Choose Charleston

It’s the big two-double-oh for the City Market, one of the top destinations in town for tourists.

To say that Market Street has a storied past is an understatement.

Longtime Charlestonians recall the days when wandering into the Market was a rather dicey proposition. When the chain supermarkets first hit the area, the former go-to place for fresh food withered and went wild with weeds, so to speak. Lots of flies and buzzards circling in the skies are some of the visuals with which oral historians pepper their tales of those days.

Luckily, King Joe and like-minded preservationists were coming into power back then. The Market did an about face in step with the rest of the slightly North of Broad Street area.

Today, it is vibrant and bustling with activity. Everything from artisan sweetgrass baskets to art prints, kitschy t-shirts, candy, and keepsakes are sold in the Market these days.

Market Street is also a good jumping-off point for just about anything else you might choose to do while touring the peninsula.

Wild Wing Cafe and Tristan are just two of the many eateries on Market Street. Charleston Legends and Lore Ghost Theatre is a short walk down Church Street from the Market. The Shops at Charleston Place are just across Meeting Street, FIG and Jestine’s Kitchen are within walking distance, as is King Street shopping.

Every now and again, I run through the local Craigslist just to catch a sense of what folks are buying, selling, or trading. What kinds of gigs are emerging, what openings for talent are on the upswing, and who is scouting out whom?

The method, I’ll grant you, is hardly scientific. Its fundamental limitation is that it only speaks of the segment of the population that chooses to use online posting to announce its hopes and dreams.

Some of it is truly scary. “Surely not in gentle Charleston,” I have whispered many a time while going clickety-click through the ads.

We could simply blame ‘bots for anything too out of character, of course, but it is also true that these are changing times and a changing place. People are moving to the South Carolina Lowcountry at an increasingly rapid rate, each bringing their own individual blend of ideas and expectations into the big old melting pot of Frogmore Stew we call home.

Even old Charleston, South of Broad, has absorbed its share of incoming new money from the North as of late.

We still have our cobblestone and the soft clop-clop of horse hooves from the carriage tours but we also have an emerging digital corridor and a medical district that is soaring skyward like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Strange days may be ahead for this rapidly changing place.

It amazes me, every so often, not only how quickly change can occur but also how quickly we adapt to change.

Just yesterday, I was swapping e-mail messages with a local editor about just how many of our daily tasks are now done in front of a computer these days. Everything from casual correspondence with friends to browsing for books, submitting a resume, paying taxes,  and ordering dinner can be done with just a few deft strokes to the keyboard.

Not so long ago, while swiping my debit card at the local grocery store, I remembered reading - way back when in my high school days - a newspaper article about how we were beginning to move toward becoming a cash-less society. Back then, I thought, “Ridiculous!”

Time proved me wrong!

Modern technology has even re-aligned how we connect with others and share our stories. Remember when pen pals swapped anecdotes with pen and paper? Remember licking stamps?

Today, I can follow the lives of boatloads of local bloggers with ease. I can discover not only how people react to the latest stories in the Post & Courier, Charleston City Paper, Skirt, and Charleston Magazine, I can also catch a glimpse of the daily life of a downtown pastry chef, read the reflections of a retired photojournalist, walk with a charming lady, and see Charleston through the eyes of an Englishman still somewhat new to our shore.

It’s a whole new way of approaching the old time sitting on the porch and chatting up the neighbors thing.

Rain, clouds, and scattered thunderstorms: when severe weather warnings scroll across the bottom edge of regularly scheduled programming on the television, Charlestonians know that some parts of the peninsula should be avoided if at all possible.

The western edge of the peninsula was once a far wilder and wetter place of ponds and marsh before the land was filled in to build on. The long-ago landfill is why driving down Lockwood Boulevard can have a mild “roller-coaster” feel of up and down, up and down, bump, bump, bump. Over time, the stuff the land was filled with has settled.

It is also why there are notorious patches of Bee Street and Courtenay Drive, for example, where attempting to drive during a downpour can quite easily leave you with a towing bill and heavy repair costs.

Drainage has long been a major headache for the city in the rainy seasons. This is, after all, the South Carolina LOWcountry and Charleston proper, being a peninsula, is surrounded by mighty waters. Sandbags are a staple item for many a downtown business owner or resident, just a little something-something to have on hand in case of emergency.

The reward of the heavy rain is the lush greenery that soon follows, vines growing so fast everywhere you look that you can practically measure their progress hour by hour.

In the heart of the peninsula of Charleston lies an intersection where more than just two roads diverge. As unique as the city itself, the Four Corners of Law encompass all aspects of the law, canonical, federal, state, and city. According to Ripley’s Believe It or Not, nowhere else does such a gathering exist. Starting today with God’s Law, we’ll explore each corner and meet some of the people from its history.

St. Michael’s Church (God’s Law)

A church has occupied this corner, nearly from the beginning of the city. The first church in the new Charles Towne was a small wooden building called St. Phillips. After moving to a larger facility on Church Street in 1727, as the town continued to grow, it was decided that another house of worship was needed. So, in 1757, construction began on a new church to occupy this corner.

Nine years later, the first services were held in the newly constructed St Michaels. No one is really sure who the architect was, but the style was very much like Sir Christopher Wren, generally used during our Colonial period and up to the Gothic revival in 1841. Little has changed over thye years, except for the addition of the sacristy in 1883, on the the south east corner. St. Michael’s is one of the few city churches in America that has retained its original design.

As unique as the city itself, the Four Corners of Law encompass all aspects of the law, canonical, federal, state, and city.

In 1764, the curch ordered a clock and ring of 8 bells for their tower. These were restored in 1993 and are thought to be the oldest functioning colonial tower clock in the country. The organ has undergone many changes since it’s construction in 1768 by Johan Snetzler. A pedal division was added by Henry Erban in 1869, and a new organ was constructed in 1910, using the original case and several of the original pipes. A new 40-stop, 51 rank tracker organ was installed by Kenneth Jones of Bray, Ireland to fit in and behind the original Snetzler case (which is thought to be the only surviving church organ-case by Snetzler made of mahogany).

The Cemetery

Buried in the adjoining cemetery are two signers of the US Constitution. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746 - 1825) was a lawyer and legislator, Major General in the US Army, Minister to France, and Presidential candidate. When Charleston fell to the British troops, he was taken prisoner and held until 1782. Although his proposal that senators serve without pay failed, he was still very influential at the Constitutional Convention.

John Rutledge (1739 - 1825) also a lawyer, and a statesman, served as governor of South Carolina and Chief Justice of the US. Brother of Edward Rutledge, he was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, Continental Congress, and Constitutional Congress. He played a major role in drafting the constitution, then was a member of the SC Ratifying convention.

After the recent cancellation of the Heritage Motorcycle Rally, it seems that some of the disappointed bikers in the area have decided to hold their own gathering.

The somewhat smaller event will take place April 19th - 22nd, but details are still being worked out. I don’t know whether any of the original acts who were going to perform will still be there. For more information, and to stay informed, check out their website.

Ready for a challenge?

March 31 will be the 30th annual Cooper River Bridge Run. This world-class foot race is the best organized and the best conducted 10-K race in the world.

2007 will be the second year that the new Thomas Ravenel bridge will be used. Recently, the final remaining piece of the old Grace Memorial Bridge was imploded.

If you haven’t run or walked the Cooper River Bridge Run lately, there have been more changes than just a new bridge. For instance, all walkers and runners will start and finish at the same places. Also, accoring to the Cooper River Bridge Run website, “All entrants- including walkers- will be issued the championchip timing device; and will appear in the full results.”

Check it out, get into shape and get over it.

or Why Not To Forward Email

The Internet is a wonderful tool, and speeds the distribution of information to incredible rates. Unfortunately, for pranksters, it’s also a wonderful tool, and speeds the spread of their misinformation to incredible rates as well.

Recently, I received an email, which I’m sure has incarnations all over the net, using different names, but since the version to reach me claims to be from Charleston, I thought I’d spend a little time debunking the contents. So, here in its entirety, is a copy of the email. (I have deleted the scores of email addresses of the many well-meaning individuals who passed it along until it reached my skeptical little hands.)

Dear Friends

My name is Curt Beerman and I live in Charleston, SC. My son Jermaine recently was hit by a car in front of our apartment. Little Jermaine has had many problems with his lungs and right arm since the accident. Our medical costs have become extremely expensive. Jermaine was recently moved to a hosptial in Colombia, SC and the move was very expensive. I could not keep my job at the sanitation department due to the move. A billionaire in Georgia has promised to give $.05 for every time this email is forwarded.

If you wouldn’t mind forwarding this to everyone on your list I would greatly appreciate it as well as my son. Your good deeds could really save his life. Please take a few seconds to help us in our time of need. I know how many of these go around and I want you to know that they really help, if you have any doubts, please E-mail me at the hospital, they have been so kind as to set me up with an e-mail account. My address is: beermanc@musc.edu Please have a heart and forward this.

Remember: What goes around comes around.

Thank you,
Curt Beerman
beerman@musc.com

They way I see it,
If you want the rainbow,
you gotta put up with the rain.

No problem is too big for God’s power.
No person is too small for God’s love.

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh;
is anything too diffucult for Me?
Jeremiah 32:27

The first thing that struck me was the claim to residency in Charleston, yet the poor child has been moved to a hospital in Columbia. Now, I’m sure there are some very good hospitals in Columbia, but you don’t transfer someone from the top hospital in the state unless they’ve improved and need to be closer to home. Usually, the more serious cases in South Carolina are rushed to MUSC, not away.

Next comes the zinger, that mysterious “Billionaire” who has promised to donate a nickel for every time the email is forwarded. First of all, just like Microsoft and Disney are not going to give you a vacation for forwarding some email, there is no billionaire who wants to donate money based on how many times an email is forwarded. There is no software today, which tracks how many times an email gets forwarded, nor can I imagine a need for such software.

Think about it, would you really want to accept money from someone so sadistic as to offer you hope for your ailing child, then make you jump through such ridiculous hoops to get it? Not me.

The next very odd thing is the email address provided in the body of the email. The originator claims the hospital set him up an email account. Let’s forget for a minute the odds of a hospital actually doing this. He claims his son is in a Columbia Hospital, yet has a MUSC address. MUSC is in Charleston, not Columbia. Why would a hospital give an account to a relative of someone who is a patient of another hospital? Ofcourse, the glaring inconsistency with this part of the story is the address itself. MUSC, being the Medical University of South Carolina has a “.edu” extension, not a “.com”.

Finally, comes the part which is designed to cause the most stir, the “threat.” “Remember: What goes around comes around.” Then, just to tug on the emotions of those, probably most likely to want to help, he throws in a quote from the bible.

For more information about email chain letter hoaxes, read this feature about David “Darren” Bucklew, from the About.com Urban Legends Guide, David Emery.

So, what harm can it do to pass along these hoax emails? After all, you’re only trying to help. First, it ties up valuable resources and band width on the net. Then, if it’s pervasive enough, it can overload the email server of an institution like MUSC. Finally, it annoys the heck out of those people who know a hoax when they see one.

The best reaction to such an email is to ignore it.

We just returned from a new adventure, and it was awesome.

I’m afraid our dog, Noah, doesn’t have much of a social life. The only time he ever gets to meet other dogs is when we take a trip and he stays at the kennel. That’s really a shame, because he’s a very social animal and believes that everyone should love him.

Recently, we discovered a new park in Charleston, strictly for our four legged friends. Designed by the Charleston Parks Department, Ackerman Dog Park is a joyful place to be. Dog owners can socialize while their pets run around off-leash. We finally got off our lazy behinds and took Noah to the park. It was one of the best decisions we’ve made in a long time.

We were a little nervous at first, because Noah is a big dog and so friendly that he sometimes scares little dogs, as well as some humans. I was very pleasantly surprised when he behaved like a gentleman… most of the time. There were a couple of minor incidents when I had to direct him away from another dog he was showing too much interest in, so to speak. However, overall, it was a great experience.

Now, I’m inspired.

Ackerman Dog Park is West Ashley, on Sycamore Avenue, behind Ryan’s Steakhouse.

There are other off-leash parks in the area, and I plan to see how Noah handles these as well.

Downtown Charleston is the home of Hampton Park, which has a fairly new off-leash dog park. It is located on the corner of Rutledge and Grove.

Also, while most of the Charleston County Parks are pet-friendly, James Island County Park features the first official off-leash area. It is located behind the overflow parking area and adjacent to the lake. CCPRC says there are plans in the works to expand this offering to some of the other county park facilities.

When I was covering Charleston for About.com, I wrote articles for several years about the fact that Charleston had been selected as the most polite city in the country. Sometimes, I have to wonder.

For this, I have to go back a bit. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

On New Year’s Eve, my wife and I attended Happy New Year, Charleston (what used to be called First Night). Shortly after arriving, we stopped by a canopy where a table was set up with schedules. We each picked one up and began to stroll down a path.

We hadn’t walked far when a woman stopped us and asked if she could have one of our schedules. I pointed to the tent, which was about 30 feet behind her and said there was a table full of them there. She asked, “Aren’t you leaving?”

We said that we had no plans to leave yet. She then said, “But you have two, you won’t let me look at one?” I again pointed to the tent and said, they have plenty.

The woman stormed off (in a different direction than towards the tent), saying very sarcastically, “Thanks for sharing.”

So, am I the rude one?