Subject: Animal Diseases

• Death and the Raccoon

  August 1, 1996

• Cowboy Mouth

  Friday, May 6, at Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak Drive, 713-862-3838.

  May 5, 2005

• Bring On the Bovine

  Beef-mad Houstonians keep eating steaks

  January 8, 2004

• How Now Mad Cow?

  Europe has a problem with diseased cattle. Should Texans be wary?

  April 5, 2001

• Beef: It's Still What's for Dinner

  Speaking off the toque: Tony Ruppe

  March 29, 2001

• Revenge Of The Swine (And The Obsessive Hand-Washers)

  A swine flu pandemic isn't a "foregone conclusion," according to the new alert level issued yesterday by the World Health Organization. But things are starting to get a little scary. Cue the travel warnings. The United States said not to head south of the border. The European Union said stay away from the United States. Anyone flying from North America to Hong Kong will have his temperature taken upon arrival. While the death toll in Mexico is up to 152, nobody has yet died stateside.

  April 28, 2009

• $7 at Bell Street Cafe

  Photo by Craig HlavatyChicken Veronique at Bell Street CafeWhere: Bell Street Cafe, 800 Bell Street (under the Exxon Building) What $7 gets you: Surprisingly fresh and cheap food. Dining under the Exxon building, right next to the Houston Press building, means that you will be eating with a million suits who do business just a few floors up. There's a lot of guys in dress clothes and delicate comb-overs who probably make an untold amount of costly and wide-sweeping decisions before they belly

  April 29, 2009

• Swine Flu Closes Three HISD Schools, Episcopal High -- And All Of Fort Worth ISD (UPDATED)

  HISD has announced two schools have closed until further notice because of possible -- but not confirmed -- cases of swine flu.Harvard Elementary and Hamilton Middle School, both in the Heights, are the schools."Late last night the City of Houston Health Department informed HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra of two probable, but not confirmed, cases of swine flu and advised the district to immediately close both schools as a precaution," HISD spokesman Norm Uhl said. "The principals of both s

  April 30, 2009

• Swine Flu 1, Lyons Elementary 0

  Photo by Paul KnightAlejandra Bravo and Alejandra ReyesHISD is working on its first swine flu evacuation, which started with about an hour left of TAKS testing. The students at Lyons Elementary will have to take the whole thing over again, according to district spokesman Norm Uhl. The infected child that caused the evacuation wasn't at school today, but this morning, the district received a call from the city alerting them of a confirmed flu case from Lyons, and the city suggested the school clo

  April 30, 2009

• School Districts Don't Need To Close To Protect Funding, TEA Says

  When the Fort Worth school district made the seemingly bizarre decision to close down for a week even though they hadn't experienced a single confirmed case of swine flu, there were some rumblings that FWISD officials were more concerned about budgets than parents.Parents might have to spend a week scrambling for child care, but FWISD would not need to worry about any ADA money.And ADA money is very, very important to schools. It's got nothing to do with the Americans with Disabilities Act; the

  May 1, 2009

• What If Swine Flu Got Turned Into a "Song"?

  librarystorytime.wordpress.comSo it turns out the best way to prevent swine flu is to wash your damn hands, and to make sure you do a nice thorough job. A former member of the Texas Medical Associaton's Committee on Infectious Diseases suggests you sing or hum songs you probably learned in kindergarten for the duration, to further ensure an adequate cleansing. Over on Hair Balls, we posted some slightly more recent - and longer, because you can't ever be too careful - songs to wash your hands by

  May 1, 2009

• Fears About Swine Flu: Don't Forget The Part Where You Might Go Insane

  Just to the throw one more log of fear on the fire...As if a case of influenza wasn't bad enough on its own, some strains carry the risk of a lingering and sometimes permanent "hangover" in the form of acute mental illness. Unborn children are at the most risk, some studies show.In the aftermath of the 1918-19 pandemic, pioneering psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger noticed that many theretofore mentally healthy adults developed alarming psychological symptoms in the aftermath of a case of the Spani

  May 1, 2009

• That Letter We Sent Canceling Special Olympics And Asking Volunteers To Stay Away? Just A Draft, Sorry

  At least one parent with a child at Richmond State School received an e-mail today that lists the school's precautions against the swine flu. (The school houses about 500 mentally and physically disabled students.)The precautions included:-- canceling the Special Olympics and all off-campus trips. -- suspending all volunteer activities and requesting that volunteers do not come on campus.-- strongly encouraging all family and friends to postpone visits on campus and refraining from taking [resid

  May 1, 2009

• Harvard Elementary Kids, Get Your Butts Back To School

  Another HISD school has declared total victory in the battle against swine flu (No political correctness here, pork industry!!). Harvard Elementary in the Heights, one of the first district schools to close down, will reopen tomorrow.The city's health department has given the OK for the move, HISD spokesman Norm Uhl says. So blame them if anything goes wrong.And we're betting the Harvard kids will be hearing a lot tomorrow about washing their hands.

  May 4, 2009

• If You Live In The Boonies Of Fort Bend County, Beware The Rabid Skunks

  If you live in Needville or  "the unincorporated portion of Beasley," the Fort Bend County Health & Human Services Department is warning you to stay away from skunks.We've never quite lived in a place where people had to be warned to stay away from skunks, but then again we've never even been to the incorporated part of Beasley, much less the unincorporated part.But two rabid skunks have been discovered in the greater Beasley-Needville Metropolitan Area, and health officials are warning

  June 12, 2009