Benjamin and Sheriff Lott, having a chat

Forgot to mention this yesterday. Steve Benjamin came up to me yesterday after a lunch meeting of the Capital City Club board to talk about several things. None of them newsworthy, yet. More later.

But I thought I’d mention that, at the end of our chat, my “twin,” Sheriff Leon Lott, came up to take my place speaking privately to the mayor-elect. I walked away a few steps, then turned back saying, “I want to hear what these guys have to say to each other.” It was halfway a joke, as I knew they weren’t going to talk about anything I wanted to hear while I was eavesdropping, so after they politely laughed I left.

I don’t know that they were talking about taking advantage of this great opportunity to merge the Columbia police and Richland County Sheriff’s departments, but I hope they were. Of course, such dialogue would be informal and unofficial at this point.

By the way, one of the reasons I maintained my membership at Cap City after being laid off was that it constantly exposes me to little inconclusive bits of intel such as this — you see who’s talking with whom, and sometimes learn what they’re talking about, and it all goes into the general hopper that provides perspective on what’s going on. Another reason I kept it was that I had just joined the governing board — two months before I was laid off — and didn’t want to bail on that. Besides, the food at the lunch meetings is great.

Just to round out this contact report, among the other board members at this meeting were Converse Chellis, Jim Hodges, John Scott, Warren Tompkins, Luther Battiste (our chairman), Jimmy Derrick, Robin Gorman, George Wolfe, Matt Kennell, Tom Persons, and my financial adviser (poor fellow) Chris Burnette. By the way, Chris advised me to keep my membership, so I know I was on solid ground with that decision. Of course, he’s also chairman of the membership committee. Hmmm.

Kathryn’s going to look at that list and say, “Hey! A Rotary meeting!”

7 thoughts on “Benjamin and Sheriff Lott, having a chat

  1. Michael P.

    I question your financial advisor, does he suggest you keep your newspaper and magazine subscriptions too? But hey, if membership dues are within your budget good for you, you’re better off than the average out of work person. Which makes me question why an unemployed person keeps paying a financial advisor… unless you have so much money you can’t keep track of it yourself.

    Is Lott really your twin? Or more like Andre Bauer saying that he’s often mistaken for Jeff Gordon. Other than the unibrow I don’t see it.

    Reply
  2. Kathryn Fenner

    You both wore droopy mustaches and feathered hair back in the day, but Leon is sufficiently comfortable in his masculinity to appear in the Vista Queen pageant, and even reprised the wig for Rotary!

    The Vista Queen is for a worthy cause. How many of you would buy a ticket to see Brad in drag?

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  3. Brad

    Nah, I’m having enough trouble getting by in this world as an English-speaking hetero white male. I can’t afford to give up any of those advantages. If I dressed like a woman, suddenly I’d make even LESS pay, nobody would listen to me, I’d have to smile at everybody I met…

    Just not worth it.

    Reply
  4. Kathryn Fenner

    Yes, fear of looking too good was dogging Leon,too, but he manned up and pulled on panty hose and heels.

    If you were a contestant, what would your nom de plumes (ha ha) be?

    Reply

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