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Although the common name of Kalmia latifolia is mountain laurel, you can find this handsome evergreen native plant growing, often in thickets, from the mountains to the sea.

“E” is for Ellison, William (ca. 1790-1861). Free Black entrepreneur. Ellison manufactured his own “Ellison Gin,” selling them to customers as far west as Mississippi.

Sometimes laurel thickets are called laurel hells and there are tall tales in the Appalachian Mountains about men and hunting dogs getting lost in them never to be seen again.

By now, most people have heard of the Ronald McDonald houses which provide housing for families with seriously ill children so they can stay together near the child’s medical care. Our state has three locations and today we are going to check in with one to see how they are working with the local business community. Mike Switzer interviews Beth Lowrie, executive director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Columbia.

Monarch butterflies are specialists which puts them at a certain risk. Their larva can only eat milkweed plants – with habitat destruction and the use of certain herbicides on large acreages of crops, milkweed plants, once common across the country, have vastly diminished.

“W” is for White, John Blake (1781-1859). Playwright, painter.

The American painted lady or American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is a butterfly found throughout North America.

Someone once said, “All roads lead to Rome.” Maybe...But longtime historian, author, and radio host Walter Edgar believes it’s a safer bet that all roads pass through South Carolina. And lot of them start here! For almost 23 years Walter Edgar’s Journal has been exploring the arts, culture, and history of South Carolina and the American South, to find out, among other things... the mysteries of okra, how many "Reconstructions" there have been since the Civil War, and why the road through the Supreme Court to civil rights has been so rocky.

And what about those musicians—Beethoven being only the most famous of many—who can hear combinations of pitches in their heads—chords, harmonies—and can invent, just in their heads, sequences of harmonies that have never been heard before?

One native milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, called butterfly weed, was super attractive to all sorts of bees, while common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca was the red-headed stepchild and completely ignored.