Savannah 'Most Mannerly' as Charleston Steps Aside

Savannahians, take some pride in this. After years of almost winning the distinction of America's Most Mannerly City, you have done it. All those days of helping tourists find The Lady & Sons, of pointing the way to Forsyth Park, of waiting patiently for Girl Scout troops and horse-drawn carriages to tromp through intersections have paid off. But not quite with the prestige we might have wanted.

Savannah has won the honor for 2008, but only because our longtime competitor and northern neighbor, the city of Charleston, S.C., has graciously stepped aside.

For more than 30 years, etiquette expert Marjabelle Young Stewart compiled votes from travelers and etiquette students and then recognized the best-mannered city. Stewart died in 2007, but Cindy Grosso, founder of the Charleston School of Protocol and Etiquette, carried on the tradition. With one notable change.

Charleston, which had been ranked first for 12 straight years, would have claimed the honor again for 2008. Instead, Charleston was awarded a preservation award, which allowed the No. 2 vote-getter, Savannah, to be designated "most mannerly."

Of thousands of votes from around the nation, Grosso said, Charleston took 25 percent, while Savannah had 5 percent. "We've won it so many years, I just thought it would be nice to share," Grosso said. She will present the award to Mayor Otis Johnson at Thursday's Savannah City Council meeting.

Joe Marinelli, president of the Savannah Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, agrees Charleston's withdrawal is only further proof of its citizens' good manners. He called the recognition the highest compliment Savannah could receive but admits it doesn't come as a surprise.

"We get so many comments, phone calls, e-mails and letters from tourists who are just so complimentary of their experience in Savannah and the friendliness of the people they encounter," he said. "There's almost a 'We're glad you're here' mentality with our hospitality employees, and I think it resonates through the city."

Lesley Conn, Savannah Morning News

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The Sistine Chapel Gets A Charleston Brush Stroke

24-7 - Painted 12,000 square feet onto the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel is the depiction of famed Italian artist Michelangelo's biblical scene of God's Creation of the World, God's Relationship with Mankind and Mankind's Fall from God's Grace. Michelangelo's fresco tells a story to the world that words couldn't explain, that only he as an artist envisioned putting in pictures. For over five hundred years the painting has become a spectacle worthy of seeing time and time again. However time has left its trace upon the famed images that one Charleston S.C. artist is putting his artistic stroke to revamp The Sistine Chapel.

If the restoration in 1984 wasn't e enough to raise questions, many scholars believe that attempting to restore the immaculate works of art once more will tarnish the uniqueness of the Michelangelo masterpiece once in for all, while others may deem the idea improbable.

When The Sistine Chapel underwent a drastic make over it caused such a controversy, that historians and scholars differed on opinions as how to save the ailing work of art from losing its distinctiveness. That they fought to keep the history in tack from losing its original luster painted by Michelangelo.

Well we can only imagine what they are saying today, now that The Sistine Chapel is undergoing yet another monumental restoration process. But this time, on a scale un-parallel to what they can imagine.

Six months ago a Charleston native and artist had an idea. That idea was to recreate The Sistine Chapel and add a more contemporary appeal to it without tainting the story line or ruining the novel conception illustrated by Michelangelo. August 22nd, Kermin Middleton makes the attempt as he unveils The Sistine Chapel "Converted Gems: The Michelangelo Remix" at Castleberry Hills in Atlanta, and all eyes will be waiting to see what he's completed to restore what the world has come so amazed with each time it is viewed.

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