Myrtle Beach Considers Allowing Divination

By Tim Binnall

Visitors to the popular South Carolina destination Myrtle Beach may soon be afforded the opportunity to glimpse into the future thanks to a peculiar proposed change in the city's zoning laws. According to a local media report, an ordinance offered to officials earlier this week calls for "divination services" to be included among the various businesses permitted to operate in the areas most frequented by tourists. Put forward by the Myrtle Beach planning commission, the proposal serves as a testament to the varied and somewhat indecipherable nature of the soothsaying 'arts.'

To that end, included among the methods that would fall under "divination services" in the ordinance are "fortune telling, tarot card reading, reading tea leaves, reading bones, numerology, mediumship, clairvoyance, and others." Like many changes in local laws, the proposal must now wind its way through the bureaucratic process before ultimately being put up for a vote by city officials later this year. Given that the changes suggested by the ordinance seem largely harmless, one imagines that those who believe that they can see into the future are already envisioning opening up shop on the Myrtle Beach boardwalk.