Editor Margaret Evans gets up close and personal – over the phone – with Lt. Cmdr. Jim Tomaszeski, one of America’s famed flying daredevils known as the Blue Angels.

The Call

 I’m sitting in my home office (i.e. breakfast nook), watching the clock, waiting for a phone call from Lieutenant Commander Jim Tomaszeski of the United States Navy. I’ve got my voice recorder all set, my list of incisive questions before me, and my cat in my lap. I am well prepared. And I am nervous. Lt. Cmdr. Tomaszeski isn’t just any old naval officer, you see. He’s a Blue Angel – a member of that super-elite squadron of Navy and Marine Corps flyboys who travel the country dazzling large audiences with their breathtaking audacity and spectacular skill. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the sharpest, bravest, coolest dudes this side of a movie screen. And I am a small town journalist, sitting in a breakfast nook, wearing pajamas and holding a cat. Thank goodness for phone interviews. Ours is scheduled for 2 pm.

The phone rings at 1:58. Naturally. These guys don’t miss a trick.

 Entering its fifth decade, The Beaufort County Open Land Trust goes beyond preserving the view… and beyond Beaufort County.

Forty years ago a trio of Beaufort residents heard about a plan to develop the bluff at the bend of the river on Bay Street. In the boom market of the last decade this prime piece of real estate – arguably the most valuable in the city – would certainly have fetched millions. In 1971 John Trask, Jr., Marguerite Broz and Betty Waskiewicz pooled their resources and borrowed five grand to secure the view and create the first organization of its kind in the state. Over the years the Open Land Trust has been instrumental in the preservation of much more than just views.

New coffee table cookbook serves up the flavor of the South in stories, images and, of course, recipes.

“The South is a place where tea is sweet and accents are sweeter, macaroni and cheese is a vegetable, front porches are wide and words are long. Buttermilk pie is a staple. Y’all is a proper noun. Chicken is fried and biscuits come with cream gravy.  Everything is darlin’ and someone’s heart is always being blessed.”

Honey is honey. It's just that simple. A bottle of pure honey contains a natural sweet substance, produced by honey bees, from nectar of plants or secretions of living parts of plants. Honey is made by bees in one of the world's most efficient facilities, the beehive. The 60,000 or so bees in a beehive may collectively travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just one pound of honey! Honey has been found to have medicinal qualities. Local honey is well known to assist in allergy relief and is a rich source of antioxidants.