Army Worms Invade South Carolina!
A mighty army or worms is rampaging across the lawns of our fair state. Arm yourselves!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and I hate to be an alarmist and I hate to be a doomsayer. Unfortunately, today I am going to be all three. The Upstate is undergoing an invasion from a menacing horde. That horde is in the form of a little caterpillar called an army worm.
Army worms are about an inch and a half long and they have green and black stripes running lengthwise down their bodies. These caterpillars have voracious appetites. The fact that they congregate by the millions only adds to their ability to cause serious damage.
Army worms eat the foliage of grasses. They eat Bermuda and fescue, but seem to leave zoysia alone. They also have the ability to distinguish between weeds and desirable grass. Weeds are not part of their diet.
Perhaps the most alarming concern with army worms is simply the rapid rate at which this menace can completely destroy a healthy and beautiful lawn. The damage is literally done overnight, and it is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Upstate.
Today I looked at a large fescue lawn in an upscale subdivision off of Fairview Road. This lawn literally went from nice and green to brown and dead in a matter of 24 hours. To walk across this lawn gives one a sense of vertigo. It’s moving, like a mild earthquake is occurring. The movement is the slow, pulsating crawl of army worms.
That last part actually is pretty freaky. Anyone have video of that?
It’s time to declare a war on worms.
Commenter “Winter Santiaga” Is The Reason The Upstate Family Reunion is A Really Bad Idea
If the name Winter Santiaga sounds familiar to you it’s because you no doubt are aware that it is the name of the main character in an “urban fiction” book called The Coldest Winter Ever by known racist and Communist Sister Souljah. For those of you that don’t know, “Urban fiction” is the publishing industry’s attempt to market sub-par writing to Black Americans, who they think don’t read the same kinds of books as everyone else. Thus “urban fiction” publishers find people to write stories in pidgin English (or the mythical Ebonics) that glorify self-segregation and ghettoization (as well as misogyny, bigotry and criminality) then make a hefty profit convincing people the genre is written and produced by “the community” when in fact White liberals are pushing this intellectual apartheid onto Black youth.
So it came as no surprise to me that someone using this pseudonym on my recent post about the Upstate Family Reunion left a comment that seems like it came from a caricature of a Black person, and not a real one:
Winter Santiaga on July 26th, 2010 2:04 am
personally i think it is a good idea to keep the family reunion goin there are plenty of other events that take place each year and nobody complains about it so why should the family reunion be cancelled. is it because of how many african american or black people i may say are in one gathering. im sensing that is the problem. not taxes or anything else, any local events there will be crowds and i think i speak for alot people….why be concerned about the trash if your not the one who has to clean it up…im just saying!!
Really? Let me start of by saying I didn’t alter this “sentence” at all but left it in it’s ungrammatical glory, random ellipses and all. I was confused as to how a person could be a African-American or a Black person but then I realized the Blacks this person speaks of may not be American. But why are Black Americans called African-Americans while Haitians, for example, are still called Blacks? Racism I suppose.
The main point here though is that “Winter Santiaga” suggests that no one should care about all the trash strewn everywhere because they don’t have to pick it up. I suppose a trash fairy comes around to clean up after Winter but the rest of us end up paying overtime to workers to do this, and with city budgets tight I don’t see how Simpsonville can justify the expense, which was my point in the original post.
Since the race card was thrown down let me just say this: I’m Biracial, I grew up in an all-Black family and we were taught to clean up after ourselves. It’s low class to do otherwise.
Now here’s the rub. Let’s say that only 1 percent of Upstate Family Reunion attendees share the view of “Winter Santiago” that you you can drop trash where you will and not worry about it. last year there were 35,000 people, so Simpsonville would be looking at 350 people who were throwing trash on the ground all weekend. But having seen the park the day after last year I know it isn’t 1 percent.
“Winter Santiago’s” comment is one of the best cases I’ve seen for canceling the event. Hopefully next year Simpsonville will come to their senses and say no to the Upstate Family Reunion.
Simpsonville Holding Another Upstate Family Reunion Is A Really Bad Idea
The Tribune-Times ran an article in yesterday’s edition titled “Reunion’s return eyed warily” (re-titled “Family Reunion returns to Simpsonville, some residents worry about crowds” on their website for some reason) which downplayed the damage and concerns about the annual Upstate Family Reunion festival. Last year attendees to the event damaged property, trespassed, destroyed residents yards and left Simpsonville’s Heritage Park looking like a war zone.
Residents are said to “have concerns” about this year.
35,000 people showed up last year and more may be coming this year. City officials are coordinating with event organizers and promoters to try to make things more orderly, including having 50 police on hand and the city many of which will be state troopers moonlighting and paid by Simpsonville.
It’s unclear who will be handling the massive clean up. Let me venture a guess – you. As in taxpayers who are footing the bill for a event too large to be handled by the meager resources Simpsonville has at it’s disposal anyway. It’s a waste of money, pure and simple.
There comes a point when whatever imaginary gains a city has for hosting an event is outweighed by the hundreds of thousands of real dollars it takes to hold it. And having witnessed the garbage strewn wasteland Heritage Park was transformed into last year first hand I think hundreds of thousands of dollars is a conservative estimate. How many businesses really benefited from the Family Reunion last year? How many of the vendors and bands were Simpsonville locals? Simpsonville is spending money so that people who don’t contribute to the city can make a quick buck and stick taxpayers with the mess.
I’m not the one running the cost benefit analysis but frankly, this just seems like a bad idea. Simpsonville residents got burned last year, and now the people who run the town are asking you to stick your hand back in the fire, because they’ve thrown more of your money into it so it’ll feel different.
This was a bad idea, and holding it again after the disaster of last year is a really bad idea. Simpsonville City Administrator Russell Hawes claims that if there’s problems similar to last year the event won’t be asked back. Let’s hope that’s true.
But since they didn’t learn their lesson last time I doubt it.
Greenville Residents Have Lead Feet!
Over the holiday weekend police were out in force ensuring law and order. Out of a little over 350 arrests 108 were speeding violations.No offense, but you South Carolina natives drive like I live – hard and fast!
No word yet if Andre Bauer was one of the arrestees.
Greenville Police Quash Mini-Riot in Falls Park
Though Greenville News “reporter” E. Richard Walton does his best to paint a clearly chaotic scene as just another day at the park, even the most liberally biased reporting can’t pretty up this picture.
From GreenvilleOnline:
One person was arrested and two teenagers were detained after scattered fights broke out near Falls Park on Saturday night in downtown Greenville.
A squad of 15 to 20 police officers brought the crowd under control near 11 p.m.
The two teenagers were detained shortly after the 10 p.m. curfew, when anyone younger than 18 and unaccompanied by an adult must be off the streets in the downtown area.
Greenville Police Lt. Mike Hudson said one woman was arrested.
Hudson said he ordered every officer who “wasn’t on a (911) call” into the area.
15-20 officers aren’t needed to “bring a crowd under control” due to “scattered fights” and a few rowdies in a downtown don’t usually prompt whoever is in charge that evening to order every cop not dealing with an emergency to flood an area. Sorry Mr. Walton, but I’m thinking this incident was more serious than you’re making it out to be.
Being a homebody I’m rarely downtown these days, but I’m told that there’s a rough element out and about. Falls Park is popular at night for both the atmosphere and the drugs. The plaza next to Spill the Beans is known to be a “corner” for dealers and the park itself provides plenty of unlit areas where kids like to get high among other things. Parents are apparently still in the habit of dropping off their spoiled brats with a wad of cash in the downtown on the weekends, and frankly we should be charging them for the damage those kids are causing.
At the very least the parents of the children involved should be forced to pay for the hours our police weren’t able to deal with other crimes while babysitting their ill-spawn brood.