Published Date : October 9, 2011
Author : admin
If you’re like us, you can’t start the day without a good cup of coffee…or three.
We want to make sure you get your coffee, too. In fact, we want to make sure you get your coffee like we do — in a 15 oz CRESCENT coffee mug.
All you have to do is use the “Forward to a Friend” link at the bottom of your e-mail or “Like” CRESCENT on Facebook or follow CRESCENT on Twitter or sign up for the CRESCENT email list, and you’ll be entered to win one of our new coffee mugs.
Enter today.
NOTE: Engaging with CRESCENT through multiple sources does not necessarily constitute contest entry. Entries are limited to one method per person per 30 days.
Published Date : October 6, 2011
Author : admin
Phil Noble
TALLINN, ESTONIA – If you happened to randomly sit next to him at an airport bar as you were waiting on your flight, you would hardly notice him. While mindlessly watching the TV behind the bar, you might strike up a conversation about the great play that Derek Jeter just made on ESPN or the 240-point drop in the Dow. You would quickly conclude that he is what he is – a nice middle-aged guy from New Jersey.
After a bit more conversation, you might notice his bow tie and round wire rim glasses and think to yourself that he is what Harry Potter will look like when he gets older. He seems a little smarter than most and you might get the vague impression that he must work in the computer or technology field.
In keeping with that somewhat strange modern airport bar ritual, you introduce yourself and trade business cards at the end…after you have been talking for a while and it’s time to go catch the flight. As he begins ambling away down the concourse you look down at his business card and notice the fancy blue embossed seal in the corner. It reads: Toomas H. Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia.
And indeed, he is all these things – a nice, modest guy from New Jersey who ended up as the President of Estonia – and a man who literally revolutionized his small poor country in the northeast corner of Europe by focusing on the power of computers and technology to build a new vibrant country and economy out of the ruins of the failed Soviet Union.
His personal story is as unlikely as that of his country. After the Russian Soviets rolled into Estonia in 1940, Ilves’s father took his family from rural Estonia and fled the country, ending up as refugees in Leonia, New Jersey. Thomas grew up there, was valedictorian of his high school class, went to Columbia University, and then got a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
In the 1980s, he ended up in Munich as a broadcaster for Radio Free Europe, delivering the news in Estonian to the people of the land that his family had fled.
When the Soviets left, Ilves quickly returned to the land of his fathers. No one knew his face; everyone knew his name and his voice.
He jumped headlong into Estonian politics and within two years he was the Estonian Ambassador to the US. In quick succession be became Foreign Minister, negotiated the Treaty for Estonia to join the European Union, became a member of the European Parliament and in 2005 was elected President. Last month, he was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term.
I first met Ilves in the late 1990’s when he has co-leader of a struggling little political party and I was running a struggling little Internet company in the civic and political sector. I had previously been involved in some successful European political campaigns and a former client ask me to go to Estonia and see if maybe I could give them a little help.
Even then, it was clear that they were on to some ‘big ideas’. In 1997, Ilves and others launched the Tiger Leap project to provide computers to every school in the country – this was at a time when a computer cost about the same as an Estonian teacher’s salary. They were widely criticized.
Instead of trying to fund it solely through the government, which was broke, they went to the nascent banking sector, just beginning to sprout after the demise of the Soviet banks. They persuaded these banking upstarts that online banking was the wave of the future and that they needed to begin giving their next generation of customers the needed technology skills.
Today 98% of all Estonian banking transaction are online and this banking industry model led to similar applications in the whole human lifecycle that they call ‘the e-society’.
The results of their innovations have been nothing less than astonishing. A few examples:
In the business sector, their crown jewel, so far, is Skype. Started in 2003 by a handful of smart Estonian kids; it now has over 929 million users and was recently sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion.
And on and on it goes though out virtually every sector of a growing economy and society.
So why should South Carolina care? The parallels are obvious.
We are both relatively small, comparatively poor, and have both suffered from political leadership that has failed our people.
The keys to success in the future are equally obvious – a laser like focus on technology beginning with schools, an unfaltering belief that our future can be better than our past, and new leadership that inspires its citizens to dream big and take chances.
Today, President Ilves travels the world telling people of the Estonian miracle and preaching about what is possible….anywhere.
We in South Carolina have it within us to do this too.
We really can. And the proof may be as close as the next barstool.
Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and President of the SC New Democrats, an independent reform group founded by former Gov. Richard Riley. He filed this column from Estonia, where he is a keynote speaker at this year’s International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance. Contact Mr. Noble at www.SCNewDemocrats.org or phil@scnewdemocrats.org.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the author are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CRESCENT: The Magazine.
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
SCGOP Chairman Chad Connelly Announces 2012 Presidential Primary Date
South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly announced this morning that the state’s 2012 Republican Presidential Primary will be held on January 21, 2012.
According to Connelly, “Last Friday, a nine person committee brought chaos to the 2012 calendar. Today, South Carolina is making things right. South Carolina Republicans have a thirty year track record of picking the eventual Republican Presidential nominee. We will continue that historic tradition on January 21, 2012.”
He added, “It will undoubtedly be a spirited campaign to make Barack Obama just the worst ONE term President in American history. We are united in this mission, and any candidate who ignores South Carolina does so at great peril.”
Connelly noted that in the days leading to the primary, the South Carolina Republican Party will co-host a “First in the South” Republican debate in conjunction with the Fox News Channel.
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
CRESCENT. It’s a magazine about South Carolina, so why would we leave the Palmetto State to go to New York to meet with a guy from Charleston at a restaurant owned by another guy from Charleston so we could eat a South Carolina breakfast? Because South Carolina is the new black. We’re taking over, and the hip places in NYC have their roots in SC.
We took a Saturday morning and went to George Weld’s “Egg.” It’s THE breakfast place to go in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood (That’s another story, too.). We sat down with Ted Lee, James Beard Award winner and one half of the Charleston-based Lee Brothers, to talk about South Carolina and the South’s newly discovered influence outside of the region.
If you’re wondering if we’re going to talk with both Matt and Ted, that’s coming later. The authors of “Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor” have a new project in the works. Ted gave us a sneak peek what it’s going to be, but we’ll let them tell you about it soon.
For now, we get Ted’s perspective about how South Carolina and the region are impacting food and culture on the Big Apple and beyond.
SOUTHERNERS CONNECTING IN NEW YORK
You know, it’s funny the way that Southerners find each other in New York. You’ll meet someone, and you just find yourself becoming friends. It’s interesting. Southerners in New York throw the best parties. I don’t go to as many parties here as I used to in my 20s, though, but it’s the way we connect.
For example, I had a friend who was the son of friends of my parents. They were always like “Well, you should hang out. You should meet.” And he was from Texas and it was parents introducing you, so you just looked back at your parents and said, “Well, it might happen. Whatever.” Then, we met and we had a lot in common and he introduced me to all his friends at UVA. Those guys were all from Charleston and Richmond and Charlotte and even Newberry. There was just this super tight nexus of friends. Back in the 90s, three of those guys lived in a loft, and they had these epic chili cook-offs. You know, you’d have 20 or 30 entrants in these chili cook-offs. I mean it was a big deal.
They were playing to win. It was always on Super Bowl Sunday and it was just that kind of partying that just brings people together. Whereas, people here in New York are more focused on the small, intimate dinner because the resources here are so limited spatially.
I remember very vividly, Southerners’ parties in the early nineties because it was like… Recently I ran into some one after not seeing her for 10 or 12 years, and she said, “Oh. Remember me? I’m Ann.” I said, “Are you kidding? You threw the best party.” She said, “You thought that was a good party? That was a terrifying party. There were 100 people in a two bedroom East Village apartment. Someone got in a fistfight.” I think she was dating George Weld at the time. Anyway, she was one of George’s ex-girlfriends. It was funny. She was from the South. Her roommate was from the South. They threw a party. It was so fun. We met a ton of people. She remembers it as being a disaster, but to me it was this cool thing, and we had just graduated from college. We were trying to find our way in New York. We were completely overwhelmed, but we were connecting.
PROMOTING WHO WE ARE
South Carolinians are sort of humble in a way and to underreport things that are special about our state and what they do. Matt and I will be out on the water with the most amazing crabber who is working a kajillion hours to make not a lot of money caring for those animals. And he is so concerned about sustainability, a philosopher/crabber. He said, “All of this is kind of what I do. Why are you taking notes? Why do you want to interview me?” It’s sort of self-deprecating. It’s like the first instinct is to be self-effacing, which I totally get.
At at the same time, it’s like, “Let’s celebrate what we do have in this state, especially when it comes to what’s grown here. Like strawberries. Produce that comes out of South Carolina is incredible. A lot of it is being shipped up here.”
PRIDE IN THE HOME STATE
I feel like South Carolina has so many things to celebrate. About its culture, about the people who grow up there. About how incredibly diverse it is. There are so many different ways to be a South Carolinian.
Stay Tuned for Part 2 Next Week.
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
(OCTOBER 3, 2011 / GREENVILLE, SC) CRESCENT: The Magazine launched today at www.CrescentMag.com to highlight “South Carolina life, politics, and a little bit in between,” said its editor Taft Matney.
A web-based magazine focused on South Carolina, CRESCENT’s offerings will come from two directions. One direction will profile famous and influential South Carolinians, South Carolina food, travel, and entertainment. The other will include state-based current events and opinion. According to Matney, CrescentMag.com is a place where lifestyle issues and current events can converge in to a single digital infotainment outlet.
According to Matney, “When we first started piecing CRESCENT together, we thought we had an idea of what people wanted, but we didn’t know if we were on target. There was only one way to find out. Ask.
We asked friends and family. We surveyed a cross-section of nearly 200 folks who are movers and shakers in their fields. We tried to find out where people were getting their information and what they were interested in. With a mix of aggregated material and original content, I think the product we’re putting together is on the mark.”
One of those survey results showed that the majority of respondents get their information electronically, so CRESCENT is targeting the digital space – specifically people who are surfing the web with smart phones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and desktop computers.
“The CRESCENT that’s here today isn’t by any means the final version, but it’s a starting point. It’s going to evolve with input,” Matney said. “Keep telling us what you want to see. Let us know what interests you. What’s going on in South Carolina that people need to know? Where in South Carolina do we need to eat or travel? What’s a South Carolina business or group that people should know about? Who is a South Carolinian people need to know more about? Tell us how to make CRESCENT better.”
Some of the people CRESCENT will profile include: Former presidential advisor Tucker Eskew, country music star Aaron Tippin, Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman, and James Beard Award winners The Lee Brothers.
When asked about pay walls, registrations, and subscriptions, Matney responded, “No. Our readers won’t be bothered with pay walls or unnecessarily collected information. We listened to what people said in our survey. Just visit CrescentMag.com, comment on an article or two if you feel like it, support our advertisers, and keep coming back to see what’s new.”
“Our state has a lot to be proud of,” he added. “It’s not all about partisan bickering. It’s not about what allows us to be the punch line on late night talk shows. South Carolina has a lot of great stories to tell and a lot of great people to tell them. CRESCENT exists to give them a voice.”
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
There’s an old saying. “Write what you know.” When I was a kid, I wanted to be a political spokesman. Before you say anything, no. The dorkiness of that isn’t lost on me.
One of the guys I looked up to was Tucker Eskew. As a news junkie, sometimes I’d see him in the foreground, and others I’d see him in the background. But he was always there. Wherever Governor Campbell was, Tucker would be within reach.
When CRESCENT began to take shape, I asked myself, “Who do I want to kick off this new magazine?” It didn’t take long to come up with a long list of people, but looking at the calendar, I saw we were getting close to the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and remembered that one of South Carolina’s own was in the White House that day.
Tucker sat down and talked about his experiences at the White House, the Statehouse, and even Saturday Night Live.
TUCKER LOOKS BACK
Lisa and I talk about the fact that it’s now been over 10 years since we left Columbia, but it’s still home in so many ways.
I come home and think invariably about the very first thing I did in politics, of any kind. It was being an office page for Strom Thurmond. God rest his soul. Strom Thurmond employed more South Carolinians than BMW. Many young people passed through that office, and I was one of them, and I learned a few things while I was working for the senator. One of which was he didn’t really know people of my generation by name. Let me correct that. He didn’t know the boys in the office, but there was a little device I learned … to remind him who your parents were because he knew them. So about two months after I finished working an entire summer for him, I saw the senator at an event in Washington and waited patiently because he was speaking to some attractive young ladies, and I said, “Hey, Senator. I’m Tucker Eskew, Rhea Eskew’s son.”
“Why, my goodness. One of his boys used to work for me.”
I said, “Senator, that was me.” He looked back and laughed, “My, how you’ve grown.”
Of course I hadn’t even grown a quarter inch, but was he quick with a comeback. And I can’t help think of that story when I come to Columbia and see state government and see the new buildings and my, how you’ve grown.
I’ve been fortunate enough to watch a lot of history get made. Whether it was backstage with Lee Atwater at the David Letterman show or backstage at Saturday Night Live with Sarah Palin, it’s been quite a ride.
People say that history has a first draft, and it’s the news. Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen the rise of social media and the 2.0 version of the Internet, and you can conclude that history is being drawn together, even before a first draft. We’re getting the class notes of thousands of over-caffeinated students who are on the blogosphere. That, together, starts to assemble the first draft of history. I think that has some very positive and some very negative effects.
I’ve always been raised and worked around people who accept the world as it is – try to change it, but acknowledge that if there are bad things, in the blogosphere or on the Internet, the way to deal with that is to drown them out with more good things.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
A pivotal moment in world history. It was for me. I was there (White House). The president was traveling, and was there as initial reports started to appear on our televisions throughout the 18 acres, as the White House is known, and that day I had a call from a fella on Carroll Campbell’s staff. This is an hour and a half or two hours after things had started to transpire.
I was working at my desk and had sent my staff — I was running the Office of Media Affairs at the White House — I’d sent them to start doing research on presidents in times of crisis, and my phone rang. It was Whit Ayres who was in Governor Campbell’s office (with me), and Whit said, “Tucker, are you alright?” He said, “Well, your building’s on fire. Look at your television,” so I turned around. I had it tuned to ABC, and there was an optical illusion of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with smoke and flames pouring out of it. I mean it really looked like it was on fire, but it was the explosion that had just happened at The Pentagon, and ABC’s cameras, from an angle from the top of a building in Downtown Washington made it appear as though we were under attack.
Well, it was one of those ominous moments, and I called my staff together shortly after that for a staff meeting, and the last one to come in said, “Tucker, there are people leaving the building. I see a lot of people leaving the building. Should we leave the building?” I said, “I won’t stop anybody from leaving if you think you should, but I’m gonna wait until an alarm sounds,” and I drew maybe one breath before an alarm sounded and people began leaving that building.
We were all trained to go single-file, so it was pretty eerie to hear Secret Service agents yelling to run. Women were being yelled at, “Take off your shoes and run!” It was an absolutely stunningly traumatic day.
We evacuated and were gone for some time and came back. I was summoned with about four or five people in our office – we were commandeered for a couple of hours – as Secret Service agents escorted us through Downtown Washington back to the White House. The streets, on a sunny beautiful day, were devoid…it was like walking across a back lot at a Hollywood studio, and yet as we drew closer and closer to the White House we began to see the armed guards. As we got closer, we began to see those arms brandished, and you knew we were in a whole new era.
Remembering that day, down in the bunker, with our nation’s leaders on the scene, it was military and civilians working together under the most intense imaginable circumstances. We helped write remarks, the first remarks delivered by a public figure from Washington that day, as Karen Hughes delivered a speech from a secure location at the Justice Department. Then we helped later in the day with the president’s speech.
I was one of those calling for the president to come back (to Washington). If you’ll remember that he went to a series of locations, we found out later, through a report, of a threat to Air Force One. I felt strongly that he had to come back. He had to be seen retaking that citadel of democracy. We could not go through the night without him coming back and reclaiming it, which of course, he did.
It was an enormous privilege to see public servants – non-partisan military and civilian non-partisan and partisan all together in a room trying to do what was best for our country. It was stunning to me to see, that night after the president’s speech, I returned to my office with the air conditioner still blaring and chairs scattered across our office. That scatteredness was reflective, too, of the media initially.
I’m the son of a reporter. The late Rhea Eskew started as a wire service reporter and finished up on the business side of the news business, so I love working with reporters, but I’m also not reluctant to issue a criticism now and then. I felt that the mindset of the White House Press Corps quickly turned to what they knew best, which was campaign politics, processed stories, who’s up, and who’s down. It was not about this existential direction of the country. It was about how George Bush had turned his plane around. To the media’s credit, I’m painting with a broad brush, but they finally got in the thing, and let’s face it. It took George Bush some time to get in the thing.
It was a day or two later when he really hit his stride. I think he took command and history, of course, will be his judge. Now, the blogosphere, the press, history’s first draft, it’s all out there, and I take the stance that it will be a positive judgment.
Immediately after that attack, we all thought, we knew, that there were more attacks coming very quickly, and there were commentators in the public who said, “This is the end of irony and cynicism.” Well, it turned out that it was the opposite. Thanks to George Bush and a lot of great men and women who serve their country, we have had no more attacks.
You know. This is an intense business. Intensity is something that in my career I thrive on and enjoy. I learned it best alongside Lee Atwater – the skills of a relentless fighter – who again, I have to say, “God rest his soul,” to too many of my friends, leaders, and bosses. Lee had his flaws and foibles. They’re documented, and I understand that there’s going to be more documenting soon in a movie that Will Farrell’s production company is making, and I’m sure the Atwater family regrets that.
Stay Tuned for Part 2 of the Feature Next Week.
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
First thing’s first. Welcome to CrescentMag.com.
CRESCENT is something that rattled around in my head for a long time, so it’s exciting to see what was only an idea now fully realized.
CRESCENT is an online magazine for folks interested in what’s going on in South Carolina and the region but who don’t live and breathe politics, public policy, and current events. I mean people who want to know what’s going on and what things mean but whose lives don’t revolve around it.
South Carolina has a lot of political web sites, and there’s nothing wrong with any of ’em. Established political sites have their purpose, and CRESCENT isn’t here to dispute that or compete for readers. We’re looking at South Carolina through different glasses.
When we first started piecing CRESCENT together, we thought we had an idea of what people wanted but didn’t know if we were on target. There was only one way to find out. Ask.
We asked friends and family. We surveyed a cross-section of nearly 200 folks who are movers and shakers in their fields. You may have taken the survey yourself. If you did, thank you.
We tried to find out where people were getting their information and what they’re interested in. With a mix of aggregated material and original content, I think the product we’re putting together is on the mark, and hopefully you think so, too.
The CRESCENT that’s here today isn’t by any means the final version, but it’s a starting point. It’s going to evolve with your input. Keep telling us what you want to see. Let us know what interests you. What’s going on in South Carolina that people need to know? Where in South Carolina do we need to eat or travel? What’s a South Carolina business or group that people should know about? Who is a South Carolinian people need to know more about?
Tell us how to make CRESCENT better.
Most of all, thank you. There are a lot of places you could visit on the web, and you included us as one of your stops. We’re humbled by that and just want to say, “Thanks.”
There are a lot of people that we also need to thank for helping us launch: Tucker Eskew, Dan Goodwin, Dan Higgins, Matt Lee, Ted Lee, Kelly Tilghman, Addy Matney, Larry Nalley, Mary Allison Narramore, Anne Pope, our top secret design weapon R.S., Aaron Tippin, Heidi and Joe Trull, and everyone who helped in the research process so we could create a product you wanted to read.
Oh. One more thing. While we ask that you thank our advertisers by giving them your business, you never have to worry about paying for a subscription here. We listened to what people said in our survey. There aren’t any “pay walls” or required registrations. Just visit CRESCENT, comment on an article or two if you feel like it, support our advertisers, and keep coming back to see what’s new.
Thanks again, and we hope to see you soon.
Sincerely,
Taft Matney
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
During the brainstorming process, as we were imagining what we wanted CRESCENT to be, one of the things we said was that this needs to be interactive and open to everyone. This is not a partisan magazine. This is not a magazine with an agenda other than highlighting what’s good about South Carolina, so if you have letters or editorials you want to submit, email them to input@crescentmag.com.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the author are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CRESCENT: The magazine.
Published Date : October 3, 2011
Author : admin
So, you’re a husband and wife culinary all-star team in New Orleans. One of you has a namesake restaurant. The other is Emeril Lagasse’s top pastry chef. When you’re expecting your first child and decide it’s time to leave NOLA, where do you go? How about rural Anderson County? See why Heidi and Joe Trull made a new home and thriving dining destination at Saylors Crossroads with “Grits and Groceries.”
NOT JUST FAMILY-STYLE SERVING. IT’S FAMILY-STYLE SEATING
HEIDI: People are funny about the tables here. We only have 38 seats, so we share. We don’t ask because they’re like, “No, we don’t want to share.” We just put ‘em together. and they’re like, “I just found out that guy’s my cousin.”
LEAVING NEW ORLEANS FOR SAYLORS CROSSROADS
JOE: We wanted to find a happy medium between our two homes (Joe is from Winston-Salem, NC, and Heidi is from Sumter, SC). We wanted to be close to home, but neither one of us wanted to be back home. It’s about 3 ½ hours between the two of us.
HEIDI: We were looking for a common denominator that would work. And we had a list of things. I wanted a place we could have horses, a place I could send my child to public school, a house, a business and a good tax zone. So we kind of hit that all with this store
We had 45 days to spend our money before losing it to capital gains. So we called our family that’s always said, “You should open a restaurant here.” So we said, “You each have 2 days to show us what your town has to offer.” So we looked in. We really wanted a place in Manning. The locations didn’t work out for us, so we got in the car and kept trying different places.
Bishopville. Maysville, North Carolina where Joe’s originally from. We hit a couple of towns in that area. And everywhere we went, we kind of based from here.
We have a cousin who lives here and we kind of based from Anderson and we kept driving by this building and I said, “I think that’s my spot. Now, go buy it.” So we called the real estate agent. It was for sale. She showed up and she went to the house next door and I said, “I don’t want to look at the house, I want to look at the store.” She said “Oh yeah, you could tear that down and have a nice back yard.” I was like, “No, I want the store.” So we came in.
It’s the 2nd oldest structure in Anderson County, so they say. We don’t have any proof of that. It’s basically, the 4 walls, the floor, everything you see here except for the kitchen, one light bulb hanging in the middle and plumbing was a hole cut in the floor and a hose pipe connected to the faucet.
I think this is the perfect place for us. We found a builder and worked on the building, and in 3 months, we were open. From the time we bought it until the time we opened, Katrina happened. So we ended up … we bought it and we went back and packed up all of our things in New Orleans and moved here so it was like a 3 month span.
In that Katrina happened, so we had actually had sold our business and house in New Orleans the month before Katrina, thanks to finding this place.
GETTING OUT JUST BEFORE HURRICANE KATRINA
HEIDI: Our house had 9 feet of water in it, so we would have lost pretty much our house. And the restaurant in New Orleans survived without much damage except we wouldn’t have had any business for 6 months which would have put us out of business.
Stay Tuned for Part 2 Next Week.