A year after Sandy sank Bounty: Messages in a bottle

By Thom Patterson, CNN
October 28, 2013



(CNN) -- Sailing the Atlantic on a perfect blue-sky day, HMS Bounty survivor Jessica Hewitt knew this would have been a beautiful moment to share with Claudene Christian.

She looked down from the deck of the 125-foot Liberty Clipper to see dozens of playful dolphins swimming alongside the tall-masted sailing ship as it cut through the waves off North Carolina.

As the 26-year-old held a glass bottle filled with pictures and handwritten notes, Hewitt's eyes moved across the southeast horizon toward a painful spot she knew was about 25 miles away.

She couldn't help but picture what happened there aboard the HMS Bounty exactly a year ago Tuesday. The leaking, aging ship sailed into what would become the largest hurricane in generations. As the Category 1 storm churned about 100 miles off Cape Hatteras, Hurricane Sandy's battering winds and towering waves flipped the 180-foot ship sideways, spilling Hewitt and her shipmates into the water.
Photos: Hurricane Sandy then and now Photos: Hurricane Sandy then and now
Sinking of the HMS Bounty Sinking of the HMS Bounty
High-drama rescue on the high seas
Raw video: Rescue from sunken HMS Bounty

The body of Capt. Robin Walbridge, 63, was never found. Christian, a 42-year-old rookie sailor, died after Coast Guard rescuers were unable to revive her.

Their deaths and the sinking of perhaps the most famous tall ship in the world spurred an investigation that could still lead to new safety regulations and criminal charges.

Continue at:   (Story, video and photos of the rescue, sinking)

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/us/sandy-bounty-ship-sinking-anniversary/
 

Public Hearing

Horry County Museum New Location

Conway, South Carolina — The Horry County Museum, formerly located at 428 Main Street in Conway, will reopen Tuesday, November 5, 2013, at 9 a.m. at its new location in the Historic Burroughs School building located at 805 Main Street in Conway.

  

The Historic Burroughs School, constructed between 1905 and 1909, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The newly renovated and larger facility has allowed the Museum to provide bigger exhibits, more nationally recognized traveling exhibits, and public programming in the auditorium.  New exhibits include:     

                                                                                    

• Photography-a changing gallery that currently features local photographer Jack Thompson.
• Textiles-another changing gallery that highlights historic sewing machines, washing machines, quilts and costumes.
• A gallery in honor of the 150^th anniversary of the American Civil War with items from the South Carolina Museum and the 7^th South Carolina Infantry reenactment group.
• A reconstructed waddle and daub Native American house with artifacts from the area.
• Natural History-showcasing native animals including black bears, birds of prey, fossils, and alligators.
• Grand Strand-An area that tells the story of the 20^th Century Grand Strand and our tourism culture.
• Military History-This exciting new area features a camp similar to Peter Horry’s campaign tent as well as relics of life from the Civil War and the history of the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
• Agriculture & Industry-Illustrates the progression of agriculture from naval stores and turpentine to logging and eventually tobacco cultivation in Horry County.
• Open Storage-A home for artifacts that are fascinating but not a part of the themed galleries.

The Horry County Museum will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. except on County holidays.  For more information, contact the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320.

Time to Care: Families find more options to keep elderly parents at home

By Jason Lesley
Coastal Observer

Dot Matthews of DeBordieu says the time has come for her to care for her 97-year-old mother.

Jo Cerami suffers from dementia and needs her daughter and son-in-law, John, now.

She has gone from being the caregiver to the recipient. After her husband died in 1976, Jo moved in with Dot and John in Florence to help care for their seven children. “It was me who needed her at that time,” Dot said. “I had my own company, working 24/7. John was working. We needed help. I would stop in at her house, and she’d be crying. She had nothing to do and didn’t have a whole lot of friends. I asked her if she would come and help me so there would be somebody there with the kids when they got home from school. Now she needs me. Turnabout is fair play.”

Dot is granting her mom the wish that almost every aging person has: to remain at home. It hasn’t been easy. “Dementia comes on very slowly,” Dot said. “I didn’t realize what it was. My friends noticed it before I did.”

Continued at:

http://www.coastalobserver.com/articles/2013/102413/6.html

Things to do in the Myrtle Beach area on Oct. 25

Published: October 25, 2013


Oodles of celebrations

So much to do, so many choices of special events:

• “Zombie 5K Mudd Run” and bonfire, for Special Operations Wounded Warriors, 8 a.m. at Low Country Preserve, 466 Indigo Flatts Road, Tabor City, N.C. $50 individual or $135 three-person team. 455-0604.

• Nathan Black 5K Run/Walk scholarship benefit. 8 a.m. from Surfside Pier, 11 N. Ocean Blvd., Surfside Beach. $27.50. 704-500-1696.

• Blind Bowlers Tournament, team competition 8:45 a.m. and scratch competition 1:30 p.m. at Surfside Bowl Entertainment Center, 510 U.S. 17 Business N., Surfside Beach. 919-740-2398.

• Arts and Crafts Fair, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. in Brunswick Plantation’s Brunswick House, 382 Brunswick Drive, Calabash, N.C.. Free. 910-287-4604.

Much more at:

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/10/25/3782149/things-to-do-in-the-myrtle-beach.html

Address Hog and Coyote Problems

Published: October 23, 2013

By Jason M. Rodriguez

CONWAY — Horry County Councilman Harold Worley knows a bit about how much of a nuisance wild hogs can be.

“Being an old farm boy myself and being raised on a farm and raising hogs, I do know how vicious they can be,” Worley said of the wild hogs. “I wouldn’t want anybody to get hurt by one of these wild hogs.”

That’s why the county’s public safety committee plans to devise a plan of attack on wild hogs, who have been wreaking havoc on farms, yards and wooded areas this year. It also plans to address coyotes, which are said to be tamed similarly. Coyotes also have caused problems this year in Surfside Beach, which hired a trapper, and neighborhoods along the Grand Strand.Rising river waters are what some people believe are to blame for this year’s seemingly higher number of complaints than in years past, said Nathan Hudson, with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Continue at:

http://www.thestate.com/2013/10/23/3054905/horry-county-to-discuss-addressing.html

An Industry of Mediocrity

By BILL KELLER
 

October 20, 2013



“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can’t teach, teach teaching.”
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WHOEVER coined that caustic aphorism should have been in a Harlem classroom last week where Bill Jackson was demonstrating an exception to the rule. Jackson, a 31-year classroom veteran, was teaching the mathematics of ratios to a group of inner-city seventh graders while 15 young teachers watched attentively. Starting with a recipe for steak sauce — three parts ketchup to two parts Worcestershire sauce — Jackson patiently coaxed his kids toward little math epiphanies, never dictating answers, leaving long silences for the children to fill. “Denzel, do you agree with Katelyn’s solution?” the teacher asked. And: “Can you explain to your friend why you think Kevin is right?” He rarely called on the first hand up, because that would let the other students off the hook. Sometimes the student summoned to the whiteboard was the kid who had gotten the wrong answer: the class pitched in to help her correct it, then gave her a round of applause.

After an hour the kids filed out and the teachers circled their desks for a debriefing. Despite his status as a master teacher, Jackson seemed as eager to hone his own craft as that of his colleagues. What worked? What missed the mark? Should we break this into two lessons? Did the kids get it? And what does that mean?

“Does ‘get it’ mean getting an answer?” Jackson asked. “Or does it mean really understanding what’s going on?”

At that point Deborah Kenny, the founder of the Harlem Village Academies charter schools, leaned over to me: “That right there, that is why we’re starting a graduate school.”

How America prepares its teachers has been a subject of dismay for many years. In 2005 Arthur Levine, then the president of Teachers College at Columbia University, shocked colleagues (and himself, he says) with a scathing report concluding that teacher preparation programs “range from inadequate to appalling.” Since then the outcry has only gotten more vociferous. This summer the National Council on Teacher Quality described teacher education as still “an industry of mediocrity.”

Continued at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/opinion/keller-an-industry-of-mediocrity.html?src=recg