The leap year is a contrivance so that the calendar year, which is approximately 365 days in length, matches the solar or astronomical year.

Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.

It should come as no surprise that February, a month during which we celebrate love and romantic matters of the heart, has been designated American Heart Month.

Valentine’s Day is a holiday during February that commemorates love and romance and also the patron Saint Valentine. The history of St. Valentine is shrouded somewhat in mystery, and there are beliefs that many different people went by the name St. Valentine. One such individual was a holy priest who served in Rome, Italy. Some historians surmise that he was jailed for defiance during the reign of Claudius II, sentenced to death, and became a religious martyr. Pope Gelasius marked February14 as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom in 496 A.D. Today, the Catholic church recognizes at least three different martyred saints named Valentine or Valentius.

COUNTY — The Alive at 25 program curriculum, which at its core is a young driver intervention program, has been available in South Carolina since 2007.

Know how to recognize an emergency. Many water-related emergencies can happen quickly and silently. Can you tell if a swimmer is in distress or is drowning? A distressed swimmer or drowning victim needs help immediately!

“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit. We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion. What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes?”

The Jocassee Gorges include a multitude of waterfalls and cascades, because the gorges are on the Blue Ridge Escarpment, where elevation changes drastically and the land falls 2,000 feet in just four miles. The Toxaway, Horsepasture, Thompson, and Whitewater rivers have cut scenic valleys. Settlement down in these valleys near the North and South Carolina state line never really was heavy. It is steep and rough, home to many black bears, wild turkeys, all three species of trout, whitetail deer, ruffed grouse, bobcats and many other types of wildlife. Prior to damming of the Savannah River Basin, eels would migrate all the way up to the Jocassee Gorges and were frequently seined or caught on hooks and eaten as table fare by the mountain people.

Help is possible
“Sell crazy someplace else, we’re all stocked up here.” This line from the film As Good As it Gets makes me smile every time I hear it because I can relate. I have lived with diagnosed depressive and anxiety disorders since my freshman year of college. I am not alone.

Motherhood does not come with an instruction manual. Sure there is the What to Expect series, Dr. Spock and countless other books offering advice to new mothers. There is not a single book, or library of books for that matter, that can prepare you for everything that being a mom encompasses.