Charleston Currents – Andy Brack

Articles by: Andy Brack

FOCUS: NASA to anchor eclipse coverage at College of Charleston

Staff reports | This is just plain cool: NASA, the nation’s apace agency, will broadcast nationwide coverage of the historic Aug. 21 total eclipse of the sun from the College of Charleston.

“The college is so thrilled to have NASA broadcasting from our campus during the upcoming total solar eclipse,” College of Charleston President Glenn F. McConnell said in news release. “This will be a once-in-a-lifetime event that our students, faculty and staff will remember for the rest of their lives.

“To be able to share this moment with NASA specialists not only adds to the significance of the occasion, but deeply enriches the student experience we provide at the college.”

by Andy Brack · 06/26/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

BRACK: Dems got better news in special elections than people might think

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Boy, listening to the talking heads and sputtering pundits, you’d almost think the world was ending for Democrats after narrow losses in two special U.S. House elections in South Carolina and Georgia.

But the world’s not ending. In fact, Republicans should be a little worried.

Yes, the Democrats lost again. But they lost in safe, strong GOP districts – contests for which most people never thought Democrats could get so close.

by Andy Brack · 06/26/2017 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: How would you deal with a jerk neighbor like this?

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re like most people, there’s a neighbor or two nearby who you could easily do without. He or she might even be a full-fledged jerk.

A friend in another state (yes, I really am describing someone else’s hell, not anything around my home) has a real jerk for a neighbor. This guy’s antics have gotten to be just too much in recent days. …. What would you do? How do you deal with jerk neighbors?

by Andy Brack · 06/19/2017 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

REVIEW: Penguin the Magpie: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family

Reviewed by Jessica Smith | Penguin the Magpie: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family is the true story of one family’s startling encounter with sudden loss and their subsequent journey to hope and healing. Cameron Bloom recounts his wife’s terrible accident, which leaves her paralyzed and feeling hopeless. As Sam – and her family – grapples with the hardships of her new life, her three sons find a severely injured magpie chick.

by Andy Brack · 06/12/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

BRACK: S.C. needs more environmental courage, not cowardice

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With so much that could be done to protect the South Carolina’s special places and put the state on a stronger, more renewable energy footing, you may sometimes wonder whether we just have too many environmental cowards.

Maybe that’s a bit harsh. But look at some recent stories that show that technology exists to transform how we power our economy from the traditional dirty oil and coal to a blend of renewables plus nuclear power with natural gas as a backup for peak usage.

by Andy Brack · 06/12/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

CALENDAR, June 5+: Last week of the festivals, more

Spoleto Festival and Piccolo Spoleto: It’s the last week of the festivals and there are still scads of events through June 11. Check out top events in our Focus piece from May 22.

Commission on Women sessions. The City of Charleston’s Commission on Women will hold three more public listening sessions in June to get input to shape the focus and goals of the commission, which was set up to make recommendations, policies and programs related to the status of women.

Farmers markets — see our list of markets around the area.

by Andy Brack · 06/04/2017 · Comments are Disabled · calendar

REVIEW: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Reviewed by Melissa Hatch | Neil Gaiman has a knack for the creepy-crawly, and this book is no exception. He wrote one of my all-time favorites, “The Graveyard Book”, so I expected a lot. He did not disappoint. The story begins when a middle aged man returns to his childhood home for a funeral. He finds himself wandering down the lane to the home of a former friend, a girl named Lettie Hempstock. Remarkably the house is unchanged, as are the persons inhabiting it. Behind the house is a pond, which Lettie had once called an ocean. As he encounters these elements from his past, the memories come flooding back.

by Andy Brack · 06/04/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

Georgia farmers spread fertilizer with a four-mule team around 1940. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott via Farm Security Administration.

BRACK: From a tenant South to the tech South

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Last year at Elvis Presley’s boyhood home in Tupelo, Miss., I was thrilled to see a white metal bowl with a red rim. It was the same kind of bowl my grandmother used to make biscuits.

A lot of things in the two-room home looked familiar – an oilcloth on a kitchen table, the icebox, pieces of furniture, a butter churn, a metal flour sifter.

by Andy Brack · 06/04/2017 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Guys need to buy clothes that fit

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Count me as a guy who doesn’t get what’s going on with men’s clothes these days.

Jackets, shirts, pants – too many that are too small and too tight. Whether it’s the guy in front of me at church, the hipster at a civic club meeting or the hero out and about at the grocery store, I don’t need to see that much of any guy.

Clothes need to fit, not be plastered onto a body. And plaid needs to be reserved for a special place in hell.

by Andy Brack · 05/29/2017 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

PHOTO: This story won’t have a happy ending

Charleston isn’t New Orleans. Spotted near Marion Square in two locations on Saturday were Booze Pop vans – portable places that adults could purchase frozen cocktails on a stick. What could be a worse idea than providing another way for tourists on a hot day to party on streets crowded by people and too many cars? This won’t have a happy ending. Note to City Council: Is this the kind of town you really want visitors to see? (On the other hand, maybe we’ll lose our top travel ranking and life downtown will become more Holy City than Disney City.)

by Andy Brack · 05/29/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Photos