Vote for Best of Charleston

Shem Creek Shrimp Boat, Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

Quick, quick! If you are a local or familiar enough with Charleston, take a couple of minutes and enter your votes for the Charleston City Paper's Best of Charleston Awards this week.

You need to enter in 35 categories to make your vote count so throw some sugar around and recognize your favorite restaurants, bars, chefs, parks, movie theaters, dry cleaners, churches and personalities.

My hospital has been honored with past wins for Best Hospital and Best Place to Have a Baby (Yipee for Roper St. Francis Healthcare!) and Charleston Daily Photo has taken home the crown for Best Local Interest Blog a couple of times in the past. It is a lot of fun. Go vote!

Broad Street's Lonely Leopard

People's Building, Broad St., Charleston, S.C.

This is the saddest picture. I've taken quite a few photos of the pair of leopards guarding the doors of the People's Building on Broad St. but now this one is missing his mate. Vandals knocked over and destroyed his companion. I'd really like someone to solve this crime. The crime stopper number is at the bottom of the Post & Courier blurb below.

Vandals Destroy Leopard:

Vandals destroyed one of two marble leopards that have graced the entrance to a Broad Street landmark since 1957.

Sometime between 6 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday, someone smashed one of the leopards and left it in pieces near the front entrance of the Peoples Building at 18 Broad St., according to a Charleston police incident report.

The pair of centuries-old Italian marble leopards were taken down from their pedestals in 2003 for restoration. They were returned in 2004. Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked call Charleston police at 577-7434 or Crime Stoppers at 554-1111

Vote for Best of Charleston

Magnolia Plantation, Charleston, S.C.

It is time to vote for the Charleston City Paper's Best of Charleston. Join in! There are a lot of categories and you have to place at least 35 votes for your entry to count. Log in and you can take your time and return to the site as many times as you like as long as you don't click "finish".

Go send some love to your favorite restaurant, hair salon, grocery store and mechanic. Spread the word!

I've won the Best Local Interest Blog award for the last two years. The award tickled me to no end and I am most appreciative. It is a bit surprising since although Charleston Daily Photo is certainly a Local Interest Blog, many, if not most of my readers are what Charlestonians describe as "from off". In fact, most of my readers are "Slightly Off from Off" and I like 'em that way!

The photo applies to this entry because I always vote for Magnolia Plantation for Best Attraction. Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital has won Best Place to have a Baby for the last 13 years and we like that too. :)

Go vote kids! Thanks to the Charleston City Paper for letting us thank the businesses that stand out in this town. I haven't clicked "Finish" yet so let me know if there is something I should consider voting for. Who do we love?!

Famous Charleston Quotes

Not my house, Charleston, S.C.

Scarlett: Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?
Rhett Butler: I'm going back to Charleston, back where I belong.
Scarlett: Please, please take me with you!
Rhett Butler: No, I'm through with everything here. I want peace. I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Scarlett: No! I only know that I love you.
Rhett Butler: That's your misfortune.

Home from the farmer's market...

King St., Charleston, S.C.

This pretty gal carrying a giant watermelon home from the Farmer's Market was getting lots of smiles and nods as she marched down King St. I heard one lady say, "Do you know how far she carried that watermelon? All the way from Marion Square!"

I am sure it got heavier and heavier the further down the peninsula she got and I finally passed her as she gave her arms a rest on the bench in front of Old Towne. Katie - you can skip the gym work out today! Hope you enjoy the watermelon. We did!

The Other Doors of Charleston

Charleston, S.C.

The Post & Courier recently featured a lovely gallery of Charleston door photographs by Leroy Burnell. Here are a few from my album of doors. Not all quite as glamorous but appealed to me in their own quirky way for one thing or another. A few have changed since I snagged the shot.

Dining with Friends - 2010

Dining with Friends, Maritime Center, Charleston, S.C.

I staff the Dining with Friends Champagne table each year and recruit friends to help out. Thank you, thank you, thank you....especially to the muscle in the background opening bottles non stop for two hours!

Thanks to my team Richard & Erin Larson, Sonja Brenner, Becca Walton, Mary & Kevin Holmes, Michelle Hard we poured bottle after bottle and only drank enough to made sure each bottle was quality champagne. Thanks to our table captain Neil and to George Hill who always throws a top notch shindig! We always have a blast.

Y'all remember that I do this each year and holler if you want to help. It's a fun, high energy, high sugar event benefiting Lowcountry AIDS Services. Paul Cheney served as event photographer so look for your photos on his site at Let's Talk Charleston.

Dining with Friends: For this massive fundraising effort, hundreds of people will join forces to host dinner parties in their homes, churches or workplace to raise money and of course have a good time dining with friends. At the end of the evening, all dinner parties unite for a Champagne and dessert finale at the Charleston Maritime Center beginning at 9pm. Guests will enjoy delicious treats from various bakeries and restaurants and music provided by jazz and blues singer Ann Caldwell.

Best of Charleston Party

Best of Charleston Party, Halsey Gallery, Charleston, S.C.

Fun night kids. I dashed up to North Charleston to be at the hospital employee recognition event for the pictures I needed and then slipped out to get to the Charleston City Paper's "Best of" Charleston party at the Halsey Art Gallery. I was invited to go pick my plaque for best Local Interest Blog. Woohoo! Much fun hanging out with all the other "best of" winners. Thanks to the folks at the Charleston City Paper for throwing a party so hot it kept setting off fire alarms!

Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I am blown away.

Joan's Charleston Doors

Rutledge Ave, Charleston, S.C.

Someone has been googling for Charleston doors, so let's take care of that this evening. Larger images found here. This is my alternative to the traditional Charleston Door poster. Enjoy!

Not Invited

State St., Charleston, S.C.

Funny how Charleston Fashion week is one festival
I have absolutely no connection with.
Is it my dansko shoes?
The fact that I cut my own hair?
The ex-officio quick dry travel underwear?

National Geographic Traveller Link

King & Broad St., Charleston, S.C.

This made me smile! The National Geographic Travel site lists Charleston Daily Photo as one of their recommended links to find free things to do in Charleston. Coolness abounds my friends!

During the years I lived overseas without TV or English radio, we had two magazines delivered - Time Magazine and National Geographic. We read every article. We read them in bed, read them at the table, read them by kerosene lamps and snuggled up by the coal stove. They are probably still there forty years later. Tipsy mailmen drinking sweet milk tea from thick clear glasses as they played carrom, read and shared them at the Post Office before delivering them to our door.

We had four or five English records for the record player then - Tennessee Ernie Ford and Jim Reeves, so the thin black plastic mini records occasionally included between the pages of the National Geographic magazines were big hits. Something new to listen to! I used to be pretty good at the "Speeches of Winston Churchill" and I bet I can still recite most of "Sounds of the Whales." Heh.

Any link from National Geographic is a happy trip down memory lane for me.

I am off to do my main free and best thing, walk the peninsula.

More from Magnolia Cemetery

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C.

It hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to go for my walk this morning so no new pictures from the day. This set is from last weekend's stroll through Magnolia Cemetery.

There is a new book on historic Magnolia Cemetery called City of the Silent. Amazon says it will be available by the end of the month.