Fire on the Mesa

On the Mesa

Why did the tarantula cross the road? Because it wanted to be loved.

‘In the event of an emergency, don’t call us.’

The whole place could go up at any moment.

We moved to the Mesa yesterday, Robert and I. Today we noticed a sign had gone up at the fire department, about four miles away. It is the only building directly on the dirt road — the only road — that connects the Mesa to town. Every other place is hidden. The fire department and the tiny water towers are visible for miles. The sign, handwritten on poster board, said there was going to be a fire-safety event and BBQ for the residents this weekend. The water towers aren’t very big. Even if a fire engine from the town is able to get up here, the water in the storage towers wouldn’t be enough to put out a fire, quantity wise. That’s why the sign in front of the department — a rainbow-colored Half-Wheel of Danger — always keeps the moveable arrow pointing to the highest category of fire risk. After a rain, we soon learned, the sign continues to warn the whole place might go up at any moment. So with only one road in and out, and a chance to meet some of our new neighbors and learn how …

You Only Live Once

Leprosy’s Scourge

‘The 66 Star’ was America’s only newspaper by and for lepers, published at the national leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana.

Under a pseudonym, editor ‘Stanley Stein’ worked to dispel myths dating back to the Bible that led to the isolation of sufferers from Hansen’s disease.

Hansen’s disease, known in benighted times as leprosy, is not a form of uncleanliness or divine punishment for marrying a Cushite. It was treated with Promin.

By Ted Mann

The 66 Star — “Radiating the Light of Truth on Hansen’s disease” — was the patient publication of the national leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, known as United States Public Health Service Marine Hospital 66. The 66 Star ceased publication in 1934 after its founder and publisher, “Stanley Stein,” went blind. Stanley Stein’s real name was Sidney Maurice Levyson. He grew up in the tiny German-American town of Boerne, Texas (pronounced “Bernie”), was educated as a pharmacist, was diagnosed with leprosy at 21, and for years was secretly treated by a San Antonio physician. At the time he contracted his condition, Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, was an incurable, almost entirely untreatable, disfiguring, hideously painful condition in which patients often lingered between life and death for decades. When the doctor treating Levyson in San Antonio died, Levyson’s condition deteriorated. On the advice of his rabbi, he took himself to a leading specialist in tropical diseases in New York …

Fire on the Mesa

Already Gone

Leprosy’s Scourge