Architecture Wednesday: The Whilden-Hirsch House

I adore Charleston. Sure, it’s humid as Hell, and I literally mean Hell, in the Summer, and sometimes the rains can flood the streets, but it’s old and quaint and historic and steamy, and this time I mean steamy in a good way.

Like this home, one of Charleston's most stately homes, the Whilden-Hirsch house in the heart of Harleston Village. She’s elegant, and she’s historic, and she’s just undergone an eight-month renovation that combines the historic significance of the home with modern comforts and designer aesthetics. Built in 1854, she’s got seven bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms, and a first-floor powder room, in a hair under 7,000 square feet and she’s all yours for just $4.2 million.

She’s an impressive house, from the exterior masonry construction, mansard roof, two gracious piazzas—that’s what they call the porches and balconies in Charleston—and wrought iron fencing that curves its way to the front door.

Beyond the beautiful carved and leaded glass entry door is a grand foyer with incredible staircase; I get Bette Davis in Jezebel vibes and I am here for it. The three-story home boasts 13-foot ceilings on every floor, original, though newly refinished, hardwood floors, historic and original stained-glass windows, multiple fireplaces, and restored original hardware throughout.

The sunlit formal living room features an inviting bay window with custom banquette seating, with an equally bright dining room just beyond; both rooms have triple-hung windows that open onto the large first-floor piazza and overlook the pool. The chef's kitchen has butcher block countertops, Viking and Sub-zero appliances, and a large walk-in pantry . The first floor also includes a billiard room, cozy family room with original brick wall and fireplace, and a half-bathroom for guests.

There are three renovated bedrooms on the second floor, laundry and three full bathrooms. One of the bedrooms on this floor is the primary suite with massive walk-in closet and luxurious bathroom. Four more bedrooms and two full bathrooms are on the third floor. Okay, it’s a lot of stairs … but, yes, Virginia, there is an elevator.

Outside, the fenced garden includes a heated saltwater pool and separate pool house, equipped with gym equipment, and an outdoor fireplace; behind the pool house is driveway parking for four vehicles, a must have space in downtown Charleston.

This beautiful lady is one block north of Colonial Lake, and the King Street's shops and restaurants are a short walk away. I think I’m in love …

As always, click to emBIGGERate ...

Dwell

Hey Blobby? You Forgot This Jackass

So, this morning, while traveling around the blog-o-sphere — Carlos had an “unsettling” dream and so we were up, awake and out of bed by 5:45 AM — I stopped in at Blobby’s Blog, as I do, and saw this in his post for the day:

Like South Carolina doesn't have enough troubles.   ....and in no particular order.....

• Ms. Lindsey Graham

• Hate Crime Shootings in a Charleston church

• Confederate Flags hoo-ha

• Mark Sanford and his bag of lies

• Bob from I Should be Laughing (I kid....I kid...)

I giggled at my inclusion, though to be included with Miss Lindsey and the Trail Hiking Adulterer and Hate Crimes and Bad Flags, well, you know. But I took it in stride and pointed out that, while we have our share of political asshats, there is much to love about South Carolina and its people — some of its people, heck, most of its people; then I saw this, and thought I’d add this to Blobby’s stockpile of South Carolina Madness.

William Chumley is a Republican State Representative serving the people of Spartanburg, South Carolina. He is also one of just ten House lawmakers who voted this week against any discussion on removing the Confederate battle flag form the statehouse grounds, and then he chose to blame the victims of the Charleston church shootings for their own deaths.

Yes, the victims are to blame. And Chumley, or, better yet, Chumpley, was interviewed by Drew Griffin for CNN about the murders and said this:

"We’re focusing on the wrong thing here. We need to be focusing on the nine families that are left and see that this doesn’t happen again. These people sat in there, waited their turn to be shot. That’s sad. But somebody in there with the means of self defense could have stopped this. And we’d have less funerals than we’re having."

And naturally, Drew Griffin was shocked:

"You’re turning [these murders] into a gun debate? If those nine families asked you to take down that flag, would you do it?"

And Chumpley tried to back pedal, accusing Griffin of bringing up guns, but then said:

"Why didn’t somebody, why didn’t somebody just do something? I mean, you got one skinny person shooting a gun, you know I mean, we need to take, and do what we can."

Drew Griffin couldn’t believe that this man, this man elected by the people — and think about that people of Spartanburg the next time you go to the polls — was suggesting that the victims, as they were being gunned down are to blame because, well, they allowed themselves to be shot.

"I don’t know what, I don’t know what the answer was. But I know it’s really, really horrible for nine people to be shot and I understand that he reloaded his gun during the process. That’s, that’s upsetting, very upsetting." — William Chumley

For the record, William Chumley is proudly in the pocket of the National Rifle Association, who have given him a 92% rating, and who last year voted for a bill that authorizes carrying concealed weapons into businesses that serve alcohol.

He likes guns in bars, and now, apparently believes guns should be carried in churches in case a racist lunatic comes in and starts shooting because, if he does and you get killed, it’s all your fault.

Way to stomp on the bodies of the victims, and the hearts of their families, and all of the people who know better in South Carolina.

NCRM

This Man Wants To Be President: After Charleston Shooting, Ted Cruz Makes Gun Jokes

I swear, if I had a nickel for every time I make a bad joke, or said something inappropriate, I could probably bankroll Donald Trump’s next project … getting a hairpiece that doesn’t look like a muskrat crawled onto his bald dome and died.

So, yeah, I say the wrong thing sometimes, and sometimes I wish I had handlers who would stop me from putting my foot in my mouth, but I don’t. Ted Cruz, however, does have people who tell him what to say and still he manages to be utterly inappropriate at the wrong time.

Like in the days following the death of Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau, when Cruz was campaigning … for the presidency, mind you … and said this:

“Joe Biden … You know what the nice thing is? You don’t even need a punch line. I promise you it works. At the next party you’re at, just walk up to someone and say, ‘Vice President Joe Biden,’ and just close your mouth. They will crack up laughing.”

Oh, so funny, though, in my mind, if you switch out Ted Cruz for Joe Biden the joke is a laugh riot because … Ted Cruz.

And even after that Biden "joke," and his subsequent apology, he still doesn’t get the idea that maybe he shouldn’t joke about things because, he’s not funny, and he doesn’t know when to make the joke.

Just two days after the shootings in Charleston that left nine people dead, Ted Cruz was campaigning … for the presidency, mind you … in Iowa and said this about guns:

"You know the great thing about the state of Iowa is, I'm pretty sure you all define gun control the same way we do in Texas — hitting what you aim at."

Guns are funny! But he doesn’t stop there and he tells a story about his wife’s love of machine guns … yes, machine guns:

"My wife, Heidi, who is a petite, 5'2 California blonde, she was standing at the tripod unloading the full machine gun with a pink baseball cap that said 'armed and fabulous.'"

And, in case you miss the irony of the jokes, think on this: Cruz has amped up his pro-gun rhetoric — making me wonder who’s funding his campaign … NRA — because he said these remarks at an Iowa shooting range in a room wallpapered in posters of guns.

Seriously. A racist walks into a Black church and guns down nine innocent people, and rather than talk about that, Ted Cruz makes jokes about “hitting your target” and his wife’s love of automatic weapons.

And he wants to be president, mind you.

Daily Kos

photo source

NRA Board Member Blames Charleston Shooting Deaths On One Of the Victims

In the aftermath of yesterday’s racist terror attack at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a couple of morons decided to speak when they’d be better served, as would we all, had they kept their yaps closed.

First up was South Carolina Senator, and future failed presidential candidate, Lindsey Graham appearing on The View to offer his opinion: the attacks were the start of that so-called War On Christianity; something we all know now is a lie.

The attacks were a racist attack, but Lindsey Graham used this tragedy to, rather than demand calm, and demand the capture of that murderer, to pander to his base of Teabagger, gun-toting wingnuts and say that this proved there is a war on religion. He was wrong; well, actually, he lied.

And don’t get me started on how Lindsey Graham, after he learned of the shootings, rather than return to his home state, rather than come back and try to soothe the people in his state whom he represents, kept his appointment to appear on a talk show and campaign for the presidency.

But worse than Miss Lindsey is National Rifle Association [NRA] board member Charles Cotton, who didn’t blame this attack on a made up political ploy, but laid the blame for these murders on … one of the victims.

Yes, Cotton said Clementa Pinckney, a pastor and South Carolina State Senator, who was gunned down in cold blood during the shooting is to blame because, well, let’s hear Cotton in his own asshatted words:

“[Pinckney] voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

Yes, Charles Cotton believes that if the members of that church had been allowed to carry weapons into their Bible study group, then Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, the Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, the Reverend Daniel Simmons, Sr., the Reverend Sharonda Singleton and Myra Thompson would not be dead because having 10 to 12 people shooting at one another inside that church would have just killed the murderer and all the victims would have been saved.

Pinckney, who, in addition to being head pastor at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was also a Sate Senator who was against a proposed 2011 bill in South Carolina that would have allowed gun owners to bring their weapons into churches, daycare centers and restaurants.

The bill failed, thankfully, but Charles Cotton thinks it because Pinckney was against that bill that he is to blame for the murders of eight other people and his own death.

That is the NRA in America. Blame the victim; say anything to make sure we all forget that this lunatic, this racist terrorist, had access to guns and the ability to use them to kill nine innocent people because of his own blatant ignorance.

That is the NRA in America, and it’s past time that we stopped them from controlling our Congress, and took control back and demanded an end to senseless gun violence in this country.

But … we won’t because the Kardashians are on TV, or another news story will take the front page, or, well, it’s Summer and we’re on vacation, and so we’ll do nothing until it happens again … and then we’ll still do nothing.

And that, I guess, means we’re to blame for this ...

Think Progress

Raw Story

Minute Rant: WTF South Carolina

This past Wednesday night nine people were killed in a racist terror attack in a Charleston Church, and so yesterday, in a tribute to those nine people who died because of racism in this country, and the availability of guns to terrorists, the two flags atop the South Carolina Statehouse — the state flag and the American flag — were lowered to half-staff. They will stay there for nine days in honor of each one of the victims.

And yet one flag still flies high and, to some, proud over the capitol building: the Confederate flag on statehouse grounds.

And that wasn’t an oversight, or a mistake. It’s state law in South Carolina. And while Governor Haley has jurisdiction over how and when state flags fly, the Confederate flag is under the authority of the state's General Assembly. It can't be changed in any way without a sign-off from the General Assembly.

And apparently, our General Assembly doesn’t give a lick about what flying that flag, that hateful, hate-filled flag, means to the people of Charleston, and the families of the victims.

WTF South Carolina. WTF?

South Carolina Colleges: No Gay Books For You!

I’m all for government trying to save money wherever it can to cut the budget responsibly, but when they do so in the name of censorship, well, that crosses a line.

Down here in South Carolina — where it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity — the House budget-writing committee has tentatively approved a spending plan for 2014-15 that would cut $52,000 from the College of Charleston and $17,142 from the University of South Carolina Upstate.

Oh, because both those schools assigned books about The Gays to students to read.

Last summer, the College of Charleston assigned the Alison Bechdel book, “Fun Home,” to incoming freshmen. In the book, Bechdel describes her childhood with a closeted gay father and her own coming out as a lesbian.

Uh oh. Lesbians! Gay men! No money for you!

And at USC Upstate, students were assigned to read “Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio,” about South Carolina’s first LGBT radio show; it was part of a required course for all freshmen, which included lectures and other out-of-classroom activities meant to spark discussions about the book.

Uh oh. Lesbians! Gays! Radio! Close.That.Wallet. 

And then the social conservatives, AKA Republican homophobic wingnuts and religious zealots proposed reductions in the budgets to those two schools; reductions, oddly enough, that equal the exact amount of money spent on those two courses with The Gay Books.

State Representative Garry Smith [right], one of the aforementioned wingnut GOP goosesteppers, said he made the proposal after college officials refused to give students an option to read something else:

“I understand diversity and academic freedom. This is purely promotion of a lifestyle with no academic debate.”—Garry Smith

Two things, Garry, you tool. You don’t understand diversity if you seek to cut funding for classes that are discussing diversity.

And secondly, get this through your thick Neanderthal skull: being gay is not a lifestyle, it’s a life. My lifestyle is how I live, not my sexual orientation. Perhaps it might have done you some good to audit either one of those courses before you opened your bigoted yap.

Now, oddly enough, especially for South Carolina, and the South Carolina GOP, one such man, Republican Representative  B.R. Skelton tried to argue that the funds should be restored to the schools, saying that if funding of education is dependent on the kinds of books assigned, “we’re going down a road we don’t need to go down.” 

And, naturally, the Democrats thought this whole idea both ludicrous and stupid.

Representative Joe Neal called the budget committee action a case of using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat, while one of his fellow Democrats in the State House,  Gilda Cobb-Hunter, said state legislators have no right pushing their own personal beliefs onto colleges and college courses.

It’s funny, in Arizona they’re debating whether or not you can refuse service to the LGBT community on the basis of your own personal religious views, while in South Carolina they want to ban classes that assign books on The Gays.

That slippery slope is headed straight toward Uganda, people, because if we continue to allow The Gays to be denied service, for any reason, anywhere, and if we continue to say that no one, even adults in a college setting, can even read about The Gays, it’s not far off from going back to criminalizing homosexuality, and even worse.

On a high-larious sidenote:

As this story broke, I came across this other tale:

The United States flag outside the South Carolina Department of Education ... let that sink in ... the department of Education ... was flown upside down for part of the day; the same day the legislature voted to cut the funding to those two schools.

South Carolina can't even fly the flag right. Coincidence? Or is it just another example of the heat and the stupidity of this state?

SC Lawmakers Punish Schools For Gay Books

SC Dept of Education Goes Upside Down

Teacher Bullies Student To The Point Of Attempting Suicide

I still remember being bullied in school—yes, all these years later—because I was assumed to be gay. I was called ‘fag’ in the hallways of my high school and dubbed a ‘queer’ because I couldn’t climb the rope in gym class.

Who knew climbing a rope made you straight?

I also remember junior high school when one other student mercilessly taunted me by calling me ‘fag’ every single time he saw me. One day, after, of all things, gym, I was in the locker-room changing clothes and this student came up to me again and shoved his face real close to mine and asked if I was gay.

I stammered and stuttered, trying to figure out in those few seconds what the right answer would be; the right answer might keep him from punching me in the face, I’d assumed. I finally muttered, ‘No.’ Then the oddest thing happened; this student kissed me, full on the mouth and then walked away.

The bad news? It was a pretty awful kiss for my first male/male experience. The good news? He never, ever, called me a fag again; in fact, he never spoke to me again at all.

But it was torture, waiting for those names to be uttered at you, and it made going to school so painful that I often wondered how I could stop going. I never contemplated suicide—other than as  a passing thought followed quickly by, How would that solve anything—but I did lie awake at night and pray I could get through the next day, and the days after that.

So, remembering how tortured I felt, I cringed as I read the story of an unnamed student at West Ashley High School, in the Charleston County School District of South Carolina, who was bullied so badly that he attempted suicide. The difference between his story and mine is he was allegedly bullied by his teacher. And now his mother has filed suit against the school and the district.

The cases alleges that Alan Ingram, who is not named as a defendant though he’s named  throughout the complaint,  that male student—referred to as John Doe in court papers—by repeatedly telling the class that the student was gay:

"In early April 2013, Ingram began bullying plaintiff in class, in front of plaintiff's classmates, by telling plaintiff's classmates that plaintiff was 'gay,' and by calling plaintiff names and belittling him in the presence of his classmates. This continued on a daily basis for an extended period of time …

"During this time, Ingram repeatedly belittled plaintiff in front of his peers, calling plaintiff names in class such as 'Gay,' 'Gay Boy,' 'Mrs. Pete,' 'Mrs. Peters,' and other names. Ingram repeatedly told plaintiff's classmates that plaintiff was in a homosexual relationship with another male classmate and that they were 'boyfriend and girlfriend' …

"Further, Ingram encouraged and asked other students in class to pick on plaintiff as well and similarly belittle him during classes."

Awful; a grown man treating a young boy, not to mention a student he was supposed to be teaching, like that, but the teacher reportedly also told the boy’s classmates that the student was in a homosexual relationship with another classmate, and he encouraged those students to pick on John Doe as well.

The boy’s mother says that because it was a teacher who started bullying her son, he felt as though he could not report the bullying to school administration. The student later attempted suicide by hanging himself. Luckily, he was found in time, but the emotional damage has been done. He has withdrawn from school and is being home-schooled. He is also receiving mental health counseling.

As I said, it was torture enduring those days in school, but I cannot imagine the pain of having a teacher, someone you are told you can trust, someone you are told you can go to if you need help, being the one who starts the bullying and asks others to join in.

If it’s true that Alan Ingram did these things, it’s pretty frightening to note that he is still teaching at West Ashley High School.

source

Wild Wing Cafe: Whites Only ... Now With An Update Of Sorts

Well, Welcome Home and How do you do …. Here we are on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech and in South Carolina it’s more of a nightmare. I said in that earlier post, the one down there, how much I missed home while we were gone, and then I come home to this:

A group of 25 African-American customers at a Wild Wing restaurant in down Charleston were forced to wait two hours for their table, and then they were ultimately denied service because of, yes, their race and because one white customer felt threatened by heaving to eat in the same f**king Wing Dive with, ahem, The Coloreds.

Michael Brown and some members of his family had gathered at the North Charleston Wild Wing Café for a going away dinner to a cousin who was moving away. After waiting two hours—are the wings really that good, because I’d’a been gone at minute ten—the manager informed the group that there was “a situation.”

“[The Manager] said there’s a situation where one of our customers feels threatened by your party, so she asked us not to seat you in our section, which totally alarmed all of us because we’re sitting there peaceably for two hours. Obviously, if we were causing any conflict, we would have been ejected out of the place hours before.”—Michael Brown

A member of Brown’s family began recording the exchange with his cell phone.

Michael Brown: “I asked her I want to be clear with you. I said so you’re telling me I have to leave. She said I have a right to deny you service. I said so you’re asking me to leave because you’re upset because he was recording you, after we’ve waited for two hours, and after you’ve already pretty much discriminated on us, and she answered yes.”

Michael Brown then called the company headquarters where he got nowhere, and no response, so he took his complaints to Facebook:

“I will never go to Wild wings cafe in N. Chs again! We (Party of 25 family and friends) waited 2hrs, patiently and were refused service because another customer (White) felt threatened by us. This type of racial discrimination is unacceptable and we have to put a STOP TO IT. The manager looked me dead in the face and said she was refusing us service because she had a right to and simply she felt like it. DO NOT SUPPORT THIS ESTABLISHMENT… PLEASE SHARE THIS POST… We need your help.”

And suddenly, once the word spread through social media, corporate got involved. Debra Stokes, chief marketing officer for Wild Wing Café, released this statement to the media:

“We got alerted through social media, so we always encourage our customers to respond to us or to comment on our social media pages. … We had a conversation. It was a really good conversation. [Michael Brown] and many of his family and friends were there about a month ago, and they are regular customers of ours. So, they were having a going away party, and they just didn’t receive the experience that they have come to know and love.”

Her solution was to offer them a free meal, but Michael Brown ain’t buying it: "This is not a situation where you can just give us a free meal and everything is ok because it's deeper than that."

And now the Wild Wing Café has posted an apology on its own Facebook page, saying it is "truly disappointed and sorry that any guests of ours felt disrespected or discriminated against," and promising a "thorough investigation."

Notice they didn’t deny their manager said she was refusing service to the Brown party because they were, well, brown; and notice they don’t mention that the manager was fired or suspended or anything. In other words, they hope this story dies down and business goes on as usual.

For the Whites Only.

UPDATE:

A woman who says she works at the Wild Wings Cafe in Charleston contacted Radio Facts and, while asking to remian anonymous, says there were several reasons the Brown party was asked to leave:

You’re only getting one side of story here.

I work at the restaurant and your representation of the events is way off base. The group was being loud and obnoxious to both customers and staffers. They kept complaining about their long wait and were talking about how “whitey” was able to get seated, but they were not.

The problem was that they had a large group and insisted on sitting next to each other. We only had one area that could accommodate their large group and the patrons in that area were not done. So yes, some “whities” were able to be seated before them, but only because they were going to a different area. We also seated non-whites in other areas too…

They made this a racial issue before anything. One of the guests also insulted a deaf white girl because she didn’t respond to one of them telling her to move (she was deaf and didn’t hear them)

They were also all standing in the middle of the walk way, making it difficult for customers to leave. We asked them if they could move over, but they said they can stand wherever they want, and if we wanted them out of the way then we should seat them.

The customer that was offended was offended by a particular individual’s constant uses of the word “n*gger” When asked to stop, he threw out a long string of racial epithets against one of my co-workers. 

Three things: 
One: why remain anonymous if you work at the restaurant and want the 'truth' to be told.aiTwo: why did the manager say the women who complained felt 'threatened' by the Brown party? Why not complain about the word they were ALLEGEDLY using? Why 'threatened'?

Three: why hasn't she manager who spoke to Michael Brown spoken up and said these things? 

I mean, if they were being loud, if they insulted a deaf white girl--and for the woman to make a point of telling us the women was white kinda reeks of racism itself, because white or black, that's offensive--and if they blocked aisle-ways, then ask them to leave for those reasons.

Don't play this Right To Refuse Service card and not report any of your so-called facts. Again, the manager said that a guest felt 'threatened' by this group, and their being loud or blocking aisles, or using the N-word aren't threats.

source

Charleston Steps Forward

This story comes to us from ISBL's Chief-Papi-In-Residence, Carlos.

It seems that the Charleston City Council passed ordinances expanding the city’s existing policy prohibiting discrimination in housing to include age, sexual orientation and gender identity. Yes, the LGBT community just got a few more protections down Charleston way.

And, in addition, the council passed a public accommodations ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability, age or sexual orientation.

While this all sounds lovely and hopeful, and i am grateful for each little foothold, or in this case toehold, the LGBT community, especially those of us in South Carolina, gain, I was dismayed to discover that Charleston is only the second city to add sexual orientation and gender identity to those protected form discrimination. The first such city was Columbia.

Hopefully others will follow suit. Maybe, one day, even Smallville.