Things that make you go hmmm...

My column was moved to Friday. Too much ad space on Sundays was cramping my style - and stripping my column of 200 words a week and we can all agree that the good people of Bluffton need more than 300 words of Courtney each week. So I successfully bothered my Editor enough, that he moved me for good. So here it is, my Friday debut -


DISCLAIMER: I am politically challenged.

What is your favorite type of Bar-B-Que sauce?

Ketchup based?
Mustard based?
Vinegar based?
Vegetarian?

Why do I ask? Actually, it’s not I who inquires. This question was posed by the South Carolina Democratic Leadership Council in an e-Survey on South Carolina politics sent on April 20.

In case you are interested, 33% of respondents favor mustard-based bar-b-que, followed by 32% for vinegar-based, and ketchup-based in a close third with 29%.

In more food news, Governor Mark Sanford traveled to Rock Hill on Monday to sign H.4585, designating the boiled peanut as the official State Snack Food of South Carolina.

Important work we are doing here, huh?

Anyway, these interesting tidbits got me thinking. It is only natural that a new South Carolinian would want to know more. So, here it is people.

The General Assembly declared by Act No. 360, 1984, the peach as the official fruit of the State. South Carolina is the nation's leading peach producer and shipper east of the Mississippi River. See, now I just learned something. Didn’t you think the leading peach producer would be Georgia?

Our state flower is the Carolina Yellow Jessamine - officially adopted by the General Assembly on February 1, 1924, because, and I quote the state website, “it is indigenous to every nook and corner of the State; it is the first premonitor of coming Spring; its fragrance greets us first in the woodland and its delicate flower suggests the pureness of gold; its perpetual return out of the dead Winter suggests the lesson of constancy in, loyalty to and patriotism in the service of the State.” This flower can be found growing up mail box posts throughout Bluffton.

The Palmetto is the official state tree. Ok, that certainly makes sense.

Tea is the state hospitality beverage, per Act No. 31, 1995. Well, of course it is! Some history for you - South Carolina is the first place in the United States where tea was grown having been planted in the Lowcountry outside of Charleston in 1799 at what is now Middleton Place. And now, “the direct descendants of those very plants have been restored to their former grandeur at the Charleston Tea Plantation, a lush, subtropical tea farm, nestled on a serene sea island near the historic City of Charleston.”

But wait! The official state beverage – not to be confused with the official state hospitality beverage – is milk. Um, what did you say? Yes, it is true. Milk was designated as the official State Beverage by Act No. 360, 1984. Why can’t I find anything about a state cookie? Then we could celebrate properly.

Did you know that the “shag” - yeah, baby (only Austin Powers fans are laughing) - is the state dance per Act No. 329, 1984? 1984 was apparently a slow year in the state house. In fact the National Shag Dance Championships are held each year in Myrtle Beach, twenty-four years running. According to www.about.com, shag is “an off-shoot of swing; a couples dance that involves a six to eight step count and involves a simple forward-and-back motion and a change step at the end; with the six count, this consists of two triple steps, followed by a rock step for the ladies and an optional kick-ball for the gents.” Anyone else just trip and fall?

Finally, I leave you with the first couple of verses to one of South Carolina’s two state songs, South Carolina On My Mind …

At the foot hills of the Appalachian chain,
Down through the rivers, to the coastal plain,
There's a place that I call home,
And I'll never be alone,
Singin' this Carolina love song

I've got South Carolina on my mind
Remembering all those sunshine Summertimes,
And the Autumns in the Smokies when the leaves turn to gold
Touches my heart and thrills my soul to have South Carolina on my mind,
With those clean snow-covered mountain Wintertimes
And the white sand of the beaches and those Carolina peaches,
I've got South Carolina on my mind.