make a name for himself, but one of the most successful, both as leader of the Smiths in the mid-1980s and as a solo artist thereafter

Tony Wilson: Manchester TV news presenter who would be inspired to start the record label Factory Records, which would help create the thriving Manchester scene of the 1980s and early-90s

Just a few days after the Sex Pistols stormed Manchester on this day in 1976, they returned to London for gigs on July 4 and 6 that featured two brand-new bands as opening acts: The Clash and The Damned. Three weeks after that, their return gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall (featuring opening act the Buzzcocks) drew hundreds, as the punk era unofficially opened.

TODAY IN HISTORY, 1985: Serial Killer Couple Arrested

2010-06-02T04:35:00.001-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com

Leonard Lake is arrested near San Francisco, California, ending one of the rare cases of serial killers working together. Lake and Charles Ng were responsible for a series of particularly brutal crimes against young women in California and the Pacific Northwest during the mid-1980s.

Lake was a former Marine who had served time in Vietnam. Ng, born in Hong Kong, was educated in England, and attended college in California briefly before being caught with automatic weapons that he had stolen from a military base in Hawaii and sent to Leavenworth federal prison. After his release, Ng hooked up with Lake in California and the two began a series of murders.

Ng and Lake shared a love of John Fowles' The Collector, a book in which the protagonist kidnaps a woman solely to keep her in his possession, like the butterfiles he collects as a hobby. Creating "Operation Miranda," named after a character in the book, Ng and Lake began kidnapping young women and bringing them to a cinderblock bunker in a secluded area south of San Francisco. There, they tried to brainwash the women into becoming their willing sex slaves. They also kidnapped a young couple and their infant son in San Francisco while at their home pretending to be interested in some audiovisual equipment the couple was selling and later killed them.

Lake, who had been arrested in 1985 for his connection to a burglary committed by Ng, ingested a cyanide capsule while in custody, and killed himself. Ng escaped to Canada, where he successfully avoided extradition for almost six years. When he was finally returned to California for trial, he utilized other delaying tactics. By the time he was finally convicted, he had gone through multiple attorneys and judges. It was one of the longest homicide prosecutions in state history and one of the costliest, at approximately $11 million dollars.

The trial itself was unorthodox. Ng persuaded the judge to let him testify in his own defense, against his attorney's advice. He told the jury that he was Lake's subservient partner, and denied killing anyone. The prosecution used his testimony to introduce new evidence, including cartoons drawn by Ng depicting babies being smashed, drowned, fried in a wok, and put in a microwave oven. Ng said the cartoons were meant to be funny. After a four-month trial, the jury convicted Ng and he was sentenced to death in 1999.

MEMORIAL DAY WAR MOVIES

2010-05-31T04:06:00.000-07:00

A list of war movies to watch for Memorial Day.

THE NO-BRAINERS
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FULL METAL JACKET (1987) Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey. Stanley Kubrick's intense film follows a group from boot camp to Vietnam. INTENSE!

GLORY (1989) Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes. Best Civil War movie ever made.

THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland. A major in America’s OSS trains a group of doomed convicts into an elite special missions force tasked with raiding a fortified Nazi chateau full of vacationing officers. VERY FUN!

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Paul Giamatti, Ed Burns. When a World War II private’s three brothers are all killed in action, a platoon is dispatched to retrieve him and send him home amid the European Theater’s last major offensive.

PLATOON (1986) Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, Keith David. Oliver Stone’s autobiographical account of his experiences in Vietnam charts the change in disposition of its characters in the face of the war’s shockingly commonplace atrocities.

STALAG 17 (1953) William Holden, Otto Preminger, Peter Graves. An unscrupulous U.S. POW is suspected by fellow inmates to be spying on behalf of their German captors.

THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough. A mostly-true story of the Nazi's plan to isolate the most escape-prone POWs in one "escape proof" facility.

NEED-TO-SEE
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M*A*S*H (1970) Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall. Dark, funny and harrowing.

SHENANDOAH (1965) James Stewart, Doug McClure, Denver Pyle, Patrick Wayne, Katherine Ross. A Virginia farmer's determination not involve his family in the Civil War falls apart when his youngest son is mistaken as a Rebel and taken into Union custody.

THE CAINE MUTINY (1954) Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray, Lee Marvin. The new captain of the U.S. S. Caine, a mine sweeper, drives the crew to the brink of mutiny.

A MIDNIGHT CLEAR (1992) Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Ethan Hawk. A German platoon surrenders to an American unit during a temporary truce in the final days of WWII. Over the Christmas holidays the two sides bond, but are then forced to fight when the truce is rescended.

GALLIPOLI (1981) Mel Gibson, Mark Lee. A couple of Australian sprinters face the brutalities of war when they are sent to the front lines.

BEST ROBIN HOOD FILMS

2010-05-30T13:55:00.001-07:00

Saw the new Robin Hood film this week and unfortunately, Hollywood has still yet to make a great (or accurate) Robin Hood flick.

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1. ROBIN AND MARIAN (1976) Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn., Robert Shaw and Richard Harris. This is the best cast of any Robin Hood movie. This is actually an "after-the-legend" story. Robin is approaching fifty years old, and he is a captain in the army of King Richard the Lion-Heart. After the King's death, Robin and Little John return to Sherwood Forest to discover that Marian had joined a convent.

I cannot spoil the story by telling you the rest of the plot. Rest assured the story is NOT swashbuckling, it is about the enduring love between two opposite, middle-aged people. Marian's speech to Robin at the end is one of the greatest "I love you" moments in cinema. Robin and Marian is one of the most romantic movies of the 1970s, and very few people have seen it.

2. ROBIN HOOD (1973) Disney's animated version. Despite the fact that all the characters are portrayed by humanoid animals (some with hick Southern accents and others with proper English accents) this is actually one of more accurate portrayals of the Robin Hood legend.

3. WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN (1975) Okay technically, this is not a film, it was an ABC-TV series that ran for 13 episodes, and is still one of my all time favorite shows. Created and Produced by Mel Brooks, this was his warm-up for 1993's Robin Hood: Men In Tights

The production was run by the same team responsible for the hit Get Smart! The idea was: Robin Hood and his merry men were all idiots! One of the running plotlines was King John's attempts to establish a monopoly of the olive oil market. "Anyone who wants to make a salad will have to come to me!" Still one of the funniest sitcoms of all time!

4. ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (1993) Pale theatrical version of aforementioned When Things Were Rotten.

5. ROBIN HOOD (2010) Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt and Max Von Sydow. Gladiator in Sherwood Forest! If you don't care about a logical plot, or care about the Robin Hood legend, you will love this movie. Lots of fighting, treachery and derring-do! Even though it makes no sense. The main complaint though: it's a prequel! The movie ends at the point it should actually begin!

6. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The first big Hollywood treatment set the standard (and storyline) for the next 50 years. But these days it comes across as silly and amateurish.

7. ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991) Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater. Awful. Boring. Depressing. Costner uses an English accent with certain words, but the rest of the time doesn't bother. What a disaster!

TODAY IN HISTORY: Tarleton Gives "Quarter: & Fremont Heads West

2010-05-29T05:04:00.001-07:00

On this day in 1780, the treatment of Patriot prisoners by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his Loyalist troops leads to the coining of a phrase that comes to define British brutality for the rest of the War for Independence: "Tarleton's Quarter."

After the surrender of Charleston on May 12, the 3rd Virginia, commanded by Colonel Abraham Buford, was virtually the only organized Patriot formation remaining in South Carolina; British Colonel Banastre Tarleton had been given the mission to destroy any colonial resistance in the state. At Waxhaws on the North Carolina border, a cavalry charge by Tarleton's men broke the 350 remaining Patriots under Buford. Tarleton and his Tories proceeded to shoot at the Patriots after their surrender, a move that spawned the term "Tarleton's Quarter," which in the eyes of the Patriots meant a brutal death at the hands of a cowardly foe. The Continentals lost 113 killed and 203 captured in the Battle of Waxhaws; British losses totaled 19 men and 31 horses killed or wounded. Although they were routed, the loss became a propaganda victory for the Continentals: wavering Carolina civilians terrified of Tarleton and their Loyalist neighbors were now prepared to rally to the Patriot cause.

Under the leadership of Thomas Sumter, the Patriot militia quickly returned the terror in kind with their own brutal raids on Carolina loyalists. Carolinians went on to fight a bloody civil war in which they killed their own with far greater efficacy than any outsider sent to assist them.

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John C. Fremont again departs from St. Louis to explore the West, having only recently returned from his first western expedition.

The son of a French father and American mother, Fremont had an unstable and nomadic childhood, and money troubles often plagued his family. He was kicked out of the College of Charleston for "consorting with a mulatto wench." As a young man, he showed an aptitude for mathematics and surveying, and in 1838, he won a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers. In 1842, he received an assignment to make a survey of the Platte River, and set out with 24 companions, including the famous guide Kit Carson. During five months of travel, Fremont crossed the South Pass in central Wyoming and explored the Wind River Mountains.

Scarcely before he had time to recover from his first expedition, Fremont was preparing to depart on his second. On this day in 1843, Fremont left St. Louis on a much more ambitious journey to explore the Oregon country. In Colorado the party met up with Carson, who had again agreed to serve as a guide. On September 6, the Fremont caught site of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, "stretching in still and solitary grandeur far beyond the limits of our vision." By early November, they arrived at Fort Vancouver, across the Columbia River from the present-day site of Portland.

Having surveyed the Oregon country, Fremont's orders were to return east via the Oregon Trail. Fremont, however, apparently decided this would be an inadequately grand approach, and decided instead to head south and cross the Sierra Nevada in the middle of the winter. The journey was awful and nearly disastrous. Fremont and his men struggled with the deep snow and bitter cold; they often got lost and ate their horses to survive. Thanks to the skill of Carson and amazing good luck with the weather, the expedition eventually emerged from the mountains and limped into Sutter's Fort on March 6, 1844. After resting for three weeks, they returned east by a route that took them through the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains of Utah.

With the help of his wife, Jessie, Fremont wrote a detailed account of his western adventures. The report made some notable errors. Fremont foolishly identified the country around the Great Salt Lake as fertile-a mistake that contributed to the Mormons decision to migrate to the area. However, Fremont's account did provide the first comprehensive scientific survey of vast areas of the West.

Fremont went on to lead two other successful expeditions to the West. His reports of these and his earlier journeys made him a national hero and he later went into politics. He lived into his early 70s, but the four western journeys he made before he was 40 remained his greatest achievements.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 1860 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

2010-04-23T04:20:00.000-07:00

The first non-military shot of the Civil War was fired in Charleston at the Democratic Convention, April 23,1860. The Democrats were split between two factions – abolitionists, and pro-slavery - and the choice of Charleston as the location to host the convention was, at best, inept. Robert W. Johannsen, in his book Politics and the Crisis of 1860 wrote:

No American political convention has ever held so much meaning for party and union as that . . . which gathered in Charleston . . . Upon the decision at Charleston rested not only the future of the Democratic Party but also the continued existence of the Union.

The choice of Charleston as the site of the convention was truly inept. The Democratic Party that met in 1860 was deeply divided by one issue - slavery. Stephen Dougl

as was the clear favorite of Northern Democrats, while the Southerners demanded that the Party come out with a platform in clear defense of slavery. The decision to hold the convention in Charleston, the largest slave port in the United States and the most ardent defender of the "peculiar institution," has to rank at one of the worst decisions in American political history. It may have sounded like a good idea to hold the convention in a Southern state. The hope was that this symbolic act of "healing" would help win the region in the election and solidify the Union behind the Democratic Party. They were wrong. The 1968 Chicago Convention was a love fest in comparison.

Democratic Convention, 1860, Hibernian Hall (Harper's Weekly, April 1860)

The convention convened on April 23 and the Southern Democratic delegations began to press their long-rumored plan to walk out unless a plank that called for passage of a federal slave code was included in the party platform. Then, there were the "fire-eaters”, a group of Southern Democrats who actually wanted the Republican candidate to win the election, thus hastening the secession of the slave states.

The weather during that last week of April 1860 was not unusual for the low country - hot and muggy with daytime temperatures hovering in the mid-90s and nighttime temperatures remaining in the 80s. The heat inflamed an already edgy population, and was an irritant to the visitors already in a bad mood.

Charleston was not a large city and had never hosted a national party convention before. The city was not centrally located and physically could not support such a large gathering. Hotel accommodations were limited and hotel owners had colluded to fix higher prices during the convention. Transportation problems were monumental. A passenger had to change trains six times between Washington and Charleston. Franklin Pierce, former U.S. President and delegate to the convention wrote, “I have never been taught to believe in eternal damnation, but if it exists, the journey to Charleston has given me the only sample I shall ever need.”

Fifteen hundred Douglas delegates took over the Mills House Hotel, at five to six people per room. They also rented Hibernian Hall and set up 132 cots in the main room. The Charleston Hotel housed the more radical secessionist delegates.

What followed was the longest and most divisive political convention in Untied States history.The two factions of delegates were so badly divided that fistfights broke out on the Hall. The violence spilled out into the streets and local taverns. Gunshots were fired into the ceiling and knives were pulled by passionate delegates during heated debates on the Convention floor.

The delegates from New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts arrived in Charleston on luxury steamship liners and stayed on board in their staterooms. The New York delegation, knowing the reputation of Charleston, arrived with thirty barrels of whiskey and "forty women of questionable character." The Pennsylvania delegation arrive with 200 cases of ale and "thirty-two amiable females." The Massachusetts delegations - the Puritans! - arrived with no alcohol and no women. Some things never change.

After a riotous week, the convention went through 54 ballots but Douglas failed to achieve the needed 2/3 of the votes. Forty-five delegates from nine southern states walked out. The convention adjourned without a Presidential nominee. They reconvened in June in Baltimore where Douglas was nominated. As in Charleston however, the Baltimore convention was disrupted by a delegate walkout. This time, the walk-out delegates decided to meet separately and nominate their own presidential candidate-Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Breckinridge ran as a Southern Democrat and won 18 percent of the vote and carried eleven states. Douglas won 29 percent of the vote but carried only one state. Abraham Lincoln, the Republican, was elected - setting the stage for the formation of the Confederate States of America.

MY EARTH DAY EDITORIAL, 2007

2010-04-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

The earth is getting hotter!! The earth is getting colder!! Thousands of plants and animal species become extinct every year!! Cigarette smoke is a prime cause of global warming. Climate change is increasing the rise of super storms and dramatic weather. Massive hurricanes, colder winters, hotter summers, and tornados. Lions, and tigers, and bears - OH MY!

Most of the media agree with those statements. Most political liberals also agree. Most Hollywood celebrities agree, and Al Gore is their guru on the environment.

I read Al Gore's book Earth In the Balance. It's an interesting book because Gore relied on fear and shame to make his point. This may work if you’re Catholic, Baptist or just a typical American voter who gets his news in 5 minute bytes on TV or radio at the top of the hour, but never reads anything more challenging than the back of a cereal box. However, it's not difficult to see the flaws in Gore's logic, or as he calls it “An Inconvenient Truth."

Gore claims that scientists report the hottest years on record all happened in the 1990s, but it doesn't tell you that two British scientists say the planet has been cooling since 1998. Gore also claims that scientists are almost unanimous in their support of the notion that humans are responsible for global warming. Gore would like for you to forget that he was challenged by several of the VERY scientists he cited as agreeing with him when he presented a speech at the Kyoto Summit in the 90s. Seems Gore didn’t quite tell the whole truth because the scientists who came out actually said they were unsure if mankind was causing global warming.

Gore has also proposed a pollution tax. "Penalizing pollution instead of penalizing employment will work to reduce that pollution," Gore said in a speech at New York University School of Law. The pollution tax would replace all payroll taxes, including those for Social Security and unemployment compensation, Gore said. He said the overall level of taxation, would remain the same. And last week at the United Nations, Gore claimed that cigarette smoking was a leading cause of global warming.

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your
life." - Brooke Shields, an Al Gore supporter.

Many of the things that Gorenventalists claim as fact actually have an inconvenient truth attached to them - they are theories, not facts. But the truth has never been inconvenient for crusaders. It's easier to forgive when those lies benign - like Al Gore invented the internet! and I smoked but didn't inhale! - but it's not so easy when those lies have been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people. Environmental liberal do-gooders and militant socialists are responsible for one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century, on par with the Jewish holocaust and Stalin's mass murder of the Russian people by execution and starvation.

DDT was banned by President Richard Nixon's Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s, after Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, claimed to show that DDT threatened human health as well as bird populations. Rachel Carson was listed by Time magazine as one of 100 Most Important People of the Century. Also listed are

Mao Zedong (responsible for 49 million deaths)
Adolph Hitler (12 million deaths)
Ho Chi Minh (10 million deaths)
V.I. Lenin (5 million deaths)

According to all the figures, Rachel Carson (pictured left) ranks third on the list of 100 Most Important People of the Century for deaths attributed to the actions and leadership of one person. She helped create a lot of silence in Africa.

Does this woman look like a mass murderer?

Huge amounts of DDT were sprayed in America. People used to run toward the truck spraying clouds of DDT -- as if it was an ice-cream truck -- they were so happy to have mosquitoes repelled. Tons of DDT were sprayed on food and people. Despite this overuse, there was no surge in cancer or any other human injury. Nevertheless, the environmental hysteria led to DDT's suppression in Africa, where its use had been responsible for a dramatic reduction in deaths. American foreign aid could be used to finance ineffective alternative anti-malaria methods, but DDT could not.

Within a short time, the mosquitoes and malaria reappeared, and deaths skyrocketed. Tens of millions of people have died in that time. The rich white sanctimonious environmental militants slept each night in air conditioned homes while millions of poor African children died.

Last month, the World Health Organization announced that it supports indoor spraying of DDT. "The scientific and programmatic evidence clearly supports this reassessment," said Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, WHO assistant director-general for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. "DDT presents no health risk when used properly." Some environmental groups have also changed their anti-DDT tune, including Greenpeace, and the Sierra Club.

Last year, Greenpeace spokesman Rick Hind told the New York Times, "If there's nothing else and it's going to save lives, we're all for it. Nobody's dogmatic about it."

Easy to say now, Rick. But what about the mass murder of Africans who died when groups like Greenpeace (who are almost always rich, liberal whites) refused to budge on the ban? Might an apology be in order? Might a class action law suit be a possibility against Rachel Carson, the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and the Sierra Club for actively keeping DDT banned for these decades?And now, these are the same people and the same groups that are pushing the global-warming scare. If so many 'experts' could be so wrong about DDT, why should we trust them now?

WHY I DON'T CELEBRATE EARTH DAY

2010-04-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

EARTH DAY PREDICTIONS, 1970

"We have about five more years at the outside to do something."
- Kenneth Watt, ecologist

"Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." - George Wald, Harvard Biologist

"We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation."
- Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

"Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction." - New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

"Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years."
- Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"By...[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s."- Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"It is already too late to avoid mass starvation." -Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

"Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions....By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine."
-Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

"Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support...the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution...by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...."
- Life Magazine, January 1970

"At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable."
- Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

"Air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone." -Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"We are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones."
- Martin Litton, Sierra Club director

"By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate...that there won't be any more crude oil. You'll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill 'er up, buddy,' and he'll say, `I am very sorry, there isn't any.'"
- Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

"Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct."- Sen. Gaylord Nelson

"The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age."- Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

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I rest my case.

TOUR GUIDE vs. CHARLESTON LOCAL: A Mismatch

2010-04-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

An incident from last night's Wicked Charleston Walking Tour.

Around 8:30 pm I was strolling in front 92 Broad Street with my group of seven customers. Behind us we began to hear someone going "Ooooo ... Oooo!" For the uninitiated, that is the highly original sound many Charleston locals make when they see a ghost tour walking the streets.

(There ARE several reasons South Carolina always ranks 47th or below in high school graduation rates. This "Oooooing" is merely a symptom of marrying each other's cousins for most of the 19th century.)

Charleston locals always assume every night time tour is a ghost tour. However, my Wicked Tour is NOT a ghost tour - it's an ADULTS ONLY history tour. The young woman (mid-20s) was trailing along behind us, with her two friends bringing up the rear.

I stopped with my people. By this time we were standing next to a great little restaurant we call Fast and French. I told her, "This is not a ghost tour. This is an adult history tour."

Her response: "Oooooo!" Arms above her head, hands waving.

I said, patiently I might add: "Again, this is not a ghost tour. It's the Wicked Charleston Tour - the history of sex, murder, prostitution and sin."

She said, "Can I tell you my ghost story?" Her friends entered Fast and French.

I looked at my people, who by this time, were laughing at her. To give the young woman as much credit as possible, I realized she had probably been consuming adult beverages, which didn't improve her IQ.

"What part of 'this is not a ghost tour' did you not understand?" I asked her.

"It's not a ghost tour?" she asked, staring at me. Finally, the fog was lifting.

"No. It's a sex and prostitution tour. If you'd like to tell us your prostitution story we'd be happy to listen." I folded my arms and looked at her expectantly.

She stared at me for a few seconds.

"We're waiting," I said. "Come on, every Charleston girl has a good prostitution story. I'll just settle for a good sex story. Do you have any of those?"

She turned and began walking away.

"Have you ever had good sex?" I asked.

She quickly entered Fast and French. And I said ... "Obviously she's only ever had it fast and French. What a shame."

I love my job.

THE HAT LADIES PROTEST (well, at least one of them does)

2010-04-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago the local magazine, Charleston Scene, featured a small profile of me. It's a weekly feature in which they ask locals questions about their life. One of the questions is:

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE IN EVENT IN CHARLESTON?
My answer: The Hat Ladies Easter Parade because it is so surreal and because I have worn a hat every day of my life for the past 30 years. It's fun to watch the amateurs who only do it once a year."
To watch the 2010 Charleston Easter Hat Parade click here.

Here is the text from a letter to the Editor to the Charleston Post and Courier, April, 11, 2010.

I have to take exception to the statement made by Mark R. Jones in the recent Preview article 'Scenester.' To call the Hat Ladies 'amateurs' is totally ridiculous! I have been wearing hats for more than 30 years, although not every day.

The Hat Ladies do an extraordinary amount of volunteer work around Charleston while wearing hats. We also do several social events monthly, wearing hats.

The promenade is our signature event of the year, not the only time to wear a hat, as Mr. Jones suggested. We celebrate Easter in the old-fashioned way, promenading down Meeting Street with family and friends, including a few canines, all wearing hats.

Rebecca Geary
Hat Lady
Polony Place
Charleston
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Ms., Miss, or Mrs. Geary:

First of all, there is no Preview in Charleston anymore. In case you hadn't heard, that tradition is over. It is now called Charleston Scene.

In your first paragraph you prove my "amateur" contention by saying "I have been wearing hats for more than 30 years although not every day." I don't really care about all the volunteer work you do, since I didn't mention your volunteer work. Don't change the subject and don't be so touchy. All I mentioned was that some people walking in the Easter parade were hat-wearing amateurs. I did not mention anyone specifically. You made the assumption the comment covered everyone in the promenade. I'm pretty sure I saw several men in the Ladies Hat Parade who don't wear hats on a daily basis. Ditto with a lot of the women who were in the promenade. I'm pretty sure most people in the promenade do not wear their hats each day when grocery shopping, going to the doctor, at work, etc ... but I do.I understand this is not the only event of the year for the Ladies Hat Society. You meet several other times a year and wear hats. In fact, the Hat Ladies attended the kick-off party for the Charleston Scene but you still called it Premier in your letter. No comment about the tradition of over-indulgence in Charleston at social events.

I also understand the history and tradition of the promenade in southern culture. But sometimes tradition can be surreal, like:

Running With the Bulls at Pomplona
Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA
Miss America Contest

If you don't find the sight of hundreds of people dressed in over-the-top millinery wear, with dogs on leashes clothed in Easter outfits strolling through an American city in the 21st century and singing karaoke while riding in a pedicab surreal, then you need to purchase a new dictionary. While you are perusing (also listed in the dictionary) you may also want to look up "satire", "silly" and "stuffy."

Oh, by the way, if you had read my entire profile in Charleston Scene at the end you would have come across these two questions:

IN ONE WORD YOUR FRIENDS WOULD DESCRIBE YOU AS? Answer: Irreverent. (also in the dictionary)
IN ONE WORD, YOU WOULD DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS? Answer: Irreverent.

Irreverently yours,
Mark R. Jones

Mark R. Jones, age 3, already wearing hats!