
How the Carolinas Fixed Their Blurred Lines (2014) - Tomte
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/opinion/sunday/how-the-carolinas-fixed-their-blurred-lines.html?_r=0
======
SwellJoe
Maybe not relevant, but I grew up in Greenville, SC, which is somewhat close
to the border with NC. Once, I went on a Boy Scout camping trip near a Civil
War battlefield in the mountains along the border. After visiting the history
center on the site, our scout leader told us to hike back to camp, with an
older boy in the lead (while the scout leader drove back). Because the hike in
had been quite long and seemed roundabout, a small subset of us decided to
take a "shortcut" that our friend Finley insisted would get us back to camp
sooner (which I guess was important because we had vital "set things on fire"
projects to get back to).

We set off from the main group, and away from the well-defined trail; I don't
remember if the boy in charge objected to our innovative approach to returning
to camp, or just couldn't be bothered with it, but they went on ahead without
our small adventure crew. The main group made it back to camp, as expected,
about two hours later.

Our group, on the other hand, was still wandering through the woods as dusk
approached about four hours later. Before panic set in, we luckily heard a
truck off in the distance...so, we headed for it, and found a road. We assumed
it was the road where the campground was located, and figured we'd be back to
camp in no time (surely we were really close, given how long we'd been
walking). An hour later, we saw a sign..."Welcome to South Carolina". We'd
walked from South Carolina into North Carolina, and were many miles from camp.

The scout leader found us a few hours after dark; we were on the wrong road,
going the wrong way, and had likely crossed back and forth from NC to SC a
couple of times in our hike. We got back to camp around 11:30PM. Henceforth,
getting lost was called a "Finley Shortcut".

This story doesn't have any real point, but I'd guess the border that we
crossed a couple of times during that hike has since changed.

~~~
santaclaus
> We'd walked from South Carolina into North Carolina

Y'all should have stuck around for the superior pulled pork experience!

~~~
SwellJoe
I'm not sure which state you're saying has superior pulled pork, but I think
those are fighting words in either case.

I'm fond of both mustard and vinegar sauces. Tomato is good, too (that's
actually what's popular where I'm from in upstate SC and western NC).

The last time I ever ate red meat (or large mammal meat) was a pulled pork
sandwich 23 years ago. I became a vegetarian a few months later, after having
étouffée in Louisiana on my way to Texas. I still partake of BBQ pretty
regularly, and make my own sauce, but it's always tofu, seitan, jackfruit,
etc.

~~~
selimthegrim
The mustard sauce over pulled pork is definitely producing plenty of fighting
words at the moment: [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/24/americas-
most-p...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/24/americas-most-
political-food)

~~~
SwellJoe
Melvin's and Maurice's were always must-stops for my family. Maurice's in
Columbia on our way to the beach (either Myrtle or Charleston or Hunting
Island) and Melvin's regularly when my dad was working in Charleston for a
couple of years. Both at their original locations, AFAIK. I didn't know
anything about the politics of Maurice at the time, but read about it later
(that very article, I think, was linked on HN a while back).

So, yeah, even vile racists make good BBQ in SC, and nobody held their racism
against them through decades of successful operation. I always found that
history pretty fascinating, even before the racism came up...brothers kinda
duking it out in a BBQ turf war, in a state where BBQ really matters.

------
protomyth
"two states better known for philandering politicians and restrictive voter ID
laws than progressive politics"

What does this quip add to the article? Was it a necessary insult? Would the
author make the same type of insult about Oregon and California?

~~~
nothrabannosir
To add some levity. It's an opinion piece, not a feature article. The whole
subject is a bit ridiculous to begin with, so the quip is in the spirit of the
subject. Think of it like late show talk hosts.

Not everything is always lawyer speak. Sometimes, jokes are okay.

And yes, in an article about prop 64, a similar remark might very well be
found about California.

~~~
protomyth
Jokes I'm fine with, I just don't respect authors who go out of their way to
insult folks. I think clock_tower's comment has quite a bit of truth in it. I
would imagine the doctor from the story didn't find the whole subject
ridiculous.

> And yes, in an article about prop 64, a similar remark might very well be
> found about California.

I very much doubt that.

~~~
binarycrusader
_Jokes I 'm fine with, I just don't respect authors who go out of their way to
insult folks._

But both of the Carolinas have passed or attempted to pass needlessly
restrictive Voter ID laws. So perhaps we should consider it "unnecessary
commentary" or "snark" instead of an insult?

~~~
wtbob
Requiring ID to exercise the right to vote is no more 'needlessly restrictive'
than requiring it to exercise the right to bear arms or the right to drink.
Canada, Germany, Switzerland & the Netherlands are among the countries which
require ID to vote, and none of those is a dark dystopia of voter restriction.

~~~
mattzito
I would be completely fine with requiring ID to vote if that ID was provided
to you at birth or the age of majority, maintained at little to no cost by the
state, and was convenient to replace or update due to marital or name change.

Instead, the states that are implementing voter ID laws are primarily states
that used techniques like poll tests to disenfranchise minority voters, have
limited access to ID issuing facilities in areas where voters tend to lack ID,
and require documentation for issuance that people may not possess.

Seen through that lens, it's difficult to see America's regional interest in
voter ID as anything other than a disingenuous attempt to continue to
disenfranchise minority voters.

~~~
surge
Sorry, no, that argument is baseless and "fake news" to coin the term. Anyone
who looks into it or lives in the state knows it's so easy to get an ID in NC
and you have months to get it done between election days. It's even free if
it's not tied to a DL. It's seriously no harder than registering to vote, and
you can do both at the same time.

[https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/driver/id/](https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/driver/id/)

Most of the commentary about voter ID laws here is from ignorant politically
motivated journalists who find it easy to look down and judge southern states
because everything they're doing must be racist and we're morally superior in
every way. They don't even bother to look at what it's arguing. Sorry, but it
gets a little tiring, and when it comes to this attitude of regarding
southerners as ignorant and prejudice it's often the most ironic example of
the pot calling the kettle black. It's harder to do something so basic as get
utilities turned on in a new apartment to say nothing of a passport, and an ID
would be required anyway for that, that anyone of basic competence can do it
and it isn't some great imposition on them. It's not a literacy test or
requiring proof of land ownership or anything like that.

------
jffry
Follow-up: The changes clarifying the border between North and South Carolina
were put into place last year: [http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-
government/article...](http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-
government/article120028483.html)

------
aftbit
Here's a nice followup article that discusses the outcome for Lewis Efird's
gas station, as well as other people impacted by the change.

[http://wfae.org/post/corrected-nc-sc-boundary-set-now-big-
ch...](http://wfae.org/post/corrected-nc-sc-boundary-set-now-big-changes-loom-
some)

------
dayburner
I grew up in Waxhaw NC. Andrew Jackson was born in the area and both North
Carolina and South Carolina claim to have the birthplace of the president.

------
Treblemaker
I honestly do not understand why they felt compelled to disrupt so many
people's lives to solve a paper problem, instead of just changing the official
description of the border to match the de facto alignment?

I'm looking for more than just "grabbing tax dollars" or "justifying their
existence" reasons. What legally compels the states to solve the problem this
way instead of in a way that is least disruptive to the people who actually
live there?

------
mindcrime
Not sure if this spot was included in the change or not, but for a long time
there was a little piece of South Carolina that was not accessible by land
without driving into North Carolina first.

[https://www.google.com/maps/place/North+Myrtle+Beach,+SC/@33...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/North+Myrtle+Beach,+SC/@33.8682094,-78.5707029,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89006e69bc6c66fb:0x7e185099e59b240c!8m2!3d33.8156663!4d-78.6799622)

~~~
james_pm
International borders are not immune to this kind of thing either. Point
Roberts, WA is only accessible by driving through Canada.
[https://goo.gl/maps/ZZqPvck2oU82](https://goo.gl/maps/ZZqPvck2oU82)

------
js2
Random tidbit: Cackalacky is a synonym for the Carolinas, but the origin of
the word is uncertain:

[http://carrborocommons.org/?p=2490](http://carrborocommons.org/?p=2490)

[http://www.word-detective.com/2010/09/cakalacky/](http://www.word-
detective.com/2010/09/cakalacky/)

