Good Morning Lowcountry

Remedies

To be superstitious, GMLc feels, is to place too much importance on one's personal beliefs and our minute place on the planet and in the universe. That's why we have no fear of cracks in the sidewalk, bad moons, black crows, haints, or the number 13 in today's date. We foolishly persist in believing that nothing bad will happen (knock on wood) and cling to optimism as the best route through the scary woods.

The healing properties of plants and roots, however, are not a matter of superstition but of pharmacology.

This afternoon, botanist Richard Porcher will give a history of "Lowcountry Folk Remedies and Pharmacology" for the annual Warren A. Sawyer Lecture of the Waring Historical Library.

The lecture will begin at 5:30 p.m. at St. Luke's Chapel on the Medical University of South Carolina campus. It's free.

Porcher, author of "A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina" and co-author of "The Story of Sea Island Cotton," is also an expert on the history of rice culture in South Carolina.

At almost the same time, attorney and author Gordon Rhea will speak at a Daniel Library Friends lecture at The Citadel. His topic, at 6:30 p.m., is Robert E. Lee as a military strategist. The lecture is in Bond Hall, Room 165, on The Citadel campus. It's free, too.

Here's a third lecture this week you might find interesting. Hey, let's just call this Lecture Week and consider it the remedy for ignorance.

Archaeologist John H. Jameson Jr. of the National Park Service will speak Thursday at 7 p.m. at College of Charleston's Simons Center for the Arts, Room 309. His topic, "The Challenges of Heritage Tourism," is germane to ongoing discussions all around town on how to present Lowcountry and Charleston history. And it's free.

A deep Charleston belief is that lectures go better with libations and cheese, so at least two of these events will be followed by receptions.

There might not be food but there will be new carpets, fresh paint, reupholstered chairs and new computer terminals at the Otranto Road Regional Library, 2261 Otranto Road, North Charleston, which reopens this morning after four months of renovations. Libraries are our favorite remedy for ignorance.

Don't smoke 'em

Thursday is the annual Great American Smokeout.

The event is sponsored by the American Cancer Society as a smoke-free day for smokers to attempt to become quitters. Smoking is responsible for one in three cancer deaths and one in five deaths from all causes, the ACS says on its Web site, and 8.6 million people are living with serious illnesses caused by smoking.

One of the most passionate local advocates for a nicotine-free life is John Polito of Mount Pleasant.

He e-mails: "Nicotine dependency is every bit as real and permanent as alcoholism or methamphetamine addiction. According to the American Psychiatric Association, it is a disease and true mental illness. ... Drug addiction is about living a lie, about the mind's priorities teacher being taken hostage by an external chemical. Its continued use quickly buries nearly all memory of life without it and leaves us convinced that smoking nicotine gives us our edge, defines who we are, helps us cope, and that life without it would be utterly horrible. The three days needed to rid the body of all nicotine and reach peak withdrawal provide the nicotine addict ammo to support such false beliefs."

For help, call 1-800-ACS-2345 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, press 3) to find a quit-line or other science-based support in the Lowcountry. Or see cancer.org or smokefreeyou.org. Polito recommends the cold-turkey quitting method; his Web site is whyquit.com.

GMLc

Call 937-5564. Write to gmlc@postandcourier.com. Find the blog at gmlc.typepad.com.