The Other Brooks Brothers and Their Sister, Too. — “Suddenly-relevant”

Let’s remember what today means.

– The OBB

Esquire magazine’s 2005 “Sexiest Woman Alive” Jessica Biel took up blogging on her MySpace page a few days ago.

In her first post, I was glad to see that reading between the lines, she gets it. She understands. She realizes that blogging gives anyone, anywhere the ability to say whatever is on his or her mind.

In Biel’s case, she wrote about her new film from her fledgling production company and her non-profit, the Make the Difference Network.

I hope that as she continues getting her feet wet in the blogosphere, she pulls back the curtain and fills us in on what she thinks of her Palmetto State experiences.

Tell us, Jessica. What did you think of Columbia? What really happened with the constant production stoppages for Nailed? Would you like to have dinner?

Congratulations on your new blogging endeavors. With the recent departure of The Shot, South Carolina bloggers are looking for someone to fill the void.

You may have what it takes.

Besides, it could probably help you build your name ID among the two people who don’t know who you are.

– Alan Wofford

Back in college, I remember hearing a story about a little bump up ABC’s Sam Donaldson had when South Carolina’s former US Senator Fritz Hollings was a guest on This Week with David Brinkley.

Sure. I’m guessing the story has changed a little over the years, but I was glad to at least see it confirmed by Senator Hollings himself.

In his new book Making Government Work, the senator chronicles what became his last appearance on the Sunday morning show on September 16, 1990

“Senator,” Donaldson asked me, “you’re from the great textile-producing state of South Carolina. Is it true you have a Korean tailor?”

Before I could respond, Donaldson interjected: “Let’s see the label in there. What is the label in there?”

“I bought it,” I replied, “the same place right down the street where, if you want to personalize this thing, where you got that wig, Sam.”

From Chapter 12: Missed Opportunities

Now, that’s funny.

No matter what you think of Senator Hollings’ politics, he can always be counted on for big laughs.

– Bo Burdette

On his show this morning, radio talk show host and long lost Jeffrey Sewell family member Don Imus host made, well, it was more than a slip of the tongue.

In a discussion about Adam “Pacman” Jones dropping his nickname in an effort to reimage himself, the “I Man” asked a series of questions.

I posted a transcript of the exchange and added the YouTube clip.

Here’s the transcript:

Guy 1: “Defensive back Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones, recently signed by the Cowboys. Here’s a guy suspended all of 2007 following a shooting in a Vegas night club.”

Imus: “Well, stuff happens. You’re in a night club, for God’s sake. What do you think’s gonna happen in a night club? People are drinking and doing drugs, there are women there, and people have guns. So, there, go ahead.”

Guy 1: “He’s also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005.”

Imus: “What color is he?”

Guy 1: “He’s African-American.”

Imus: “Well, there you go. Now we know.”

I’m thinking he probably should have left out part of that. On the bright side, it looks like he found a pretty easy way to get out of a contract.

– Alan Wofford

Maybe it’s me, but it seems like members of South Carolina’s press corps don’t like anyone that disagrees with them.

At least The State newspaper’s contempt for anything conservative is blatant and rests in the pages of the editorial section.

The folks at the Spartanburg Herald-Journal have taken it a step further introducing something I’ve decided to call an editoriport which is defined as “a printed, broadcast, or otherwise published story initially disguised as a factual news report but is mixed with opinions of the story’s author so as to provide a biased, slanted view of the subject material.”

I was originally going to go with reportitorial, but that was already taken.

Anyway, it seems that some of the team in the political department of Spartanburg’s New York Times Company property are playing fast and loose with the facts.

In a post Wednesday the Truthies pointed out that two recent stories in Spartanburg’s major daily newspaper, authored by Trevor Anderson and Robert Dalton wage false accusations about support for Lee Bright in his runoff against Scott Talley.

The Truthies even posted the contents of an e-mail that was sent to Anderson who wrote the first editoriport and copied Talley on it. The e-mail denied support of any candidate in that race, denied putting in any resources “educate” in that race, and denied that the group was in any way involved in the Beaufort County race between Catherine Ceips and Tom Davis. The e-mail then asked for a clarification to the newspaper’s readers.

Well, the Truthies updated their original post. The reporter hasn’t responded to the e-mail, and nobody from the paper offered an explanation to the story or a retraction about the “facts” in the piece.

It’s good to see hack reporting alive and well.

Not that the company that gives America “All The News That’s Fit To Print” should be expected to be completely without bias, but even its South Carolina operation should be more professional that to prop up hacks better suited for one of those free newspapers they hand out at bars.

Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s perfectly happy to allow reporters to forward their own agendas through their editoriports.

These guys are hired to report the news — not the news and how they feel, and it stinks that their corporate bosses allow this kind of editorialized factless reporting to stand as news.

If you want allow these people to continue writing for the newspaper, fine. Just have them do it from an editorial bullpen instead.

You’re lying to your readers if you accept anything less.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, I know I’m a hack banging out this garbage, but I don’t try to pass myself off as a reporter.

– Bo Burdette

NOTE: The term “editoriport” is now officially copyrighted by The Other Brooks Brothers 2008. All rights reserved. First use of “editoriport” on June 20, 2008.

If you’ve been hiding under a rock, you missed Tiger Woods‘ unbelievable 19th hole sudden death playoff victory over Rocco Mediate at this past weekend’s US Open at Torrey Pines.

Even more impressive was that he played an entire 5th round and won with a left tibia stress fracture and a torn ACL in his left knee.

That’s why he’s the number one golfer in the world.

I used to take issue with his use of “colorful language” on the course. “He has no respect for the game,” I told myself. Luckily, I realized a long time ago that I was wrong, and ever since then I’ve been able to enjoy the amazing shots he’s able to make. More importantly, I’ve been able to see how much he loves the game.

Sure, he gets upset when his shots go errant, but the enjoyment that washes over him when he’s able to do the things that his closest competitors and duffers like me will never me able to imagine make it all worth watching.

We witnessed one of the best played tournaments in US Open history. We saw what should have been Phil Mickelson’s to lose. We watched a marathon fifth round between the man who would would have been the tournament’s oldest winner ever and the guy with the broken leg and torn knee.

Now what happens?

Well, Woods will go under the knife again and miss the remainder of the 2008 season. He’ll miss the Open Championship (British Open), PGA Championship, Tour Championship, and the Ryder Cup.

That means somebody else will win some majors and this year’s FedEx Cup. That means there will be the potential for new rivalries, renewed careers, and an interesting finish for 2008 before Tiger returns in January.

What will he do between now and January? I’m not sure how much his life will change outside of the healing his leg needs and the rehab on his knee after the new surgery.

He’ll probably spend time working on The Cliffs at High Carolina near Asheville — his first US course design, he’ll probably enjoy time with his wife Elin and their daughter Sam Alexis, and he’ll probably also enjoy a period of what is the closest thing to peace, quiet, and anonymity he can know.

So until he makes his January return, we can enjoy the rest of this year, watch some players we haven’t seen in a while, and fondly remember the 2008 US Open where Tiger Woods again showed why he is the number one golfer in the world.

– Matthew Wills

I’m not a fan of across-the-board smoking bans.

If a local government wants to prohibit us from lighting up in government buildings, that’s one thing. Elected officials have the authority from voters to make those policies.

Banning smoking in all public places? That’s a different story. Business owners should have the right to control how their businesses operate. If you as a patron don’t want the smoke around you, you have the ultimate power. You have the ability to take your consumer dollars to an establishment more in line with your belief.

It’s like voting. Just as you support candidates because their beliefs are more in line with yours, with your consumer dollars you can support businesses that foster environments more to your liking. In other words, if you don’t like a bar that allows smoking, go to another bar.

Until now, local governments have used the argument that they have a responsibility to protect those who work in businesses that allow smoking.

“Second hand smoke affects everyone,” ban proponents chant proudly. They’re right about that, but I always viewed that as a bogus argument that local political subdivisions used to justify a zero-tolerance policy on tobacco.

It now seems I wasn’t too far off base — at least where the City of Clemson is concerned.

When it takes effect on July 1, Clemson’s smoking ban will encompass more than smoking.

According to WYFF in Greenville, “The ordinance also prohibits the use of chewing tobacco, snuff or dip inside any public building or business in the city limits. Violators could pat a $100 fine.”

Remind me again. Why is it necessary to protect us from second-hand chew?

Municipal governments are encroaching upon individuals and businesses in the name of public health and welfare.

If local governments are honest in their motives, they should at least be honest enough to let the voters have a voice and decide the matter for themselves.

If they have a different motivation than they’re publicly admitting, they should be honest enough about that, too — and face the potential repercussions in the next election.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dip or chew, and I like going in to restaurants that don’t make me reek of smoke the next day. I like breathing fresh air. It’s just not government’s job to tell our business owners how to operate.

If we’re so concerned about cigarettes and smoking and their effects on public health, let’s prohibit their manufacture and sale. The tobacco lobby might have something to say about that, though.

See how hypocritical it is? We take big tobacco’s money but we won’t let small business operate without interference but we keep tobacco legal but…

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

Anyway, before I ramble more and give myself a permanent migraine trying to figure out the logic, congratulations to the City of Clemson for finally showing through its smokeless tobacco ban that such actions are not about protecting those around us but are instead about local government’s beloved home rule.

Like Senator McConnell so frequently asks, “How much more home rule can we afford?”

– Wilson Charles

I hope you bought your liquor and lottery tickets yesterday, because today is a statewide election which means the unprepared among us will stay sober and broke.

So, tonight at 7:00 it begins. There will be second guessing and a lot of shoulda-coulda-woulda reflection. There will be others who say, “We did what we needed to do.”

It won’t be over until the end, though. We’re already seeing last minute battles being waged.

The folks who first introduced us to the B. R. Skelton “dumb@$$” video noted a couple of items worth passing along today.

The first came from an e-mail they reportedly received where an unhappy voter wanted them to figuratively pull the covers off of a legislator participating in (wait for the pun) additional “polling.”

We don’t know if this post was referring to a him or a her, but the “Truthies” opted to be the McDLT of political blogging — keeping the hot side hot and the cool side cool to let someone else pick from the number of affairs to expose while they stick with issue and advertising exposure.

Another post from late yesterday highlights an Anderson Independent Mail article claiming that an owner of the Daily Journal and Daily Messenger newspapers in Seneca voted absentee yesterday in Oconee County even though he lives in Pickens County.

According to his own newspaper today, this was not a mixup. He’s apparently been using his business address as his home address and voting from there for years.

That’s a no-no.

It doesn’t give his newspaper much credibility either.

With an owner who seems to be playing fast and loose with the state’s election laws, why should anyone believe any of his paper’s editorials?

I wonder if the conversations around there go something like this, “Hey. Tell you what. You buy a full page spread so our little paper can generate some ad revenue, and I’ll make sure there are some nice false claims against your opponent. Don’t worry. By the time I publish the endorsements, it’ll be too late for them to to do anything about it.”

The response? “Sure thing. It’s a bargain at twice the price.”

I guess if you’re in Pickens and/or Oconee, and you’re basing your vote off of the paper’s endorsements, know that there’s the distinct possibility that campaigns were greasing those wheels for endorsements.

It’ll all be over at 7:00 — unless there’s a runoff. Then we get to watch this silliness all over again.

– Bo Burdette

I hope Joe doesn’t get mad that I’m hijacking a food post, but I just had to throw this out there.

Baseball is the national past time, but the Sunday past time at the Burdette house involves combing through the newspaper for the restaurant inspection scores.

I started getting in to this several years ago after attending a wedding weekend in Charleston. We were at some brewhouse grabbing a bite when we noticed a couple of “palmetto bugs” walking through the restaurant. Then, I saw IT as we were walking out the door. I don’t know how I missed IT going in, but there was a certificate on the door with a big red “C” that might as well have been in flashing neon surrounded by dancing girls. I wished for the rest of the weekend I hadn’t seen the door like that.

So now, there’s just something satisfying (in a “Let’s watch ‘em clean up the blood off the highway” kind of way) to see what local eatery, shall we say, “underperformed,” at its most recent inspection. It also helps decide where not to go and provides an unexpected conversation starter at parties.

You can go online to DHEC’s web site and look these up for yourself, but the site requires you to be pretty specific. That’s not fun — especially of you just want to see who really messed up in your little corner of the world.

That’s why I’m now actually thanking a newspaper. This doesn’t do me any good because of the coverage area, but the Spartanburg Herald-Journal now has restaurant inspections online. They’re updated monthly from DHEC reports, but unlike the difficult state site the Herald-Journal lets people sort through scores by city.

The site covers Union, Cherokee, Spartanburg, and Greenville Counties and is more fun than poking a beached jellyfish with a stick.

– Bo Burdette

We may not always agree with him, and we chuckled when he speculated who we are (inaccurately, we might add), but we liked Tim Cameron.

None of us here ever met him or even talked with him, but we liked him anyway, and we liked his web site — The Shot.

We were a little stunned to read that Tim is moving south of the border (Georgia, not Mexico) to take a job with Newt Gingrich’s “American Solutions.” We aren’t surprised that he’s moving onward and upward, but it was a little unexpected this morning.

It seems to be a good opportunity for him — capitalizing on his strengths in new media to bring the group’s message to the people.

We don’t know if someone else will take over The Shot, but the site will lose some of its flavor without Tim there.

Good luck, Tim.

– The OBB