Advertising’s slippery slope

Advertising’s slippery slope By John Foust, Advertising Trainer I remember taking a day-long ski trip to Virginia. The charter bus was filled with skiers who had different levels of experience: a few were pretty good, most were average, and some were novices like me.After a morning on the beginners’ slope,...

South Carolina Supreme Court is unanimous in its support of open courts and open records. Are the trial courts paying attention?

South Carolina Supreme Court is unanimous in its support of open courts and open records.  Are the trial courts paying attention? Published Sept. 2023 By SCPA Attorney Jay Bender On September 6 the Supreme Court of South Carolina filed an opinion vacating an order which had reduced the prison sentence...

Interviewing

How to interview anybody By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Your guidelines for interviewing anybody are thankfully similar.Your subject may be the President of the United States or the woman who just won best arrangement at the local flower show.1. Do your research, even if it’s only talking with those who...

Mystery Plant 733

Mystery Plant! #733 John Nelson Posted July 26, 2023 By John Nelson johnbnelson@sc.rr.com And now, ladies and gentlemen, for your late summer enjoyment, I am proud to present a plant that is common as dirt... and a member of the sedge family! You may remember from your first botany class...

Darkness can never overcome God’s light

Living on Purpose: Darkness can never overcome God’s light Dr. William Holland Posted July 25, 2023By Dr. William HollandThere is a lot of talk today about the reality of a global system of organized evil that controls the governments and social politics of the world. There are many different attitudes...

Free Press Doesn’t Mean Freedom to Break the Law, But Police Shouldn’t Arrest Journalists

Free Press Doesn’t Mean Freedom to Break the Law, But Police Shouldn’t Arrest Journalists Published July 2023 By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications Last month two reporters for the left-leaning The Asheville Blade in North Carolina were convicted of misdemeanor trespassing for not leaving when...

‘Running of the interns’ highlights why federal courts should be open to cameras​

'Running of the interns' highlights why federal courts should be open to cameras Published June 2023 By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications “On your mark. Get set. Go!”These words were not actually called out in the federal courtroom where former president Donald Trump was arraigned...

Mystery Plant 723

Mystery Plant 723 John Nelson Posted May 17, 2023 By John Nelson johnbnelson@sc.rr.com The other day I was busying around in the herbarium when a gentleman from the little town of Wagener, SC dropped by, carrying a bucket. Inside the bucket was a good bit of water, from his pond,...

A divided heart lives in deception

Living on Purpose: A divided heart lives in deception Dr. William Holland Posted May 16, 2023By Dr. William HollandI’m reminded again of the quote from Scott Fitzgerald, “You do not write because you want to say something; you write because you have something to say.” I can relate to those...

Carefully screen columns by public officials

Carefully screen columns by public officials Published May 2, 2023 By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant How will the Legislature deal with a record budget surplus, and what will it mean for taxpayer pocketbooks? Are there implications for public safety with the proposal to legalize marijuana? Which communities are the winners...

Disney Fights Back

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Disney Fights Back Posted 5/2/23By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

When A Church Dies

Living on Purpose: When A Church Dies Dr. William Holland Posted 5/2/23By Dr. William HollandSome linger in woods. Some stand, for now, at the end or side of a dirt road. Some hide behind other buildings, and some haunt the edge of hamlets and villages.Abandoned churches. How does a church...

Mystery Plant 720

Mystery Plant! #720 John Nelson Posted 5/2/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comWhere exactly is the “enchanted forest” that you sometimes hear about? I’ve come to realize that for me, it was that little patch of woods right next door when I was growing up. But you’ve probably been in an enchanted forest, too. Enchanted...

Making The Sea Bountiful

Making The Sea Bountiful Artificial Reefs & Memorial Fishing Grounds Tom Poland Posted April 26, 2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netEarly 1980s, it was. We put out to sink a ship. Waves tossed us about as we headed seaward to document the sinking of a Liberty ship. Seems it was the...

Moody Spring

Moody Spring Tom Poland Posted 4/25/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netRounding a curve on Highway 107, I saw water spurting from handsome stonework set in a mountain. Moody Spring, I knew we’d stop. I had no qualms about drinking the spring’s water. It had no taste. That’s what made it great....

Mystery Plant 719

Mystery Plant! #719 John Nelson Posted 4/25/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comThe following story is true. (Or make that “stories”.)There was a botanist named Henry Oosting who was born in 1903. Upon acquiring his PhD, and at the age of 29, he was hired as an ecologist within the botany department at Duke...

No Supreme Court Ethics

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: No Supreme Court Ethics Posted 4/18/23By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

Your Continental Divide

Your Continental Divide Tom Poland Posted 4/18/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netSomething trendy comes along that’s annoying and you resist. Some manager at work decides to implement a new work procedure. You don’t like it. “C’mon now, just go with the flow.” It takes courage to resist others. In going with...

Mystery Plant 718

Mystery Plant! #718 John Nelson Posted 4/18/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comPetruchio: “Nay, come, Kate, come: you must not look so sour.”Katharina: “It is my fashion, when I see a crab.”Petruchio: “Why, here's no crab; and therefore look not sour.”                                                The Taming of the Shrew. II, 1.(More humor from Shakespeare! This time, you...

A burden for souls is the heart of evangelism

Living on Purpose: A burden for souls is the heart of evangelism Dr. William Holland Posted 4/11/23By Dr. William HollandEveryone has their thoughts and interpretations when it comes to sharing the gospel, but there’s not a more terrifying word among the average Christian than evangelism. Just ask a believer when...

Mystery Plant 717

Mystery Plant! #717 John Nelson Posted 4/11/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com “Nemo me impune lacessit.” {In English: “Nobody messes with me and gets away with it.”]                                                                                                     --motto of the Scottish Order of the Thistle.                                       Scottish history?  Tradition has it that, a long time ago, an invading band of Norwegians took off their...

Life’s Healing Elixir

Life’s Healing Elixir Tom Poland Posted 4/11/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.net A Sunday sojourn found me at Healing Springs near Blackville, South Carolina. There I stood on Gods Acre, property deeded to God. Palm Sunday it was, and processions came to be healed. Some came to slake a thirst driven by curiosity....

Drumming Up White Feathery Memories

Drumming Up White Feathery Memories Tom Poland Posted 4/4/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netLong before I moved to South Carolina, family vacation trips took us over Charleston’s “New Cooper River Bridge.” To be accurate, we drove over the Silas N. Pearman Bridge to Mount Pleasant and Sullivan’s Island—destination surf and seafood....

Highway 61 Revisited

Highway 61 Revisited Tom Poland Posted 4/4/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netFrom 22,000 miles high, a satellite dropped an uncanny merging of highway and music into my path. XM Radio played the comedic ACME siren whistle that rose, then fell smooth as silk. The second that whistle kicked off “Highway 61...

Trump Indictment

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Cartoon Headline Posted 4/4/2023By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

Mystery Plant 716

Mystery Plant! #716 John Nelson Posted 3/30/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comThe amaryllis family is a large group of herbaceous species, many of them producing large bulbs, plenty of basal slender or strap-shaped leaves, and most with a tropical distribution, but a good many are native here in the Southeast. Many of these...

Memories Of Zebco Reels & Red Wrigglers

Memories Of Zebco Reels & Red Wrigglers Tom Poland Posted 3/30/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI drive west, Georgia bound,and pass it yet again, a place that pulls at my heart. My father had a worm farm, and my grandfather’s country store had a minnow tank. Fishing meant everything to me...

No Evidence

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: No Evidence Posted 3/28/23By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

Mystery Plant 715

Mystery Plant! #715 John Nelson Posted 3/23/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comDon’t worry about kids falling out of this tree. It’s terrible for a tree house, or just for climbing, and for pretty obvious reasons.It is a native deciduous plant, fairly common from New York through the lower Midwest, and south to Texas...

S.C. media and First Amendment advocates must remain vigilant as new ‘hurricane’ brews in Florida

S.C. media and First Amendment advocates must remain vigilant as new 'hurricane' brews in Florida Published March 2023 By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications In 2022, Hurricane Ian barreled across Florida, causing widespread damage and becoming the deadliest hurricane to strike Florida since 1935. Ian...

WHY WOULD AN INNOCENT MAN LIE?

WHY WOULD AN INNOCENT MAN LIE? Published March 2023Editor's Note: Member editors can pick this column up and run it in print and online as they see fit. By SCPA Attorney Jay Bender Why would an innocent man lie to police about the last time he saw his wife and...

The magic and mess of a blank page

The magic and mess of a blank page Reba Campbell Posted 3/21/23By Reba CampbellI started the year trying to resume the discipline of keeping a handwritten journal. This process of deliberately writing by hand has reminded me how it so often results in a flow that’s very different from writing...

If it’s 10:08, it must be a watch ad

If it’s 10:08, it must be a watch ad By John Foust, Advertising Trainer Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”That’s certainly true in advertising. Consider the nuances of photography. For example, the next time you...

Behind the Lens

Behind The Lens Tom Poland Posted 03/20/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThirty-seven years ago I wrote “Worth The Wait,” a feature on photographing wildlife. South Carolina Wildlife magazine photographers Ted Borg, Robert Clark, and Phillip Jones gave me tips on seasons and subjects, cameras and lenses, film speed, light and color,...

Territorial Dispute

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Territorial Dispute Posted 03/20/23By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

We’re Sending You To …

We’re Sending You To … Tom Poland Posted 3/16/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIn the 1960s my father visited the Central State Hospital in Georgia. He may have gone to visit a relative. I recall a heated family gathering in the dining room. A relative had the family up in arms....

Mystery Plant 714

Mystery Plant! #714 John Nelson Posted 3/16/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com“And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath…”                                                            Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act 4, scene 2.You probably remember James Cagney in the 1935 film version of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a classic! Cagney played Nick...

The Joy Of Scholarships

The Joy Of Scholarships Tom Poland Posted 3/16/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netAfter high school I hoped to land a scholarship to play football. I played first unit on the junior varsity ream and started three years on the varsity. Playing at a small college was a long shot at best....

Biden Budget

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Biden Budget Posted 3/16/2023By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

The Home Place

The Home Place Tom Poland Posted 3/8/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIt’s a scene Normal Rockwell would have liked. We see an old hand-dug well, a corncrib, and an outhouse. A fine old cedar leans back as if taking a gander at my camera and me. We time travel here where...

Mystery Plant 713

Mystery Plant! #713 John Nelson Posted 3/7/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com            Here’s an easy one. It’s easy because it is very common, and very distinctive.            This is a shrubby species, usually a multi-trunked woody plant, with smooth gray bark, often getting to be a tall shrub, or even a small tree. It...

Mystery Plant 712

Mystery Plant! #712 John Nelson Posted March 1, 2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comSpring is finally here, I think…and this wildflower is proof. It is one of the earliest blooming woodland species we have. And, I think you will agree, it’s one of the prettiest. Folks, I’m telling you that this spring seems...

The Green Of Winter

The Green Of Winter Tom Poland Posted Feb. 28, 2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netPine pollen yellows my deck, but the green of winter colors my thoughts. Two things I like about winter. One, winter’s cold bones lay the land bare. You see things that go unnoticed when leaves flutter and...

Practice over Perfect

Practice over Perfect Reba Campbell Posted Feb. 28, 2023By Reba Campbell“Practice makes perfect.” Surely a mantra we all heard as children…whether it was in sports, spelling, music or math. This was a standard line repeated by grown-ups who were just trying to help us learn. Practice is a good thing…right?...

God’s invitation is to the entire world

Living on Purpose: God’s invitation is to the entire world Dr. William Holland Posted Feb. 27, 2023By Dr. William HollandKentucky is having amazingly warm weather for February and actually broke records the other day. My grass is turning green and soon everything will be budding and we will be out...

Mystery Plant 711

Mystery Plant! #711 John Nelson Posted Feb. 22, 2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comSome of you, such as myself, really like to see the end of winter roll around each year. As with all the other seasons, this process is rather gradual, and, there are many signs of spring’s coming, sometimes these working...

Editor ‘can handle mean,’ but can’t stand ‘baseless cynicism and unwillingness to think’

INTO THE ISSUES Editor ‘can handle mean,’ but can’t stand ‘baseless cynicism and unwillingness to think’ Published Feb. 21, 2023 By Al Cross This month’s column is mainly from someone else, because it illustrates a serious problem facing rural newspapers: How do they manage increasingly contentious public discourse and still...

New Leadership

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: New Leadership 2/21/23By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

Mystery Plant 710

Mystery Plant! #710 John Nelson 2/21/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com  We had a Mysterious pine tree not too long ago, and here is another. There’s always a new pine species that’s worth learning about.This one is growing in a small park not far from my house, in the Shandon area of Columbia, where...

Thirty Years—The Mountains To The Sea

Thirty Years—The Mountains To The Sea Tom Poland 1/21/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI remember the year well. 1984. It was my first year working as a staff writer for South Carolina Wildlife. I had just spent six years working in film for what would become DNR. Those six years opened...

What are they selling?

What are they selling? By John Foust, Advertising Trainer Greensboro, NCMy wife and I once visited with Rick and Karen, a couple who had served as missionaries overseas. As part of their work to get involved in the community, Rick was assigned to teach a class at a local school....

A Walk In Winter Woods

A Walk In Winter Woods Tom Poland 2/14/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI like boardwalks. Those that take you through protected natural areas. Several come to mind. The lovely boardwalk at Woods Bay takes you 1,150 feet through a cypress-tupelo swamp. Edisto Gardens’ 2,600-foot boardwalk also takes you through a cypress-tupelo...

Let’s Dance

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Let's Dance 2/9/2023By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

Mystery plant #709

Mystery Plant! #709 John Nelson 2/9/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comThose of you faithful readers of this column will know that its author (me) is fond of studying the plant life in grocery stores…and of course this means those plants that are being marketed, usually as species which are edible in one way...

Prime time to take inventory of your newsmakers

Prime time to take inventory of your newsmakers Published February 2, 2023 By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant Here’s a periodic action item for every newspaper: The exercise can be quite revealing in evaluating how you are connecting with various audiences. It is even more important in today’s fractured media landscape...

Mystery Plant 708

Mystery Plant! #708 John Nelson 2/2/2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comWhich plant group displays the showiest, most flamboyant flowers? Sunflowers and daisies?  Lilies, daffodils, and amaryllis? Or maybe the iris family? (It’s fun to ponder this weighty question now, as spring is about to erupt, and not too soon!) But many of us...

Santos

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Santos 1/31/23By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

The power of enthusiasm

The power of enthusiasm By John Foust, Advertising Trainer There’s a story about a professor of literature at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As he approached retirement, someone from the newspaper interviewed him. During the course of their conversation, the reporter asked the wise old professor about...

Mystery Plant 707

Mystery Plant! #707 John Nelson 1/26/23By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.com             A few days ago I was up at the herbarium here are USC; they let me come in now and then and putter around, helping to prepare and file away specimens. That day we all gathered around...

We Need Tree Scholars

We Need Tree Scholars Tom Poland 1/24/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThe January-February 2023 issue of South Carolina Wildlife magazine ran my story on Edgefield County’s Curryton Magnolia. The old tree’s close to being a state record magnolia but a magnolia with more state record potential lives at Hampton Plantation in...

A Writer’s Moon Tide Memories

A Writer’s Moon Tide Memories Tom Poland 1/23/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIt seems like yesterday though it was forty-five years. I took a job as a scriptwriter-cinematographer with the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department. I put my Journalism degree to work, writing film scripts about blackwater rivers, sea...

Resolve to be accessible, stay relevant

Resolve to be accessible, stay relevant Published Jan. 2023 By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant Surviving in today’s fractured media landscape depends on your ability to identify, collect and deliver the relevant community news. That job becomes more challenging if readers become frustrated in their attempts to connect with reporters. The...

Suing the Media for Revenge and Profit

Suing the Media for Revenge and Profit Published Jan. 2023 By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications In his new bestselling book and slew of media interviews promoting it, Prince Harry rails against the British media and their alleged collaborators within the British Monarchy, blaming them...

Honey locust

Mystery Plant! #705 John Nelson Posted Jan. 10, 2023By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comIt's the branch of a tree, but this tree is no good for a tree house.Take a look at the thorns, which can be found up and down the trunk, and also potently arming the branches. You won't beinclined to...

Devotion At An Abandoned Home Place

Devotion At An Abandoned Home Place Tom Poland Posted Jan. 10, 2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netNo matter how long, no matter how often you travel a road, it’ll surprise you. I’ve driven Highway 378 into Georgia for not quite fifty years. The road has been a journal, and some of...

Accomplishing God’s will is our purpose

Living on Purpose: Accomplishing God’s will is our purpose Dr. William Holland Posted Jan. 10, 2023By Dr. William HollandIt’s disappointing to God that most people are usually more concerned about what they want in life than asking Him what He requires of them. Since our eyes were opened in the...

2023 Legislative Preview for the Media

2023 Legislative Preview for the Media Posted Jan. 9, 2023 Rep. Bruce Bannister, Chairman, Ways & Means (R-Greenville) Rep. Bill Sandifer, Chairman, Labor, Commerce & Industry (R-Oconee) Rep. Tommy Pope, Speaker Pro Tempore (R-York) Rep. Tommy Pope, Speaker Pro Tempore (R-York) Rep. Jay Jordan, Chairman, Ethics (R-Florence) Rep. Tommy Pope,...

23 Legislative Preview

2023 Legislative Preview for the Media Posted Jan. 9, 2023 Sen. Shane Massey, Majority Leader (R-Edgefield) Sen. Brad Hutto, Minority Leader (D-Orangeburg) Sen. Brad Hutto, Minority Leader (D-Orangeburg); Sen. Shane Massey, Majority Leader (R-Edgefield) Sen. Brad Hutto, Minority Leader (D-Orangeburg); Sen. Shane Massey, Majority Leader (R-Edgefield) Sen. Shane Massey, Majority...

2023 Legislative Workshop

2023 Legislative Preview for the Media Posted Jan. 9, 2023 Frank Rainwater, Executive Director, S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office Frank Rainwater, Executive Director, S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office Sen. Chip Campsen, Chairman, Fish, Game & Forestry (R-Charleston) Sen. Chip Campsen, Chairman, Fish, Game & Forestry (R-Charleston) Sen. Chip...

House of cards

Stuart Neiman Cartoon: House of cards Posted January 2, 2023By Stuart Neiman This content is being shared through the S.C. News Exchange and is for use in SCPA member publications. Please use appropriate bylines and credit line

Mystery Plant! #699

Mystery Plant! #699 John Nelson Posted December 29, 2022By John Nelsonjohnbnelson@sc.rr.comWinter hasn’t even started yet, but it sure looks like it in my backyard. Practically all of the leaves are fallen, and we’ve had two hard frosts here in central South Carolina. I am grateful that in my part of...