I liked your post, Don D, because you're a lot right...but a little off, too. I can put my coupla' cents worth in here for these reasons: I, too, am a UT grad. I'm from Kingston and a graduate of Roane County High School......class of '69). I'm retired now, but still run my horse operation where I live in Bethune, which is about fifty miles northeast of Columbia. I've visited the Sig Ep house at USCjr. several times and gone to some of their games with some brothers. I've done some post-graduate work there and up at Clemson (but not a fan of either of their sports regimes), and we should both agree that the ignorance label coming out of East Tennesseans (remember where we're frum), can easily be perceived as hypocritical from outsiders looking in. Neither of these two ultra-red states are famous for having sophisticated societies. Charleston? I love, love, love Charleston! It's one of the finest cities anywhere. 82 Pearl Street's world's best she crab soup, Shem Creek seafood (and world's 2nd best she crab soup), the scenic charm of old Charleston, the Battery's class and beauty, old slave market, Sullivan's Island, etc., etc....just too nice. Right on, too, about the Greenville area. It's not as impoverished up in those scenic hills as are the midlands, and folks are...well...they just come across as better educated, and that's what brings me to Columbia. I don't know how long you've been in Charleston, but the gang violence and, heck, crime overall, is almost Chicago-ish in Cola, and has been the past few years. I used to enjoy five-points, but now it's an artsy-fartsy war zone. Now. Columbia's a lot like Knoxville? Is Columbia as homer-ish as is K-Town? Just about equal in that respect. That...THAT...is where it stops, though, Don Diego. From a home-town university perspective, UT is light years ahead of USCjr...from A-Z. The football experience in Big Orange Country, alone, eclipses the sum total of cocky land's very average sports endeavors (except for recent ladies' b-ball). Knoxville's a whole lot larger, has tons more to offer to tourists...beautiful countryside ,lots and lots of excellent restaurants, parks, rivers and lakes, commercial access of all sorts, and so on. The only intellectual centers in SC are located around Clemson and Charleston. The areas from Greenville, et al, have lots of wealth via old and imported money, so there's more high-end manufacturing (like BMW), lots of equine activity, which always indicates plenty of moolah's there. Most the rest of this state is pretty much a clear-cut trailer park...except for the world's loveliest beaches. As for USCjr fans: An inordinant number of them hate us UT Vol's fans for absolutely no reason. I'll be seated on the first row, 40 yard line on UT's side Saturday, wearing all orange. Except for a handful of very nice South Carolinians who truly do exist, and those good ones really are great folks, I expect some really dufus-like remarks from the cock supporters here. Let's whoop 'em big time, Vols! Thanks for your comments, Brother Diego. Will you be at the game?
