It was blue tie day in the House, as more than a dozen men wore identical pale blue ties embossed with the seal of the House. The ties were gifts from Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Horry, and became known as the Clemmons Tie.

The Clemmons Tie was everywhere Thursday, around the necks of reading clerk Bubba Cromer and sergeant at arms Mitch Dorman.

SCHOOOOOOOOOOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER

With the near-constant speculation over who would be the next speaker of the House, there were few representatives paying much attention to the actual work going on Thursday morning.

Outgoing House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, wore out his gavel on his last day at the podium, regularly pounding the House to order.

“I know y’all are excited about this being my last day,” the all-but-sworn-in U.S. ambassador to Canada said.

ONE LAST TRY

Rep. Dan Tripp, R-Greenville, who later made major waves by being the only House member not to vote for Bobby Harrell as speaker, made smaller waves earlier in the day.

Tripp asked for unanimous consent to recall the controversial tuition tax credit bill, called Put Parents in Charge by supporters, from the Ways and Means Committee — where it had been sent to idle last month — to the floor of the House.

His request caused about 10 members to object. They shot from their desks as if they’d sat on tacks.

AN ADULT VOICE

The Rev. George Meetze, Senate chaplain for more than 50 years, opened the final meeting the same way he opened the first, with prayer.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega — the beginning and the end,” Meetze said, quoting the book of Revelation in the Bible. “Thank you for the privilege of self-government.”

BASKING IN HIS GLOW

Rep. Jackie Hayes, D-Dillon, brought basketball prodigy and Latta High School graduate Raymond Felton to the House chamber on Thursday.

Hayes introduced Felton as a “great South Carolinian,” even though Felton bolted the state to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels to the national championship this year.

COOLER HEADS PREVAIL

Some pesky lobbyists had their plans for a major practical joke thwarted Thursday.

The lobby dwellers had planned to have white smoke pour from the State House dome as the General Assembly adjourned at 5 p.m. But someone nixed the idea as being insensitive to Roman Catholics.

KEEP YOUR LIGHT SABER HOLSTERED, YOUNG SKYWALKER

A group of longish-in-the-tooth lawmakers known as the “Senate Renegades” got nostalgic Thursday during a brief Senate ceremony.

The group of about 10 sitting senators — all elected during the early 1980s — were once considered Young Turks bucking the Senate’s entrenched power structure.

Now they are the power structure.

When a young lawmaker asked Renegade and Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, how he might go about wresting control for himself, Obi-Wan McConnell simply replied, “The force is not with you.”

SURE, NOW YOU CAN BE BIG ABOUT IT

Newly elected House Speaker Bobby Harrell took a moment to downplay last week’s public tiff with Gov. Mark Sanford.

In the wake of the House overriding most of Sanford’s budget vetoes, a Sanford spokesman accused Harrell of being a phony fiscal conservative.

Harrell shot back by claiming his record of accomplishments is better than Sanford’s.

He was feeling more magnanimous after he wrapped up Thursday’s Speaker vote.

“It would be a mistake to overemphasize the budget vetoes,” Harrell said. “We just disagreed.”