Any other map freaks out there?

Texas historian and author Charles Irwin of Port Neches recently identified himself as a map freak. The News recounted his boon of buying a little map book and finding an interesting replica map inside.

If he wants a big, coffee table book, he may want to peruse the new “Texas A Historical Atlas” by A. Ray Stephens, with cartography by carol Zuber-Mallison. It’s an updated and rechristened version of “Historical Atlas of Texas.” It’s more than 400 pages. Some people can’t get enough of the Lone Star state.

I’m loving a photo dubbed “Forest of oil derricks at Sour Lake, showing a dirt road along tight clusters of wooden derricks. It looks as if a worker could jump from one to the next. Of course, there’s maps and maps and maps.

Here’s a bit of copy from the oil and gas discovery section:

“Each boomtown created by discoveries has a similar history: Rapid influx of transient workers to turn sleep towns into bustling cities, stock swindles as the unscrupulous fleeced a gullible public wishing to get rich quick, mud and more mud as wheels on wagons hauling heavy equipment sliced unimproved roads into quagmires during inclement weather, attraction of merchants of vice to peddle their wares to the public, and the consternation of original inhabitants about a situation they could not control and did not understand.”



This other new stuff is for health and beauty:

Silky stuff for your teeth

Something old is new again. Radius is offering organic silk dental floss that’s 100 percent biodegradable. Even used dental floss is clogging landfills. But on to a more fanciful image: Radius reports silk floss was first made commercially available in 1882 until the mid ‘30s, when a difficulty arose from Japan being at war with China. Then came nylon. I’d never consider flushing dental floss, but apparently septic tank owners will have nothing to fear. I used and enjoyed this floss after having some dried squid lodged in my teeth after a jaunt to one of our Asian markets. Radius reminds us, we’re supposed to floss daily, not just when there’s discomfort.



Getting started with Finishing Touch

They’re everywhere. Commercials for Finishing Touch Lumina and the actual product are everywhere you  turn. This is another As Seen on TV product that does what it says, and I tried it on someone who eschews any type of hair removal. It works well and without pain. I love the purple jewel on the top of the tube that’s about as big as a mascara bottle. You can take this with you, and you might, because you could get addicted to both using it and the results. It’s fun. It can help both men and women with hair wherever they don’t want it. I don’t even need the light. It’s budget-priced, too. Check your pharmacy for this little wonder product.

ddoiron@panews.com