By John Temple LigonSaturday breakfast with thebusiness editor

From 7:30 till 11 am this Saturday, February 26, the Columbia Kiwanis Club is serving pancakes at Eastminster Presbyterian for $5. The food is good and the cause is great, Carolina Children’s Home.

Congressman takes

to the offensive

Defending Fort Jackson, Rep. Joe Wilson (R–SC) is pushing the post as the new home for either the 1st Armored Division or the 1st Infantry Division, both leaving Germany for the US. Fort Jackson is threatened under the current closings by the Pentagon, and to locate a new division there, maybe 15,000 troops, is to guarantee the preservation of the post. Smart.

Just another day in

the life of the Donald

Donald Trump, real estate developer, television personality, and marketing maven, claimed last week to close on a $640 million construction loan for a 90–story hotel–condominium tower at the former site of the Chicago Sun–Times newspaper. The site is next to the Chicago River and the Billy Goat Inn, home of the cheeseburger– cheeseburger–no–Coke–Pepsi fame, as in Saturday Night Live . The 2.6 million– square–foot project is to be home to 472 condominium units, 240 hotel–condominium units, 900 parking spaces, a 60,000 square–foot health club, a 20,000 square–foot conference center, and 90,000 square feet of retail space. Not consulted in all this was Columbia City Council and their office of economic development.

Fourth quarter office values

The average value for office space in the fourth quarter rose 3.3% to $138.59 a square foot, according to a study of the top 50 US markets prepared by Reis Inc., a NYC–based real estate research firm. Rents have bottomed out and appear to be rising, soon to take off in another year, probably.

Farmers market

A $10 million borrowing plan was approved by a state bond oversight board last week. The new State Farmers Market needs the approval of the State Budget and Control Board before it can proceed to build on the 196–acre site at a projected total cost of $46 million.

France for the long haul

The French Treasury is about to raise $4 billion by selling 50–year bonds this week, eventually raising $20 billion altogether with Europe’s longest government bonds. The current French 30–year bond yields about 4.16%, and the 50–year model is expected at 0.05 above that. The US has no half–century bond.

Amtrak to go broke

Columbia gets one passenger train each way nightly, both at the worst times. Florence gets two north–south routes each day, and Greenville is a stop for what became of the Southern Crescent. Service to all three cities is threatened with Transportation Secretary Mineta’s proposal to cease passenger train subsidies, essentially driving Amtrak into bankruptcy. Mineta said the government had given Amtrak $29 billion since 1971, the year it was created. Once in bankruptcy Amtrak would be greatly reduced in routes. SC could suffer.

Germany’s unemployed

At the highest level since 1932, Germany’s unemployed reached 5 million, or just over 11%, in January. The February number is expected to be higher. In the US unemployment is 5.2%

Oh, to be 81 again

Lee Barry of Shelby, NC, finished walking the 2,175 miles of the Appalachian Trail last November. Tim Street of Charleston has scored his age in golf 429 times since New Year’s Day 2000. Both Carolinians are 81 years old.

Charleston City Hall

renovation sounds like

CanalSide pre–development

With a new total cost of $9.1 million, the renovation of Charleston City Hall just added another $518,000 in cost increases. Columbia’s CanalSide pre–development costs are hovering above $9 million, while the bids to buy appear to be about $4 million, leaving a $5 million loss.

Decision on eminent

domain imminent

The US Supreme Court heard arguments this week from New London, CN, where the city condemned a working–class neighborhood to allow a private developer to build an upper–class haven of high–priced houses and lush commercial properties. The city collects higher taxes off the higher values, all for the greater good, but maybe the powers of government have gone too far. In Columbia, SCANA’s Palmetto Center was built after condemnation was threatened on Main Street. The same procedure was in play to build Edens & Avant’s Bank of America (then C&S) Plaza and the firm’s BB&T building on Assembly. The C&S building ran off Columbia Sharpening and Grinding, the Richland Hotel, Little Rascals bar, and other viable businesses. The BB&T building moved out Ms. Lowman. She engaged attorney Tom Pope, the former State Senator from Newberry County who authored the condemnation legislation then in effect. Soon after the BB&T imbroglio, city council declared city condemnation for private purposes to be no longer in style. It’s likely the US Supreme Court will agree.

Charlotte funds mass

transit, unlike here

The half–cent sales tax for transit in Mecklenburg County is growing again after two years of flat collections. The coming year should bring in $60 million, an 8% increase. Here in Columbia, we’re running out of SCANA’s limited contributions promised when it got out of the bus business, and we have no replacement in play. Columbia is maybe half the size of Charlotte, so should Columbia make good transit use of $30 million? It should.

My MEEVA moment

It was a bad hair day, the kind of day that even two bottles of Lady Clairol can’t control. I had just begun my new diet plan #324, so I was hungry, stressed, and already pushed to my limit when I couldn’t read the print on the microwave box instructions.

I had to find my glasses!  So I began my routine search and seizure for the framed spectacles in all the obvious places . . . my pockets . . . the towel rack . . . the car . . . the freezer.  No glasses.

Feelings of frustration haunted me as I hunted for my extra pair of reading glasses.  “Now, where was that safe place?”  I asked myself. My stomach rumbled with growling noises as I clamored through the obvious safe places  . . . the junk drawer . . . my vanity table  . . . the prescription cabinet. No glasses.

Frustration flooded my hormonal overflow.  Now I was a woman on a mission. It didn’t matter to me whether I found the pair with the missing lens or the pair with the crushed nose–piece.  I was determined to find my glasses!  My hormones gushed with urgency as I plundered through all my stash hide–outs . . the mad money jar . . . the liquor cabinet . . .  under the empty chocolate bonbon box. No glasses.

It was a desperate act of denial when I picked up the Lean Cuisine box, arms stretched to their limits, eyes squinting until my eyelids filled with tears as I attempted to read the fine print. It was then I accepted the fact that fading eyesight and memory lapses were signs of aging, my aging. Signs that were supposed to happen to my older brother, not me.   

The grieving process continued into the next step. Crocodile tears streamed down my face, ruining my well–patted, high maintenance make–up.  Sobbing uncontrollably, I grabbed a tissue off the bathroom vanity.  Between sobs, I glared my wallowing look of self pity into the mirror over the sink.

Low, and behold, I gazed upon my smeared mascara jarred eyeliner, and red nose.  What was that glimmer of glass perched every so imposingly on top of my head?  My reading glasses!

“Aha,” I sighed with a smile blowing my nose into the pink tissue. “At least my inner vision is perfect.”

Got a MEEVA® Moment?  Email MEEVA® at mimim@sc.rr.com.  If printed in The Columbia Star , we’ll treat you to a MEEVA® mug!