Who is Alvin Greene?  For a few hours this week, it looked as if South Carolina might ditch its never-fail reputation for political scandal in favor of a genuine history-making event.

There was Nikki Haley, a lawmaker of Indian descent, beaming on election night with her husband and children after taking a major step toward becoming the first female governor of the state. It was a feel-good image to obscure the stain of a campaign marked by ethnic slurs, accusations of marital infidelity and yet more national marveling over how a single state can produce a string of political embarrassments as long as the Appalachian Trail.

But then, the television cameras started rolling on Alvin Greene’s overgrown lawn.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty nonstop for a few days,” said Mr. Greene, 32, in a phone interview Friday.

Because everyone wants to know how Mr. Greene, an unemployed Army veteran who had been completely unknown until Tuesday, inexplicably defeated a heavily favored former legislator and judge to become the state’s Democratic nominee for the Senate — and the state’s latest political circus act. (Read More).

Ice road trucker Hugh Rowland joins the show!  Dianne Rowland, wife of Ice Road Trucker Hugh Rowland, was perfectly happy to let her husband disappear into the great white north for a couple of months every year, trucking goods and equipment to and from the mines in the Arctic Circle. Until she saw the first episode of the History Channel’s television series that chronicles his journeys. Five minutes into it, she put her foot down and said he wasn’t going back. Their three daughters agreed with their mother.

Rowland, a big, burly bear of a man, laughed and reminded her that he’d been doing it safely for the past 30 years. He loves it, and besides, it has provided a good living for them all. In just a few months, he and the other truckers he employs gross about $250,000 — and that’s only in about two months.  (Read More).