With a city-operated Livability Court functioning, Charleston has been referred to as the best-mannered city in the United States . (It was etiquette writer, Marjabelle Young Stewart, who wrote that description.) But, anyone who’s visited Charleston certainly knows its charms. You can see them the minute you hit downtown. The magnolias, the cannonballs stacked at the harbor, and the predominance of churches merely scratch the surface of interesting city traits. You can hear other charming ones. Mainly there’s the dialect that jumps out at you. Around here it used to be as thick as Spanish moss. But, like many regional dialects in the country, it’s fading with time. More’s the pity.

The Spoleto Festival and the MOJA Arts Festival are annual Charleston events that make for spring and fall fun respectively. Gershwin set Porgy and Bess here. And, The Citadel military college set itself here. It’s easy to imagine that Charleston offers its own range of influences to the American culture.