Katherine Callaway Hart is honor graduate at Clemson Univ.

Katherine Callaway Hart received her Bachelor of Science in Accounting, magna cum laude, with departmental honors from Calhoun Honors College in commencement exercises at Clemson University December 17, 2009.

Hart is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward G. Hart of Columbia, S.C., and the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Callaway of Washington, Mr. and Mrs. Russell E. Hart of Spartanburg, S.C., and the late Frances Garner Hart. She is the niece of Mr. and Mrs. E. Turner Callaway of Rayle. [Katherine  is my late wife's great niece.]

While at Clemson, Hart was named to Beta Alpha Psi, the national honor society for business and financial information students and professionals; Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society; and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She was also a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, a supplemental instructor in accounting for the Clemson Academic Success Center, and a whitewater raft guide on the Chattooga River for Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Gresham Family Gathering

Gathering around Sara Gresham during a Thanksgiving celebration are all of her great-great-grandchildren, Ashlyn, Morgan, Camryn and Jaclyn Johns and Kaye Lynn Gresham of Marietta, Luke and Gresham Davis of Birmingham, Ala., Aileen Cain and Brooke, Zachary and Emma Grace Harris, all of Calera, Ala.

[This is an article from the News-Reporter dated December 31, 2009.  Sara Gresham  is the widow of my first cousin William Johnson Gresham, great-great grandfather of the children. His children (my first cousins-once-removed or second cousins) are their great grandparents. His grandchildren (my first cousins-twice-removed or third cousins) are their grandparents. His great-grandchildren  (my first cousins-thrice-removed or fourth cousins) are their parents. Wow!]

The mighty Florida Gators finally beaten so next year the Bulldogs can take a bite

By KIP BURKE news editor
Although their season is over, Georgia Bulldog football fans finally have something to cheer about – the mightily hated Florida Gators are finally defeated.

It took, of course, my Alabama Crimson Tide to not only break Florida’s 22-game unbeaten streak Saturday for the SEC Championship, but to thrash the Gators so thoroughly that there is no doubt that the Tide belongs at the top of the SEC and heading to Pasadena for the national championship.

It’s even sweeter that just a year ago, Gator quarterback Tim Tebow and his swamp reptiles defeated Bama for the SEC Championship on their way to another national title for Florida, and it looks like they sauntered into the Georgia Dome feeling invincible and looking for a repeat.

And, to be honest, after Bama’s game against Auburn last week, the Tide didn’t exactly look like a team that could beat Florida, or Texas, or even William and Mary, for that matter. But that was last week.

This week, the Gators showed up at the Dome like national champs who expected to roll right over their next opponent. What we saw, however, was a team terribly surprised, shocked by the fiercely unpredictable offense that Bama put up from the start, a team unable to understand that not only could they be beaten, but that they were being beaten.

I don’t often laugh out loud watching football games, but Saturday I did. I laughed at the confusion on the faces of Gator fans as they saw Bama have their way with Florida. I laughed at the shock on the faces of the Florida players as they realized that they were not only behind, but they were being beaten, and beaten, and beaten some more.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who got the grins as, between plays, the TV showed the faces of Gator fans as they registered first concern, then panic. Could we actually lose? Noooo, we’re the Gators, chomp chomp! Undefeated!

Now I know you Bulldog fans would never rejoice over the tears running down Tim Tebow’s face – that kind of schadenfreude is impolite and the relationship between the Dawg fans and Gator fans is just a friendly rivalry, right? Well, maybe not.

But the fact is, the mighty Gators have fallen. Bama’s proven that they’re not invincible after all. That means that the University of Alabama, 22-time SEC champs, will meet the Texas Heifers, I mean Longhorns, in Pasadena for the national title in January. Since the Dawgs didn’t make the post season, you might as well cheer along with me for the Tide.

And who knows, Georgia fans, now that Florida’s been whupped, maybe a resurgent Bulldog team can beat them, too, next fall, and nail a banged-up Gator hide to the locker room wall. That would be sweet.

Tonight I’m going to sit down and watch a cable rerun of Alabama beating Florida – like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” it’s a great story that I just can’t watch enough. Roll Tide.

New flu-fear hand-washing habits possible,

 New flu-fear hand-washing habits possible, it just takes the right amount of motivation
By KIP BURKE news editor

They say that old habits are hard to break, and that's true. I've had more luck substituting one habit for another, replacing a bad habit with a good one, or at least a better one.

It may be a sign that I'm not yet set in my ways, but I've gradually become a hand-washing fool and for the first time in my life, a slightly germophobic cleaner of nasty surfaces where other folks have carelessly slung their germs.

Now, properly motivated, anybody can change any habit. I remember when I was a Navy photojournalist, we called what we did "shooting" photos. That was the standard term - we'd do a photo shoot, we'd shoot this ceremony and shoot that exercise. We had shooting scripts and shooting schedules and shooting assignments. Then in 1989, the President of the U.S. came to our ship to meet with Soviet President Gorbachev, and I found out I had a bad habit.

Members of President G.H.W. Bush's Secret Service detail used our office just prior to the boss's arrival, and pointed out my bad habit. "Chief," one agent said, "we know what you mean, but could you please avoid using the word 'shoot' and 'the president' in the same sentence? It makes us a little twitchy."

Gulp. Well, after the blood returned to my head, I readily agreed, and changed that habit instantly. We "covered" the president's summit, we "documented," but we did not "shoot." Given enough motivation, we can all change.

In the past, when it came to washing hands, I was often hit-or-miss. Since I have a robust immune system and seemed to be largely impervious to most germs, although I preferred to wash up before eating, I didn't make a big deal of it if I couldn't. I was aware that all the money we handle and most public surfaces like doorknobs and handrails harbor a variety of germs, theoretically, but I wasn't motivated to do much about it unless it was convenient.

Until flu season. For the last few seasons, I've been getting better and better about realizing that, if a flu germ is going to enter my body, chances are it's going to come from my hand after that hand touched a surface on which someone has carelessly left their germs. Since I've always preferred to avoid the catching the flu, I've been more aware of that process, and had gradually become a sporadic flu-season hand-washer and nasty-germ avoider.

Now, with the swine flu seeming to affect every family in some way or another, and flu germs being slung willy-nilly all about us, I'm strongly motivated to start a new habit. I have become a hand-washing fool, washing my hands several times a day and using alcohol wipes whenever I couldn't wash.

More than that, I've become aware of when my hands have touched germ-laden surfaces and manage to keep my hands away from my face until they're clean. They say that things we touch repeatedly, like this keyboard I'm typing on, the mouse I use, my car's steering wheel and shifter, can harbor all the infectious nastiness required to get sick as dogs. So I use hand-sanitizing wipes on those surfaces every day I remember to.

Now, I'm not particularly concerned with the swine flu since it doesn't seem to be much worse than the seasonal flu, and I wouldn't take a vaccination even if I were in a qualifying group, so this new handwashing habit is pretty much my only line of defense against getting the flu this year.so far, it's working. If it doesn't, if somebody's dedicated swine flu germs penetrate my defense, I promise to keep the flu to myself and not share.

Y'all wash up for dinner, ok?
Reader Comments

William T. Johnson and The News-Reporter

This is the masthead of our local newspaper. As you see, it has been published since 1896 by a series of publishers, currently Parks Smythe "Sparky" Newsome, Jr.. As you also see, this is a progressive paper which has adopted many of the developements of the Google Age. Early this morning I Google-ized "News-Reporter" and discovered a very modern version of the paper that came in the mail Thursday, together with all editions of the last four years. Wow! I immediately added my updated, online, subscription to this online version of the paper.