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Letters

A Horned Frog Legacy?
In June, my son Dalton, 7, was looking at one of my recent TCU magazines. I said, "Dalton, they hide a tiny horned frog on every cover of those magazines, but I can never find them. Do you want to look for it?"

"It's right there," he said, pointing right at the tiny horned frog.

I had looked at that cover a hundred times and never found it. Naturally, Dalton hunted all over the house for my other TCU magazines (I still actually had one from 2001) and he had a great time finding the hidden horned frogs. He even went online hunting the covers of issues we were missing.

As I thought about how clever I was getting Dalton interested in the TCU horned frogs, I went to the grocery store. He turned to my husband Mike after I left and said, "If Mommy dies, will we still get these magazines?"
- Jill Hicks Spurlin '86

Thanks, Steve!

I've just finished going through the Summer 2005 The TCU Magazine and I wanted to let you know that I believe it is the best issue of a college/alumni magazine that I have ever seen! The variety of the articles, the quality of the photos and general layout, the historical reflection of Brite, all of it combined to make a thoroughly enjoyable read. I particularly like the back cover; what a wonderful picture of TCU's faith-based approach to community. Thanks for an excellent product. 
- Steve Chisolm, Director, Student Services Louise Herrington, School of Nursing, Baylor University

Safe to Eat

I was elated at the depth of the article in the Summer edition by Nancy Bartosek, describing the dangers of mercury in the diet, especially to children and the developing fetus, and the magnitude of the Texas lakes project by Dr. Ray Drenner and students.
"This will only get worse if environmental regulations are not strengthened" is in agreement with the following four organizations, the first two of which I am a member. Because the Physicians for Social Responsibility, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association and the American Nurses Association feel that our elected officials and the EPA are not doing enough to protect us from mercury, they have recently filed a legal challenge to the EPA's mercury rule. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA "to protect public health to the greatest extent possible." A nice complement to your excellent website list is www.psr.org. Keep up the good work, and congratulations all.
- Ben H. White, M.D. '44

I enjoyed the article in The TCU Magazine about mercury in fish. My daughter, a science teacher in Lampasas, had warned me often of mercury in fish from lakes, streams, oceans and farm ponds. I am sending the article to her.

I know your students must know that Caddo is the only natural lake in Texas. The others are man-made. I'm certain you also take into account that Eagle Mountain and Lake Worth probably have contaminates left over from Carswell and Convair (Lockheed). My father worked at the bomber plant and used to bring home mercury for us to play with. I'm certain during the war and slightly after there wasn't the knowledge of the dangers of those cute blobs of silver that scooted and divided around their containers.

Do you do any testing of fish from ranch stock ponds? I know my grandsons enjoy fishing in the stock ponds on the ranch in Lampasas. Including one my daughter didn't even know contained fish until the boys pulled out a big one a few months ago.
- Merry Ralph '61

Bees and Horned Frogs

Many thanks for the fine piece on Sue Monk Kidd and her book The Secret Life of Bees, which I thoroughly enjoyed -- without even knowing that she is a fellow TCU alum!
- Damaris Porter Peters-Pike '54

More hang outs

In "Recollections" I was glad to see that Jack's on Mansfield Highway received a well-deserved prominent place in people's memories of hangouts. They could have also mentioned Bill Stephenson's '58 legendary standing table reservation for Saturday nights. Bill and his friend Dick Richards '59 always occupied the head of the rather long table. Other seats were pretty much by invitation only, and you worked your way up near the head mostly by seniority.
- Don Coltharp '60

Little John's Barbeque out on the edge of Fort Worth was reverse Jim-Crowed in the 1950s and '60s, with a small roped off area for non-blacks. The room was dim and smoky around a pit with a counter weighted metal lid raised by a chain. Besides barbeque by the pound, I think the only offering was an open-faced sandwich consisting of two pieces of Wonder bread, several slices of meat and a lot of paradisiacal sauce. I am a vegetarian these days, but I wouldn't be if Little John's were anywhere close.
- Russ Gilmore '63

Shoot

What a thrill it was reading in "Class Notes" about Col. Sue Ann Sandusky's achievements over the years! Unfortunately, what was not mentioned was that during her years at TCU, Col. Sandusky was rated as one of the world's top shooters. I used to watch her from my Clark Dorm window in the early '70s as she made her daily trek to the range to hone her skills. And I remember how furious I was when Latin machismo kept her out of the open competition at a major international shoot south of the border. Her scores in the women's competition were better than those of her male counterparts, resulting in a judges' decision to keep her out of the open, where she would have shot against -- and most likely soundly beaten -- all of the so-called superior male competitors there. Way to go, Col. Sandusky! Every time I drive up to Lake Texoma and pass through Sandusky, I wonder how you're doing. Now I know. Very, very well done.
- Former IPSC competitor Dep. Chief Dr. Craig Merrell '74

Brite blessings

My heartfelt thanks to you and Renee Jones for the account "Counting our Blessings" in the recent TCU Magazine. I am very pleased to read this story of the development of Brite Divinity School, including the interest and contribution of my grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. L.C. Brite. Of recent years, I've learned of the great gifts of millions of dollars to the school, but this story shows the gifts in mere thousands of dollars came from a hard-working, deeply devoted rancher whose income depended on Hereford cattle and grama grass only -- I appreciate every reference to Eddie and Luke Brite's influence these many years past. My sister and I attended TCU just as freshmen, then transferred to UT. Interest continues in TCU with friendship with Bryan Feille and Gilbert Davis.
- Jane Brite White '46