A great taste of Beaufort in ‘Sea Island Seasons’ | Letters

Last week I pulled one of my old but favorite cookbooks, “Sea Island Seasons,” to look for some dinner recipes. This cookbook was a community project by the Beaufort County Open Land Trust with its first publication in May 1980.

While I have used many recipes from this book over the years, I found them by going straight to the index and choosing one that seemed to fit the menu. This time, though, I opened the cookbook from the front and leafed through the opening pages. I found and read again the wonderful introduction and the foreword that I had forgotten.

his introduction by Priscilla Jones Dukes describes the unique features of Beaufort and the special activities and character of her citizens. She gives us her insight into why Beaufort was and is so attractive to citizens and visitors. All of her comments are still true today. My compliments to her for her insight and commentary.

Francis Griswold, the author of “A Sea Island Lady,” provided the foreword. Both the Griswold foreword and the Dukes introduction capture the spirit and character of Beaufort and explain why so many have chosen Beaufort as home.

The cookbook is great, the recipes aren’t just copies from other books, and it has a cover and illustrations by our great artist Nancy Ricker Rhett. Find a copy, and enjoy the work of its contributors and the Beaufort County Open Land Trust. Some wonderful meals await you.

Celebrate! We’re stealing from our children

Hey kids, times are good, thanks to you!

Because of the tax cuts, my portfolio’s up, buybacks increased share value, and dividends increased. Corporations by and large didn’t invest much in jobs and infrastructure (too bad for you) because the markets are too uncertain … you know, the tariffs.

And despite the tax cuts, and promises of unrivaled growth, revenues seem to be below projections. The anemic 1.9% third-quarter GDP is incapable of funding government spending at current levels without more borrowing. The Congressional Budget Office projects growth annually between 1.9% and 2.2% for the foreseeable future, with borrowing, based on administration figures, of $9 trillion more by 2024, assuming President Donald Trump is re-elected.

So happy holidays, kids, ’cause you’re getting the can that’s being kicked down the road. It’s the present that will keep on taking, and taking, and taking …

The aggravations of changing the time

With the high-tech and computerized society that we live in today, it’s becoming more and more difficult and very frustrating to keep up with everything, especially when there seems to be an upgrade to your computer or other electronic device almost daily.

And when it comes to setting your clocks one hour back or one hour forward every six months, if you have ever tried to do this on your car radio, microwave oven, or other electronic device, you’ll find out very quickly that you will need to have at least a master’s degree in computer science or electronic engineering to even consider fixing anything.

And, when all of that fails and you are very frustrated, you can always just go get a hammer and then buy a new one. But, thank God, we don’t use sundials anymore to tell time. If we did, we would have to move our home to the left or to the right every six months.

This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "A great taste of Beaufort in ‘Sea Island Seasons’ | Letters."