As I mentioned last month, I spent a week in <st1:City><st1:place>Houston</st1:place></st1:City> on business.  It was quite a change from the dry, early spring climate of high-elevation <st1:City><st1:place>Calgary</st1:place></st1:City> to the humid, near-sea level, summerlike temperatures of coastal <st1:State><st1:place>Texas</st1:place></st1:State>.  I was told it was a good time to come, as the summers there can be very hot.<o:p></o:p>

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I started off with taking the tour of the <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Johnson</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName>Space</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> (http://www.spacecenter.org/), having to pass through two layers of security checks before I could visit the old Mission Control.  NASA’s been run out of the new Mission Control since 1996, but the old centre has been kept as a historical site.  The old consoles are still there, with their dial phones and non-interactive computer screens linked to a giant mainframe in the basement.  I didn’t realize that the techs there had to rely on slide rules and paper to supplement the readouts they were getting from the spacecraft at the time.  The tour also visited a training facility for shuttle and International Space Station missions, held within a huge building.  We also paused at a grove of oak trees to commemorate the fallen seventeen astronauts of Apollo I, Challenger, and <st1:City><st1:place>Columbia</st1:place></st1:City>.<o:p></o:p>

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The centrepiece, though, was the interpretive centre, featuring a number of science-centre type displays, a full-size mock-up of the shuttle flight deck and crew deck, and a museum featuring the actual “Faith 7�?Mercury capsule of Gordon Cooper, and the Apollo 17 Command Module.  The highlight had to be the vault containing several Moon rocks, including a slice of basalt that you could actually touch (so I did).<o:p></o:p>

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I also visited the Galleria (http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=805), a major shopping mall there, complete with Neiman-Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, and a number of "name" shops.  At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, I visited the “Body Worlds 3�?exhibit (http://www.hmns.org/exhibits/special_exhibits/bodyworlds.asp).  The anatomical dissections and arrangements were artistically (if not respectfully) done, and sometimes it was easy to forget that these were once real people.  The isolation of blood vessels seemed exceptionally fragile, and made me wonder about the practicalities of transporting the exhibits.  Some of my correspondents have complained about the show being “preachy�? particularly about the effects of smoking.  Except for one volunteer ranting about the causes of obesity, I didn’t find it that way.  The audio tour was quick to point out, though, that the black specks in the lungs in several of the exhibits were due to smoking.  I have a DVD of the exhibit, if anyone’s interested.<o:p></o:p>

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For the artistically-inclined, Houston also has the Menil Collection (http://www.menil.org/) , featuring works by Dali, Warhol, Max Ernst, and others, a wonderful collection of surrealist memorabilia, and some wonderful antiquities, including some lovely northwest coast Indian art.  The Rothko Chapel (http://www.rothkochapel.org/) is an eight-sided interfaith chapel showcasing 14 all-black paintings by American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.  The austere atmosphere makes it a suitable place for grief work, and a “broken�?obelisk outside is dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King.  Nearby is the <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Byzantine</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName>Fresco</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName>Chapel</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>Museum</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> (http://www.menil.org/byzantine.html) housing the only collection of intact Byzantine frescoes in the <st1:place>Western Hemisphere</st1:place>.  The Menil Foundation rescued the frescoes from the thieves who stole it from the original chapel in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Cyprus</st1:place></st1:country-region> to keep the collection together.  While located in <st1:City><st1:place>Houston</st1:place></st1:City>, the frescoes are still the property of the <st1:place><st1:PlaceType>Church</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName>Cyprus</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p>

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Did I mention that I went to <st1:City><st1:place>Houston</st1:place></st1:City> on business?  Needless to say, I returned to <st1:City><st1:place>Calgary</st1:place></st1:City> both mentally and physically exhausted, but it was well worth it.<o:p></o:p>

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Best wishes,<o:p></o:p>

Hergman