I am one of those converts to compact fluorescent light bulbs [“Cutting the Cord,” July 29]. Although they may seem expensive, one $18 bulb saves me about $15 in electricity a year, close to what it cost at the local hardware store. I have some bulbs that have already lasted over six years, which means I have gained my money back several times over. Not having to climb a ladder to fiddle with a bulb every few months is a bonus. I did notice an error in the accompanying article on the Toyota Prius hybrid electric-gasoline powered car [“A Battery of Questions”]. Mr. Schodolski notes that his cost per mile for gasoline is a staggering 21 cents. If you divide his cost for a gallon of gas ($1.95) by how many miles per gallon he gets (43), you get a much more reasonable 4.5 cents per mile in gas cost.
— BRIAN URBASZEWSKI / Chicago
Salvaged faces
Your unidentified faces of bearded men in front of the townhouses on North Dearborn Street [On the Block, July 15] are terra cotta sculptures by Richard Bock, from Adler and Sullivan’s Schiller (later Garrick Theater) Building. They were presumably salvaged by photographer Richard Nickel. The source of my information is Alice Sinkevitch’s AIA Guide to Chicago, 1993. Additional portrait head sculptures from the Schiller/Garrick building are at 2421 N. Geneva St. in Chicago.
— JIM INDREIKA / Chicago
Eating up the land
After reading the article on Bill Kurtis and the letters it engendered [In-box, Aug. 12], I’d like to remind those who wrote that most of DuPage County used to be like open land. Less than 50 years ago, at my grandparents’ farm five miles out of Naperville, neighbors were a quarter of a mile or more distant. You could see the horizon and smell the crops. Today, the farm is a subdivision in town; all you can see is houses. Bill Kurtis is lucky; at least he can return and afford to own and keep the land he loves open.
— MARCELLINE M. RICKER / Downers Grove
Drive on in
The Cascade is not the only drive-in movie theater left in Chicagoland [In-box, July 8]. The McHenry Outdoor Theatre on Chapel Hill Road has been in operation (as far as I know) for at least 50 years.
If you go to www.drive-ins.com, you can access a whole list of drive-ins and see if they are still open.
— DIANE M. BANK / McHenry
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