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POWER TALK
LETTERS
TSD Story on Target
On behalf of the Texas Association of the Deaf, I would like to compliment you for publishing "Texas School for the Deaf: Building Bridges" in the October 2008 issue. What makes the write-up very unique, though not surprising, is the fact that Nick Wilhite found his cultural identity in less than two years while he struggled most of his educational life. His self-esteem shot through the roof while he made a name for himself at TSD.
Unlike most articles I have read in the past, your writer, Camille Wheeler, did her homework. Not least, Will van Overbeek did an excellent job of complementing the feature with dramatic photos while doing justice to deaf culture.
Steve C. Baldwin, President
Texas Association of the Deaf
Heartening Cooperation on Caddo Lake
Thank you so much for your November 2008 article on Caddo Lake and the efforts being made there and elsewhere to eradicate invasive giant salvinia. I found it most informative and appreciate you making us all aware of the problem. I also found it heartening that neighbors and communities are working together.
Nancy Corley
Parker
Editor's note: Photographs for "A Healing Journey" in the December 2008 issue should have been credited to John Scheiber.
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BROKEN CFL? DON'T CALL 911
Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are selling like hotcakes, but not all users are comfortable with them yet. According to the Austin-American Statesman, some are calling 911 for cleanup help from the fire department if they break a bulb. The message from fire authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to take care but don't call for outside help.
Better to leave the fire department for responding to emergencies.
CFL bulbs contain 1.4 to 4 milligrams of mercury, about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. It would take 125 CFLs to equal the amount of mercury manufacturers used in old thermometers. To put this in community perspective, CFLs--which consume 75 percent less energy than a conventional bulb--actually prevent mercury pollution overall. The electricity used by one CFL is responsible for 2.5 milligrams of mercury emissions from a coal-burning generation plant over five years of use. Powering a conventional bulb over that span releases 10 milligrams of mercury, according to the EPA. In addition, a CFL lasts up to six times longer than a conventional bulb and adds less waste heat to your home.
The Austin Fire Department says:
* If a bulb is broken, air out the room where the break occurred for about 15 minutes and then place the broken pieces in a jar with a metal lid or in a plastic bag that can be sealed. Burned-out or broken bulbs can be returned to The Home Depot or other agencies and businesses with disposal facilities.
* Don't vacuum the broken pieces.
* Clothes that come in contact with bulb fragments should be thrown away.
LITTLE FRIDGE, BIG BILL
Size doesn't always matter when it comes to saving electricity. Those mini-refrigerators of about 2 cubic feet are perfect for your office or dorm room and may save you space and money up-front, but they're surprisingly inefficient when it comes to conserving electricity. "The most efficient compact refrigerator we recently tested consumes about 280 kilowatt-hours per year, compared with roughly 390 kilowatt-hours for an energy-efficient 18-cubic-foot top-freezer refrigerator. That means the mini-fridge offers only about one-tenth of the storage space but uses almost 72 percent of the energy the full-size model consumes," says Consumer Reports magazine.
HAPPENINGS
Unleash your inner cowboy during the 72nd annual Charro Days Fiesta, an eight-day festival that celebrates the U.S. and Mexican cultures of Brownsville and its sister city Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
The fiesta, first held in 1938, is set to run February 22 through March 1 in the border town of Brownsville, Texas' southernmost city. The celebration is named in honor of the charro, which means dashing Mexican gentleman cowboy or dashing Mexican horseman.
Organizers expect more than 200,000 people to soak up a plethora of sights and sounds, including street dances, mariachi music, ballet folklórico performances by elementary students and three parades. The Grand International Parade, scheduled for February 28, starts in Brownsville and ends in Matamoros.
Hear the traditional Mexican grito, a celebratory cry, ring out in the streets and fill your eyes with the dazzling colors of traditional costumes from Mexican states.
For more information, call (956) 542-4245 or go to www.charrodaysfiesta.com.
SMACK-DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF HISTORY
Staying at Comfort Common on High Street puts visitors at the center of Comfort's historic district, which has almost 100 structures built before 1900. The original two-story hotel, built in 1880, no longer houses guests. The bottom floor has a gift shop. But there are six places to stay on the landscaped grounds behind the hotel. Two guest rooms are in the 1894 building that once served as the carriage house. The other units are historic cabins and cottages moved to the property.
Comfort was founded by freethinking German immigrants. Peter Joseph Ingenhuett built not only the picturesque hotel, which has 20-inch-thick walls, but also an opera house, livery, saloon and mercantile business. The town is definitely worth a visit. Call (830) 995-3030.
--From Historic Hotels of Texas: A Traveler's Guide, Texas A&M University Press, first edition, 2007
FUTURE TALK
You laptop-toting travelers who know the frustrations of finding a power outlet on the road might be interested in a gadget by Voltaic Systems. The Voltaic Generator Bag not only protects your laptop, but it can also charge it using just the sun. The integrated solar panels on the bag, which runs $599 on the company's website, www.voltaicsystems.com, provide up to 17 watts of generating power, charging up the onboard battery with enough juice to run your computer for about 2 hours.
WHO KNEW?
Born in New York City to vaudevillian parents, Joan Blondell had acting in her blood. The winsome blue-eyed blonde was discovered in Hollywood by Al Jolson and went on to star in Depression-era film classics like "The Public Enemy" and "Gold Diggers of 1933." However, Blondell's career was actually launched in Texas, where she moved as a teen. In 1926, at age 20, she won the Miss Dallas pageant. Big D-eal!
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