Letters to the Editor

Volume VI Number 48
December 3-9, 1998

The Week's Hottest Story

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

I recently read a piece from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency colleague, Bill Belanger of Pennsylvania, about a 50-year-old radium needle found in a Philadelphia file cabinet. It brought to mind a story.

At his business in New Jersey, my dad used to have a woman working who had been a radium watch-dial painter. She did not 'tip' the brush in her mouth and thus lived to a ripe old age, without cancer.

When I bought my current residence in Southern Maryland, I found among the astonishing array of artifacts a lamp pull that you hung from the string on a ceiling light switch. A little sealed vial, it glowed astoundingly bright in a dark room. Great, says I, and hung it from the garage overhead canopy switch.

We live two miles from the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, and having worked some around that industry, I own a Geiger counter, which I keep at the house in case of the ultimate Three Mile Island accident at our radiological neighbor.

On a whim, I stuck the counter next to the luminous light pull. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! it sizzled itself crazy. Needless to say, the light pull came off the string and resides today at my wife's laboratory in a "Radioactive" labeled solid lead container that I used to store research isotopes.

As an average homeowner, you just never know when you might need a handy source of Gamma radiation.

-Kent Mountford, Lusby

Thanks for Easier Holiday Planning

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

The holiday special pull-out in your Nov. 26-Dec. 2 issue by Mark Burns is a gift to your readers. Thank you for making our holiday planning easier day by day all the way through December.

I can't think of another publication that produces such a comprehensive calendar of local and regional activities. NBT and Mark Burns are part of the 'local bounty' in Chesapeake Country for producing this great holiday guide.

-D.C. Bourne, Churchton

Now Kicking Thanks to NBT

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

Thanks for the kickboxing information a few months ago [Oct. 8-14]. I decided to go with the kickboxing offered at Tri-Fitness, the new gym in Prince Frederick. The new gym is great! Thanks for your info!

-Ty Kelly, Calvert County

| Back to Archives |

We welcome your letter and opinions.
We will edit when necessary.
Mail them to NBT at
P.O. Box 358, Deale Md 20751
Click here to email.
Please include your name, address and phone number for verification.

| Homepage |