I have a substance abuse problem &it's called ‘reading’

Vernon during the glory days of football

Hello all! Happy New Year! Hope it’s a good one for everyone. That’s my plan.

I turned 74 a few days ago. Amazes me. And too, I am grateful. I have lived well and been blessed with more gifts than I can count, though I do try to count them often. I have also lived hard sometimes, driven myself, worried too much, drank (drink, drunk ) too much, raised some Hell, car wrecks, barroom fights, sleep deprived, foolish and destructive relationships-often forced-,been aimless at times, couldn’t quite get to where I thought I wanted or needed to go.

But it seems like for the most part I have come on through. I realize I am in the very late 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter may well be somewhat truncated but I’m ready to keep moving, keep trying, keep digging, keep chopping wood.

I have wonderful family and friends. I have resources. I have found the gears that are labeled Calm and Contentment. There are so many things that interest me, engage me, stimulate me. I am still curious about so much and my lawyer/writer brain is always buzzing and sparking. I am active and busy, not passive, though I can now tap the brakes from time to time.

It seems I have finally landed in Viktor Frankl’s four corners of Work, Love, Faith and a very strong belief in the Future.

I am very fortunate, very lucky.

(And 74 is my favorite number!)

I continue to believe, more strongly than ever, that my great, enduring catalyst- my greatest gift- is the great love of words, the great love of reading.

So-here’s the segue-let us see what my greatest hobby brings us today.

As many of you know, every day if at all possible wherever I am, I try to get my hands on the local paper (usually the Charleston Post and Courier aka the P&C), the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. They are always chock-a-block full of not just news but also information and they cover and encompass, in totality, the world.

When I used to speak to groups of lawyers in Continuing Legal Education seminars, I would always (gently) admonish them that I considered it Legal Malpractice to not consistently keep up with what was going on in our community, the state, the nation and the world. To not do so was (and is) to be ill-informed and to be ill-informed was to invite misunderstanding or lack of understanding and also encircled one with perceptions and thought processes that were incomplete and inchoate.

Now even though I have sheathed my lawyer scabbard, I broaden my strong suggestion in these regards. EVERYONE needs to be reading and learning; otherwise inertia comes along and turns into stratification and intellectual ennui and then you are cooked.

With all that said, what may I rummage through today?

-From today’s P&C comes this headline: OUTCRY HALTS SALE OF NATHANIEL RUSSELL HOUSE

Ah, that was a half-baked, dumb idea, ginned up by a bunch of insulated, elites who had lost sight of the basic facts:

Charleston Loves Her History and Charleston is a Drinking City with a History Problem.

The Historic Charleston Foundation appears to be in mealy-mouthed, verbose, full retreat.

It’s probably time to sweep the decks of those insular dilettantes over there who thought this was a ‘good idea’.

Also today’s front page of the P&C

“Beach Renourishment ‘Timing Couldn’t Be Better’”

This was a bad idea when it started a long time ago and it is still a bad idea and we get to pay for it with our tax dollars.

Years and years ago, when I was a (sort of) young enough father and we had a couple of young children, we lived on Ocean Boulevard out of the Isle of Palm. Our house, a wonderful blue and pink (we’d just come back from Jamaica)

Claptrap of mess and maze sat just across the road from the dunes and the ocean. There were no houses, not a stick, on the front beach. It was surely less expensive then as opposed to Sullivans and it was quiet and peaceful.

And the big houses, and I do mean BIG-as in 8 bedrooms-3 elevators and so forth-started going up. Over the years sand, lots of sand from the north, Wild Dunes and well beyond, had through the forces of nature, especially water and wind moved down to the IOP and accreted to such an extent that after never, building permits were being distributed like Christmas candy.

Bigger tax base, more affluent tourists, more crowds…you get the picture. (Plus I admit it was messing up my once-serene views and access.)

I felt like I had to do something-that ‘something’ was a vague, vaporous thing with no definition. But, there was a guy-he’s gone now-Dr. Oren Pilkey at Duke University who was ‘The Expert’ on beach erosion. He agreed to visit with me. I went up to Durham and in a nutshell, here’s what I learned from him:

‘All that sand they’re building on will move again. There can and will be multiple causes. Certainly, we have no definitive timeline but it will move. Large storms certainly accelerate the process. Seawalls won’t help. Wind and water go around them wherever they have their ends. Eventually the beaches will erode and disappear. That is, unless there is implemented a thing called Beach Renourishment-hauling and spreading tons and tons of newly gathered sand to replace that which has moved elsewhere. It is but a an expensive and temporary fix and ultimately it will always fail. Always.’

And, of course, he was right.

So, I went back and spoke with town council and a few Powers That Be and was politely told in short order that I should go play King Canute someplace else. And in keeping with ‘The Greater Fool’ theory of commerce, we soon thereafter rapidly sold our house to a needy’, just gotta buy it, salivating suitor, counted our money and moved into Mount Pleasant.

I was taught as a young guy, ‘Don’t Ever Be The Last One To Leave The Party’.
One day there will be the ‘Last Ones’.

By the way, is this good far-sighted governance or just another short term band aid?

Let’s see-what else have we got?

From today’s New York Times…Progressive Woke’ism takes it in the neck again.

Headline-‘Colleges Fled SAT In Spite Of Its Utility’

Over the last few years, colleges and universities have jettisoned the SAT. The discarding has been hailed as a victory for equity in higher education.

Why do we keep dumbing down processes that work? Is Mediocre the new Gold Standard>

“Standardized test scores are a much better predictor of academic success than high school grades.” Christina Paxon, President of Brown University.

“Just getting straight A’s is not enough information for us to know whether the students are going to succeed or not.”

Stuart Schmill, Dean of Admissions, MIT.

Looks like the old SAT is making a comeback.

Best and Brightest? Or everyone gets a pass? Elitism and Exceptionalism as opposed to ‘Fairness’ and ‘Open Doors’?

You make that call. I already have.

From today’s Wall Street Journal

‘Hertz to cut fleet of Electric Vehicles in a major Reversal’

Hertz now says in regulatory filings that the demand for electric vehicles remains low and soft and the E.V.s have demonstrably higher operating costs.

…Not to mention it’s a big country and where do you ‘fill up’…not everywhere. It’ll take decades to truly set up charging stations all over the country.

Another government boondoggle. More ‘save the whales’ gone a’floundering…

And there is always so much more.

From the 12/31/23  Sunday N.Y. Times- ’72 of our favorite facts from 2023’

Just a couple for now.

November-‘China accounts for a third of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, more than North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Africa combined.’

Well, let’s hear it for Australia!

Folks let’s face it. The Chinese aint ever gonna shape up. So, we better find other ideas to work on this from other than those of John Kerry, Greta Thunberg and Al Gore.

And, same list

February- ‘Every year, hundreds of millions of birds die in the United States from flying into glass.’

Ok, everyone open their windows-quick!

Wonder what the worldwide count is? Or are we the prime, premier guilty party when it comes to Ornithological Homicide?

So, there is so much out there if you just spend some time looking and thinking.

As  I have mentioned before, I’ve read SLIM AND NONE in studio and now waiting to be summoned for tweaks and read-backs.

Working on next book. It’s all fun.

Last ‘note’…Please do yourself a favor and so find and read this book:

A WORLD LIT ONLY BY FIRE by William Manchester.

The best short, tight, elegant history I have ever read, The Best.

This is my 3rd or even my 4th dig into it.

From the flap notes, a succinct summary of this wonderful, compact tome:

…Manchester’s glorious exploration of the sordidness and splendor of the Middle Ages-a world in its beginnings, lit only by fire-his riveting observation of the collapse of the medieval mind and its spectacular metamorphosis into the Renaissance…

Enjoy!

Now, y’all get out there and read and work and be safe.

I send all my best.

Vernon