Category Archives: Opinions
How can scams go on this long?
A grandson collected his grandmother’s survivor benefits for 30 years after her death.
How, one wonders, can that happen? Is no one checking to be sure those who receive benefits are still living?
In this case the survivor benefits, based on the woman’s marriage to a veteran, kept going to her bank account. And the grandson kept spending the money, $1,100 per
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Don’t get caught up in survey scams
The latest craze in senior scams is surveys. Thieves want to know our opinions about products and services, and we’re happy to oblige — especially when there’s a lovely prize for us if we participate.
Who wouldn’t want an expensive TV or a vacation just for answering a few survey questions?
We wouldn’t, that’s who. Because it’s likely part of a scam.
Survey scams can show up in any number for formats, either a direct call to you or in
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Councilman weighs in on Trump rally costs
I read last week’s article about the Trump rally and the costs of the rally. Let me add some clarity.
Lindsay Graham asked the city of Pickens if President Trump could speak at the Independence Day Celebration. The city agreed. People like the city administrator Charlene Carter, Chief Randal Beach, Davey Hiott and Barry Crawford (Market at the Mill) worked with Team Trump
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Calibrating my new AI partner
Most of America’s problems could be solved by the use of an Electromagnetic Alternative Reality Rerouter.
That’s a device that would beam out waves that would align a new set of synaptic connections in everyone’s brains that would instantly enable them to understand why the people they disagree with think the way they do. And vice-versa.
Perhaps then we would discover that there’s really no one to “save America” from but our own
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Honest with God and ourselves
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of 
information include a person’s actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, convictions and things that are going on all around us.
Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as mental and emotional stress when an individual
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Where is Capt. Molly?
Margaret Cochran was a little rough around the edges, but then, she led a pretty rough life. Born in November 1751, she was only 5 years old 
when the Delaware and Shawnee tribes raided her family’s farm. Her father was killed and her mother was kidnapped, and with no one to ransom her, she was never heard from again.
Newly orphaned, “Molly” and her brother, John, went to live with their uncle. When Molly was
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Courier Letters to the Editor 8-2-23
Keep on dreaming
Dear Editor,
I was listening to a song the other day by the late Scott McKenzi called “San Francisco.” The song paints a beautiful picture about a dream of that generation of so long ago, a lifetime now gone.
Just a dream, most of which never became a reality, and that is true of all generations. If you think about it, one generation arrives on the
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Oconee Nuclear Station hits half a century
One Sunday afternoon in late 1967 or early ’68, my family went on an eventful outing to a spot just across the Keowee River from Pickens County.
“Someday,” my dad said, gazing prophetically across a graded red clay landscape, “they’ll be splitting atoms down there to make electricity.”
Duke Power had just broken ground on its first nuclear station. To my 14-year-old mind it seemed like an incredibly futuristic, fantastical undertaking.
Little did I know that I would someday go down inside one of the nuclear reactor buildings
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Courier Letters to the Editor 7-26-23
Why should we have to pay for it?
Dear Editor,
Should Pickens County be responsible for funding a political rally? Especially as the money is to be taken from the accommodations tax fund?
If the recent Trump rally is to be subsidized from the fund designated for the promotion and support of tourism to cultural, recreational and historic sites within Pickens County, it sets a dangerous precedent.
This decision puts the county into the position of assuming financial responsibility for the costs of any political rally that comes our way. It
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It’s hotter than blue blazes
My grandmother would sit on the porch, fanning herself, and say “It’s so hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk.” Today, I think you could not only fry the egg, but the bacon, too, and boil up some water for the grits while you’re at it. I think by now, we all know exactly how hot it is.
Heat can be dangerous and lead to heat exhaustion or heatstroke. Drink plenty of fluids (beer is
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