Columbia has its own band of independent intrepid travelers who enjoy vacationing by themselves, joining nearly 35 million Americans who have travelled alone in the last three years. Donald Kay, a retired professor who frequently travels alone on ocean liners, has already booked a 42-day solo tour on the eastern Mediterranean this fall. He has a kit of recommendations for […]
2014-03-21
WWII veterans’ D-Day recollections sought for booklet
This time 70 years ago, planning for an unprecedented and top secret military build-up was taking place deep within Allies’ command posts. The successful Operation Overlord campaign that began bending Germany into submission and ultimate surrender seared into world minds June 6. The beginning of the Allies’ defeat of Nazi Germany set the stage for an anniversary to be observed […]
Quirky Crimes in the Capital City
Forest Acres tForest Drive: Police are searching for a woman who has stolen the identity of two other women and obtained loans in their names. In the first case, the thief gained access to the victim’s birth date as well as her social security number, and from there, she went on to create several fraudulent documents, including a birth certificate […]
The Columbia Curmudgeons
When is the warm weather gonna stay? Dear Curmudgeons- I’ve lived in the south all my life, but I don’t remember a winter quite like the one we’ve had this season. I’m tired of being able to wear shorts and sandals one day and sweat pants and two coats the next. Will spring ever be here to stay? -Weather or […]
Historic Site Spotlight: Seibels House
Often people connect to the past through historic structures. They may find their architecture beautiful or whimsical, different enough from the present to be compelling to gaze upon in the hope of somehow envisioning what it might have been like to have lived “back then.” Or, maybe the site is so significant for its association with a person or event […]
ASK ANN…
Part I: What has happened to the Bantu people who resettled in Columbia?The Bantu People are originally from Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi. Untold numbers of Bantu were captured from 1700-1900 by Arab slave traders and sold as slaves in Somalia and elsewhere. When Somalia dissolved into civil war in 1991 many Bantu fled to neighboring Kenya where they lived in refugee camps for many years. About 11,000 Bantu were resettled in the […]
Good help is hard to find
I’m just saying...Recently, one of my nieces was supposed to have a baby shower in February, but, due to the blizzards in Pennsylvania—her part of the world, she couldn’t get down here for the festivities. So, we had to cancel it. Still, I wanted to send a gift. So, I found myself on the side of town the other day where the […]
Teenage Whippersnappers
It’s not a criticism; It’s an observationWhen I officially entered the teen years, my parents threw a surprise birthday party. I remember the flash of terror upon hearing my friends screaming as I entered the house and assumed they had gathered for the most popular ritual of the times—holding down the birthday boy and administering corporal punishment. One lick for each year. Another brutal practice from […]
Make it colder to get warmer
40–SomethingJust when I was about to cruise down I-95 to the warm sun of South Florida as I sprayed aerosol cans out the window of a borrowed 1977 gas-guzzling Ford Bronco doing my part to speed up this global warming process, I learned all this bone-chilling, pony-tail freezing, make-certainparts of-your-body-retreat-intoyour stomach, cold weather is actually…wait for it… caused by global […]
