Category Archives: Opinions
The lizard that sleeps in the fern
I had a dear friend who used to talk about the pet lizard she shared her home with. She called him Mr. Green, and he was what I think of as free-range lizard.
He came and went as he pleased. She was very careful where she stepped and alert for him when she vacuumed.
We, too, have a green tenant who enjoys lounging on the front porch. I suppose it would be appropriate to refer to him as a lounge lizard, but that
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The asparagus trait
I spit in the little test tube, sealed it up and sent my DNA off to be processed at one of those ancestry labs. I wanted to find out if all those family stories were true.
My father claimed he was of noble French ancestry. That’s why I’ve always felt a strong kinship to Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, who wasn’t really French since she was born in Austria. My father also claimed Native American lineage — Cherokee, to be exact. It’s possible I got my love of writing from Sequoyah, a Cherokee brave. He created the Cherokee writing system, but was accused of witchcraft for using magic to communicate
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Courier Letters to the Editor 6-9-21
Councilman responds to PCLS official
Dear Editor,
I want to respond to the comments by the Pickens County library board chairman, Dennis Latham, in the article last week titled “Library official urges county council to reconsider budget cut.” He said the county council is cutting library spending and hoisting the museum upon the library. Both claims are untrue.
Library spending is not being cut. State law forbids the county council from cutting the funds used to pay for library
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Who do you think is out there?
There have been a number of documented sightings by U.S. pilots of unidentified objects flying in the sky unlike anything known on Earth at this time. I saw it on “60 Minutes” last week.
It’s raised national security concerns, but in my opinion we on Earth have absolutely nothing to be concerned about.
Maybe somebody is making a new Star Wars series, but taking a different
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Knit one, purl two
Restless COVID hostages have abandoned their sourdough starters for knitting needles.
Knitting can be done alone or with a group and doesn’t require a lot of supplies. All you need is a pair of knitting needles and some yarn. Your skill level doesn’t matter. Classes are available everywhere — in stores, libraries and online. One advantage to knitting is that it is portable — you can take it with you.
Knitting is believed to have originated in the Middle East around the fifth
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An attitude of gratitude leads to contentment
Over a 12-year span at UCLA, American college basketball coach John Wooden won 10 national championships, and their total of 11 remains a record today.
Wooden is regarded as one of the most successful coaches in sports history, and more importantly an even greater person. He was a man of integrity and character and was highly respected on and off the court. He believed in discipline and felt strongly about teamwork and demonstrating appreciation
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Courier Letters to the Editor 6-2-21
More from our libraries, not less
Dear Editor,
Our excellent Pickens County libraries have been important to our family ever since we moved to Pickens County. Our children have learned to read, we have all borrowed books regularly, our children have attended events and we have used the online subscriptions.
During the pandemic, when we could not enter the library, we used the drive-through to keep reading. (Yet Councilman Alex Saitta suggested in the last Pickens County Council meeting that foot traffic was down last year — DURING THE PANDEMIC — as a support for the budget cuts.)
I strongly oppose the movement in county council to slash the library’s budget, both directly and by assigning responsibility for the museum without providing funds. This county and its citizens need even more from our libraries, not less.
Cary Berkeley Kaye
Clemson
UFOs, cicadas and the Wild West
Time to put a few things in context here.
Our topics for today are UFOs, zombie cicadas and Wild West gun laws.
If this column is unsettling to you, or offensive, please don’t take it too seriously. Laugh it off and go on.
So…
I guess you’ve heard about the declassified report on “unidentified aerial phenomena” — otherwise known as UFOs — that the Pentagon is supposed to be releasing soon — or may already have released by the time you read
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Pickles, the albino ferret
Aunt May was in a panic. There was obviously something wrong with Pickles. Pickles was plucking out her beautiful white fur until only her pink skin was exposed. Her little pink eyes matched her pink skin. She was pink from head to toe. Aunt May had always denied that Pickles was an albino, because, after all, she has two black spots on her ear. Aunt May could find no veterinarian nearby who could help Pickles. It was suggested that Pickles might have fleas, but that was not the case. Meanwhile, Pickles, listless and lethargic, continued to pluck her fur.
Aunt May adopted Pickles from her son, Jonathan, when he got a job in
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Not every problem has a simple solution
It’s come to my attention that over the past few years there are a number of perfectly good gardening gloves in the basket where I keep things loosely organized for yard work.
They are usually in a loose pile stuffed in with the trowel and clippers, ant poison and miracle grow.
This spring I decided to dump everything out onto the porch floor and go through the pile to see what could still be useful and what should go. That’s when I discovered that yes, there are a lot of gardening gloves in the basket. But most of them are for the left hand only. There are only two pairs of gloves that have both left and right hand capability.
So why are there six left hand gloves with no mates?.
The right hand gloves have to be thrown away when all the fingers have holes in them and the seams come apart.
Logically, I should throw away all the mateless gloves.
But something just won’t let me do it. It probably has something to do with the line of McBride ancestors who believed nothing should be thrown out, as
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