Good Morning Lowcountry

Tuesday coffee

Today's GMLc , at the mothership, is about slavery.

Oh, what a lovely war...

Today's GMLc is presented with a mighty assist by Bo Petersen. It's at the mothership.

I am just back  ... after suffering through the stomach flu that has been going around. I had a mild to moderate case, which was wretched. I heard (from my doctor) that the extreme cases have been more awful. Missed the bloggers meetup. Did watch the Academy Awards in a sick stupor. They were, how shall I say this?, boring, boring, boring. Moved at a glacial pace. Gave up and went to bed to read the following shocking articles in Vanity Fair. Well, not so shocking considering the history of this war, but still...

From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq

Washington's $8 Billion Shadow                       

 Put these two articles together with threats of a spring offensive by the Taliban and Al Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, add in Seymour Hersh's reporting in The New Yorker about ongoing planning for a war on IRAN... and you could find your Tuesday reading alarming.

                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

Back in the saddle again...

Hello buckaroos. I've been out of commission for a couple of days with a stomach thing. Not a tainted peanut butter thing, but a stomach ACHE. Thanks to ... somebody here... for the Wednesday and Thursday GMLc assists. Speaking of tainted peanut butter, I know at least 2 people who had bad jars of that Peter Pan and have heard a few stories of people in the Lowcountry getting sick from it.

Things are moving fast. The Charleston Food + Wine Festival is next weekend, same weekend as the launch of the Spirit of South Carolina. Mardi Gras was Tuesday and it blew by me in a whoosh. Lent has begun. I give up nothing. I'm the aunt of two new nephews, one born Feb. 4 in Greenville during halftime of the Super Bowl and the other born early this a.m. (George Washington's birthday) in Savannah. Missed Hillary. Missed McCain. Missed the the Blues Bash entirely (except for shared time with Gary Erwin on Michael Feldman's "Whad'Ya Know?" show). For great Blues Bash coverage and pix, we refer you to Chuckography.

Chinglish

Today's GMLc is at the (noisy) mothership. My favorite story ANYWHERE this a.m. is the on Chinglish. It's about the English signs going up in Beijing in preparation for the 2008 summer Olympics.

"...Llike this warning about a hazardous walkway: “Take Care of Your Slip.” And this one near a lush lawn: “Show Mercy to the Slender Grass.”

Or: "THE MORE CARE YOU GIVE, THE MORE GLORY THE PALACE MUSEUM WILL HAVE."
Handicapped bathrooms are marked "Deformed Man."

A Singapore blogger has been documenting Chinglish signs, which he considers pure poetry. His site, he writes, "displays Chinglish beauties, the wonderful results of an English dictionary meeting Chinese grammar. This is about passion not mockery."

My favorite on his site -- a sign in the subway: "After first under on, do riding with civility."

More examples are in the MSNBC story.

Technical difficulties

Today's GMLc is at the mothership, which I've been unable to read most of the day (along with the rest of the Internet) because of a viral infection of our system.

A few stumble-upons for Friday:

Write a speech for George W. Bush.
Movie trailers, for those (like Heather) who don't get to go to movies.
50 Tools Which Can Help You In Writing
Chocolate of the Month Club
Cool photo of camels

Thursday mud

We are having a meeting here at The P&C Friday to meet and welcome blogger and supermom Heather Solos. Heather, as most Lowcountry bloggers know, is doing our Lowcountry Blogs roundups on a freelance basis and we are so grateful to her for her fun, informative samplings every day.

Today's GMLc, a photo show we'll call "That's What We Like About The South," is at the mothership although you cannot see the pix there. When the new charleston.net debuts, that will change.

Wednesday mud

Today's GMLc, written by Guest Star Bo Petersen, is at the mothership where WE LOVE THAT TOP DOG!

Yesterday's (Tuesday's) GMLc, written by Yours Truly, was about DWD, Driving While Distracted.

Ch. Felicity's Diamond Jim, an English springer spaniel known as James, wins the Sporting Group category at the 131st Annual Westminster Kennel Club    show in New York,  Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Monday mud

Today's GMLc is about Roper and St. Francis hospitals going smoke-free at last on their campuses. We can't wait until MUSC does the same thing. Oh, it's also about the Backyard Bird Count.

At the mothership, we found this story on the benefits of napping.

I had a great time on "Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?" live from Gaillard Auditorium on Saturday! Listen to it here if you want to. It's divided into segments. Feldman is so very sharp and witty and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him. Plus... great house band featuring Clyde Stubblefield, formerly with James Brown. Feldman seems to like shrimp... A LOT. Frank Lee, executive chef of Slightly North of Broad; Gary Erwin, aka Shrimp City Slim, and his band; and Mark Jones, author of the "Wicked Charleston" books, were the other Lowcountry guests. Backstage, Frank cooked shrimp creole over Carolina Gold rice with sausage and okra -- yum. The audience of 1,800 was gracious and welcoming and much fun.

Below... Michael Feldman, musician Gary Erwin, Chef Frank Lee, and author Mark Jones.

Friday mud

Today's porch-sweeping GMLc is at the mothership.

These cool Air Force pictures show jets unloading anti-missile countermeasures, i.e. flare that distract heat-seeking missiles. After flares are deployed, they create a "smoke angel" that looks like the picture below.

Thursday mud

Some stuff:

Today's GMLc about Valentines ... Xark's Guide to Global Warming ... Audio/slide show of the voyage of the Tall Ship Westward from Charleston to Miami ... Lowcountry blogger Lambasta** has a new (at least I think it is new) Web site called gobacktoohio.com. It's got directions for PFOs (people from Ohio) to get back to Ohio from the Lowcountry and a page for hate mail from Ohioans ... Quantum physics made relatively simple (yeah, right) ... Virtual Dali ... and some interesting artifacts and maps of James Island at Friends of McLeod.