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Icon book review: John Grisham's Camino Winds

This is Grisham's 43rd novel, and continues his very earnest genre writing
Posted by Fred Steiner on October 7, 2020 - 5:01pm

Review by Robert McCool

Get blown away by the end of hurricane season.

John Grisham scores again.

In Camino Winds (Doubleday ISBN 978-385-5493-8) John Grisham sets his opening during Hurricane Leo, and a questionable death of one of Camino Island's writers.

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Icon movie review: It's October, let the screaming begin

A look back and some spooky movies
Posted by Fred Steiner on October 5, 2020 - 11:01am

Now that we’ve entered October, it feels appropriate to entertain some spookier fare. This month my goal is to share about some horror classics and why they’re worthy of revisiting in 2020. First up, is 1996’s Scream.

Scream opens with the best sequence in the film that runs close to 15 minutes as Casey Becker (DREW BARRYMORE) is terrorized by the film’s killer.

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Forgotten Bluffton: Why is the Pirate the high school mascot?

And, what's the story behind the Lady Pirate logo?
Posted by Fred Steiner on October 4, 2020 - 1:57pm

View team photos at the bottom of this story -
Why is the Bluffton High School mascot a pirate? And, what’s the story behind the Lady Pirate logo?

In the dawn of Bluffton High School athletics the school played an independent schedule in all sports. Its team colors were red and white, but those teams were not called the Pirates. They had no mascot.

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Icon music review: ALICIA- Alicia Keys

Not Keys’ finest work by any stretch of the imagination. Still, there are enough good tunes and her smooth vocals to recommend it.
Posted by Fred Steiner on September 28, 2020 - 9:11am

Reviewed By Craig Hoffman
American singer-songwriter and actress Alicia Keys is out with her seventh studio album Alicia (stylized all caps) in 2020. This comes after a number of delays due to COVID-19. Keys has received numerous awards in her fantastic career, including 15 (competitive) Grammy Awards. 

The artist was the host for the Awards show in 2019 becoming the first woman in 15 years to do so. She repeated the feat in 2020 in addition to singing a soulful tribute to the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant.

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Forgotten Bluffton: What's the story of the bell in front of the middle school?

It called Bluffton students to school from 1884 to 1954
Posted by Fred Steiner on September 27, 2020 - 2:15pm

What’s the story of the bell located near the entrance of the middle school?

A close examination of it reveals it was made at the Buckeye Bell Foundry in 1884 by the firm of Vanduzen and Tift of Cincinnati.

It was originally housed in the belfry of an 1875-constructed three-story Victorian school building on Jackson Street. The doors to that building faced Church Street, just as the elementary building doors to today. (see photos below)

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Icon book review: Where the Crawdads Sing

"It's worth the cost of purchasing rather than waiting for it to come around to you."
Posted by Fred Steiner on September 20, 2020 - 3:18pm

Review by Robert McCool
The book's title is all the introduction it needs. Anything more would be superfluous.

I waited over a year for this book to become available at my local library. There's a reason for that. It's that much in demand. Rightfully so.

There are books that are so perfect that I feel my ability to comment on them is inadequate to do them justice. “WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING” (Random House, IBSN 978-1-9848-2761-6) by Delia Owens, is such a book, a book about isolation and loneliness.

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