The Mercedes Enterprise (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 45, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 9, 1994 Page: 3 of 16
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Mercedes, Texas 78570 Wednesday, November 9, 1994
994
Dear Mercedes
By Barry Evans
veryday Wonders...
Letters from F.S. Lentz, Jr.
Seattle
Centrality of the Cross
ohe
Professor, University of Texas - Pan American
By Frank W. Judd, Ph.D
P-
Who Support Our Right to Worship Freely.
In Times Like These
565-6331
325 West Business 83
2190 W. Business 83
565-3711
MARINE TOAD
helmet above is the result. The two are on the
school district maintenance staff, but they
say working on something like this is more
than just part of the job. (Enterprise Photo.)
THE ARTISTS AND THEIR CREATION—Mario
Garza, at right, assisted by Rafael Sierra
recently completed re-painting the center-
piece at Tiger Field, and the Tiger football
Second class postage paid
at Mercedes, Texas
78570. Published each
Wednesday at Mercedes,
Hidalgo County, Texas,
Office of publication, 230
S. Texas Ave. Subscrip-
tion rates $12.50 per year
in Valley, $15.50 per year
out of state. Single Copy
price 25 cents. Send Ad-
dress Corrections to
POSTMASTER, Mer-
cedes, Texas 78570.
******)
"THE CRO55 15 THE CENTER OF THE WORLDS HISTORY;
THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST AND THE CRUCIFIXION OF
OUR LORD ARE THE PIVOT ROUND WHICH ALL THE EVENTS
OF THE AGE REVOLVE. _ SCOTLAND ALEXANDER MACLAREN
The Highest Mountain
: When I was but thirteen or so
I went into a golden land,
Chimborazo, Cotapaxi
Took me by the hand.
I was about 13,1 suppose, when I
first heard, and was enchanted by,
Oglish poet William Turner ‘s roman-
/ tic verse. The next stanza includes the
lines,
I stood where Popocatapetl
In the sunlight gleams.
Chimborazo, Cotapaxi and
Popocatapetl: These strangely-named
volcanoes in Ecuador and Mexico cap-
tured my youthful imagination, and
since visited two out of the three.
" Popocatepetl, Mexico’s second-
highest peak, is the lowest of the three.
For hundreds of years, sulfur from its
rainbow-colored crater was used by
the Spanish to make gunpowder.
Popocatepetl was active not too long
ago, and early Spanish colonialists
This Series Made Possible by
These Business Firms and Individuals
Dear Mercedes,
Hello, I’m in Seattle for two days
and let me be quick to add, this is one
of the nicest places to be in this coun-
try.
It is always cool, the fir and spruce
trees are huge and plentiful, and on a
clear day when you can see Mt. Rainier,
you will be taught things about physi-
cal earth beauty you didn’t know.
For me, it is a sort of homecoming,
as this city and the airline based here,
Alaska Airlines, is where I got started.
They were my first customers and
now I am going to a new job, helped
greatly in doing so by having a special
relationship with many people in that
airline that were, and still are, kind to
me “way back when.”
The Mercedes Enterprise
(USPS 177-100)
permanent and temporary bodies of
water. Usually, there is no overhang-
ing vegetation at the site where the
eggs are laid. Depending on her size
and nutritional status a female will
deposit from 5,000 to 25,000 eggs.
Timing of reproduction coincides with
the beginning of the wet season.
Growth after hatching is rapid, i.e.
about 0.65 mm per day.
At this rate the toads would reach
the minimum size at sexual maturity in
about 100 days, but the rate of growth
slows down as the wet season ad-
vances so that most toads require one
full year to reach adult size.
Growth rates slow even more once
sexual maturity is reached, but the
rates for males slow more than for
females. Consequently, adult females
tend to be larger than males.
Newcomers to the lower Rio
Grande Valley are often surprised at
the size of marine toads and call me to
report these large beasts. Natives and
long-time residents are familiar with
sapo grande and welcome these am-
phibians to their yards and gardens.
A.R. DAVIS REAL ESTATE
J.H. "JAKE" DAVIS-AGENT
RT. 2, BOX B-8
Mercedes, Tx.
565-5223
See us for towing, auto repairs
or welding!
JUAN’S WELDING
and Auto Service
RIO GRANDE VALLEY
FAUNA AND FLORA
Suzann Meye
Massage ‘Therapist
Best Western, Weslaco
Tues - Wed-Thrusday, 2-9 p.m.
Call for appointment: 969-2411
Ernesto Flores, Jr.
Attorney at law
The Mercedes Enterprise -- Page 8
GOD'S FIVE MINUTES
THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING' Ecclesiastes 3:1, The Living Bible, Tyndale House
Chiropractor
DR, LYLEA. STRUNK
OFFICE HOURS: 9 A.M. TO NOON, 2 P.M. TO 5 P.M.
) (One mile south of Business 83 on FM 1015)
968-6260 2810 S. International
Mercedes Christian Church
612 SOUTH TEXAS
P.O. BOX 896
MERCEDES, TEXAS 78570
SUNDAY WORSHIP
10:10AM & 7:00PM
PASTOR - DON BRYNTESON
, Cuc 565-1509 PAR. 565-4742
• 1 MEMBER
IA
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
MARTINEZ GARAGE
TOWING dan
(512) 565-4022 @AUTO
PETE & BETO MARTINEZ s
OWNERS SERVICE
103 S. Miasouri Ave. Mercedes 78570 J
I greatly respect that airline, one a business sense, all in this business. A
reason being that one of the men that highly functional family, I might add.
really made it go was a tough old Enough. I told you I’d tell you
leatherneck Corsair pilot named Gus about what I do, but better not gag you
Robinson. with it. I think on some days I can hear
Over the years I have made good a collective yawn from here, from you.
friends there. Good friends...the best Can’t have that. If you guys don’t buy
aspect of the aviation business is the the Mercedes Weekly Bugle/Enter-
people in it. There is a continuity in it prise on account of me, then the editor
that all the men and women who have will give me the cut signal for sure,
stuck around understand, and a will- If that happens, then how will the
ingness to help out not seen in other otherwise uninformed world east of
industries. And a sharing of victories Mile 1 and west of the floodway ever
or promotions or grief or loss, figure out that the author of the Good
It is a family bound by the shared American novel was able to do it as a
experience of an unexplainable love result of you, my Mercedes?
of airplanes and flying, and things I owe you, too, big time... and of
related and things fun. Ihave a slew of course miss you, whether you have
uncles, Dutch and otherwise, Godfa- Rainier or not.
thers, older brothers, younger broth- Que te vaya bien, eh?
ers, sons, daughters, and sisters, all in Fleet
recorded many eruptions. However, with the pole-to-pole distance about
for the last 200 years the volcano, 27 miles less than the average diam-
whose local name means smoking eter at the equator.
mountain, has emitted only smoke and This means that an average point
sulfurous gases. on the equator is about four miles
Ecuador’s Cotopaxi has its own farther from Earth’s center than an
claim to fame. Its the highest active average point at Everest’s latitude. That
volcano in the world, continuously four miles more than makes up for
emitting clouds of steam from its lava- Everest’s greater height above sea
filled crater. The first recorded erup- level, especially since Chimborazo is
tion wasin 1532, while the mostrecent only 100 miles south of the equator,
eruption was only sixty years ago. you know it’s got to be pretty close,
What’s thehighest mountain in the since Ecuador is Spanish for equator,
world? Everest, you say? Depends The net result is that Chimborazo
where you measure from. Ecuador’s is about two miles higher than Everest,
highest peak, Chimborazo, can also as measured from the center of the
lay claim to being the highest moun- Earth. I’m not sure if the first person to
tain. Although its only 20,561 feet climb it, Edward Whymper of
above sea level, it is the farthest point Matterhorn fame, realized that when
from the center of the Earth on our he stood on its summit in 1880.
planet’s surface. Chimborazo, Cotapaxi and
True, Mount Everest is nearly two Popocatapetl: I hope their names will
miles higher than Chimborazo, mea- capture your imagination, youthful or
sured from sea level, but Earth’s spin otherwise, as they did Turner’s and
causes a bulge around the equator, mine.
The marine toad, Bufo marinus, is invertebrates.
the largest toad in North America. In They are also known to eat small
the United States it occurs only in the vertebrates, i.e. mice, birds, lizards,
lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, etc., including young of theirown spe-
From here “sapo grande” ranges cies. Individual marine toads some-
southward to central Brazil. Adults times learn to eat dog and cat food set
may reach a oody length of nine inches outside for family pets.
and a weight of two and one-half Marine toads do quite well in asso-
pounds! ciation with man. Indeed, some urban
Half-grown juveniles and adults populations reach densities of 125
can be easily recognized by the large, toads per acre while natural popula-
ovate, parotid gland on each side of tionsin savanna habitats have no more
the head. Younger juveniles may be than 10 toads per acre at best. Rain
difficult to distinguish from other toad forest populations typically are about
species, but can often be identified by four loads per acre.
the presence of regular rows of tu- Marine toads are mostly active at
bercles (i.e. bumps) on the back, night. Duringthe day theyremain hid-
The parotid glands secrete a vis- den in burrows underneath logs, rocks,
cous, whitish fluid that contains an or debris. They begin to appear above
alkaloid toxin. The toxin is potent ground at dusk and then maintain ac-
enough to make dogs who bite or at- tivity for two or three hours before
tempt to eat a marine toad ill. The jelly returning 10 3 burrow for the night,
coat of the eggs is also toxic and the 0,1 the average a toad is active one
skin of the tadpoles is distasteful, evening out of three or four, but the
pattern of activity is variable. Each
Consequently, predation by other toad apparently has several feeding
vertebrates on marine toads is low. :
Birds, snakes, and small mammals are uses one one the next evening
probably the main predators. These activity the toad is most likely to ap-
animals feed largely on recently meta- pear at a new station.
morphosed toads and on small juve- This shiftin of feedin stations
niles because the parotid glands at suggests that the toad is familiar with
these stages of life are not well devel- f dthatit
oped and don’t secrete much toxin. landmarks to find its way around the
Marine toads are equal-opportu- area.
nity eaters. If an item is small enough Activity is strongly influenced by
to get in the mouth and it is alive, it is climate. The peak of foraging occurs
considered food no matter how toxic, early in the wet season and then de-
noxious, biting or stinging. Marine clines gradually throughout the remain-
toads eat ants, wasps, millipedes, true der of the wet season.
bugs, beetles, and a variety of other Eggs are laid at the margins of both
The Mercedes Enterprise
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The Mercedes Enterprise (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 45, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 9, 1994, newspaper, November 9, 1994; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1618530/m1/3/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.