Despite being a stepmother-in-law – a combination of two very negative stereotypes – I have a wonderful son and daughter-in-law. Last July, my daughter-in-law, Laura, sent me an e-mail in which she outlined her plans for my Thanksgiving. She and Geoff invited me to their home in Summerville, South Carolina, to Thanksgiving dinner with Laura’s parents, and following that, to three days at a condo on the shore in Litchfield, south of Myrtle Beach. Needless to say, I accepted their invitation, and I could easily fill this entire column with a discussion of the wonderful time we had and the great meals we ate. However, I am supposed to stick to biology, and I will. Fortunately this is easy to do because South Carolina is a very interesting place, biologically speaking.
As a northerner, I had very little experience of the South, that is, until a few years ago when...