Saving the turtles
Some inspirational news from south Texas
Saving the sea turtles - Commentary
The cold in Texas had one unexpected casualty - sea turtles.
Sea turtles rely on external heat sources to keep their body temperatures up. The cold snap in Texas dropped water temperatures into the low 50s. The seat turtles heart rates and circulation slow and they become lethargic. Some can drown in an little as an inch of water.
But there is a happy ending. Community members on South Padre Island on the Gulf Coast started pulling the sea turtles out of the water and moving them to the South Padre Island Convention Centre where they could warm up.
NPR reported that by the end of the day on Wednesday, 4,500 sea turtles were warming up at the convention center.
Love him or hate him
Rush Limbaugh, the bombastic king of talk radio, passed away on Wednesday. While most of us try to adhere to the standard of “If you can’t say something good about someone, then don’t say anything,” that was certainly not the case on social media when it came to Limbaugh.
Limbaugh made his name as the powerful voice of conservative causes, but by the time he was done he had laid the groundwork for partisan media to succeed. His audience was in the millions and they believed everything he had to say.
Still, Tom Jones of the Poynter Instituted described Limbaugh this way:
“If there was a Mount Rushmore for talk-show radio hosts, there’s little question that the first figure chiseled into the mountain would be Rush Limbaugh.”
Sadly, he often twisted facts and dealt in hate speech, so it was hard for many people to say anything nice about Limbaugh. He helped to divide the country in recent years.
You can have your opinions - as Limbaugh so eloquently did - but you should never lie to support them. Unfortunately, that is part of his legacy, too.
The Home Front
When we heard from our son in Texas over the past few months, he regularly touted sitting on his porch on balmy 70-degree evenings with a beverage - in January.
We were jealous.
That all ended this past week when San Antonio was hit with a brutal ice storm that paralyzed a city that does not have the luxury of snowplows or road salt.
One of the last things his mother advised him to do before leaving home after Christmas was to bring one of his winter jackets with him. He balked. Parents always have the last laugh.
While my son has electricity, he does not have water, although I suspect he could use some of the nearby pool water at his condo complex if necessary. We’re not too worried about his plight. By next week, temperatures are expected to be in the 70s again.
Not so puzzling
It took my wife Gillian less than a week to complete a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Cinque Terre region of Italy. We visited there a few years ago. I contributed a few pieces and her sister a few more, but Gillian pretty much did this one herself.