Good Morning Lowcountry

Silly season

GMLc is not sure anymore when the commercial silly season (you might know it as the holiday season) actually starts. Traditionally — which means the mid-1950s — it started on the day after Thanksgiving. Now, it sort of includes Thanksgiving ... and Halloween. For the visual, think of a turkey wearing a Santa hat while standing on a pumpkin.

What we watch for, earlier and earlier, are displays of red wrapping paper, bows, evergreen and anything involving Santa Claus, including the release of a new movie about his brother, Fred.

Some stores started the holiday season before Halloween. Others harken back to a quieter, gentler times in America (the Cold War) and still have very few merriment products on the shelves.

Charleston is a magnet for visitors during the holiday season because, well, it's really warm, balmy even, compared with Minnesota.

Holiday season events in and around the Holy City began Thursday with the Festival of Lights Fun Run & Walk at James Island County Park. The seasonal arts and crafts festival opened Friday at North Charleston Coliseum.

"Santa has a tan," the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site says. (And we think it is just so nice that the bureau folks also provide recipes, including sweet potato casserole with bourbon and Bob Waggoner's Grits That Stole Christmas).

There's tons more stuff planned through this month and December, right up until we all take a long nap in January. Find the schedule at http://www.charlestoncvb.com/xmas under Events.

Dirty rooms?

Among 60,000 readers of Travel + Leisure magazine who answered a survey that was looking for "America's Favorite City," Charleston has the friendliest people in America, the second-best architecture and antiques in America and the third-most attractive people in America and is the second-best place to shop in the whole country. How could shopping in Charleston be better than shopping in Chicago or San Francisco?

Never mind.

We don't want to throw a wet towel over visitors' good cheer, but we're wondering if (and hoping that) the Lowcountry has clean hotel rooms.

GMLc reader Sharon Robles e-mailed:

"I thought you might be amazed, shocked, horrified at this clip my sister sent me from Atlanta. Their news team unveiled some pretty nasty habits in some major hotels with a gross-out factor of 10. This goes beyond the bedspread having microscopic whatevers living on them."

Robles sent along the video from Fox 5 news in Atlanta, which did an investigation into the microbes that live on from guest to guest in hotel rooms. Not on the sheets but in the water glasses and coffee cups.

By using hidden cameras, the channel found that housekeepers at an Atlanta-area Holiday Inn, Sheraton and Embassy Suites did not wash the glasses or cups.

Instead, they sprayed them with a blue liquid labeled "Do Not Drink" and wiped them out with a cloth. An Embassy Suites spokeswoman said the hotel has only a certain amount of time to clean the rooms.

"That is absolutely disgusting," said the public health expert Fox 5 brought in to watch the video. See it at http://tinyurl.com/2yx5gy. GMLc will henceforth take dishwashing liquid along when we travel.

No mo' baiting

When one season opens, another closes. Shrimp-baiting season closes today at noon (if you slept late, it closed today at noon). You shrimp baiters have been baiting since Sept. 14. Don't do it anymore — at least not until next year. The Man will be out on the water to make sure you aren't.

As of the beginning of November, around 9,500 shrimp-baiting licenses (they cost $25 for locals) had been purchased, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources said.

Report violations of saltwater recreational and commercial fishing laws toll-free at 1-800-922-5431.

Guns for gas cards

As the holiday travel season approaches, Cleveland has come up with a way for police to get what they want for Christmas — a bunch of guns.

The first 450 people to show up at Cleveland's convention center Saturday and surrender a working handgun — unloaded, please — got a gasoline card worth $100.

Taste bud challenge

Coming soon next to the Coke and Pepsi in a store near you: ham- and latke-flavored soda to make your holiday feast complete.

It even will be kosher, the company making it says — including the ham.

Jones Soda Co., the Seattle-based purveyor of offbeat fizzy water, is selling holiday-themed limited-edition packs of flavored sodas.

The Christmas pack will feature such flavors as Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham. The Hanukkah pack will have Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coin and Latke sodas.

"As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine," the company said in a statement.

The packs will go on sale Sunday, with a portion of the proceeds to be given to charity, the company said.

Jones' products feature original label art and frequently odd flavors. Last year's seasonal pack was Thanksgiving-themed, with Green Pea, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Turkey and Gravy and Antacid sodas.

For its contract to supply soda to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, Jones came up with Perspiration, Dirt, Sports Cream and Natural Field Turf. The company — fortunately or unfortunately — prides itself on the accuracy of the taste.

GMLc

Call 937-5564. Write gmlc@postandcourier.com. GMLc blog is at gmlc.typepad.com.