In the first of a series of musicals to be presented at the Texas Crown Performance Hall, Baker Elementary School fifth-graders performed Alice’s Adventures with Idioms, to a receptive crowd of family and friends last Thursday morning. The performers are the students of Alexandra Phenix, BES music teacher. Alice’s Adventures offers an entertaining educational approach to figurative language, focusing on idioms and similes—with some special appearances by metaphors and alliteration. It begins with Alice, accompanied by her cat and dog, falling down the rabbit hole and arriving in the land of idioms. The lessons are all presented by Wonderland characters, like the White Rabbits, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Mad Hatter and March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, and the King and Queen of Hearts. Alice’s Adventures with Idioms was written by Mike Fishell and John Heath.

The Canadian Lady Cats remain unbeaten this week through District 1-3A play, thanks to a come-from-behind home win against Bushland 45-42 last Friday, before blowing out River Road by an eye-opening 99-6 score Tuesday night.

AUSTIN—The Texas Lyceum made history during its annual investiture ceremony on Friday, Jan. 14. For the first time since its establishment in 1980, the organization will swear in a woman of color to lead the statewide nonprofit organization as its new president: Dallas Citizens Council’s vice president of strategy and public affairs, Sarah Jackson.

A wildfire preparedness meeting is planned for Monday, Jan. 31, at the Hemphill County Exhibition Center in Canadian. This multicounty sponsored AgriLife Extension event includes Hemphill, Ochiltree, Lipscomb, Roberts, and Wheeler counties. Its purpose is to assist with educational information preparation for stakeholders in the event of a wildfire situation, similar to the one in March of 2017. Registration begins at 9 am, to be followed by a 9:30 am presentation on “Wildfire Preparedness: What Can I Do?” by Brandon Boughen, AgriLife disaster assessment and recovery coordinator. At 10:45 am, Tim Steffens, AgriLife rangeland resource specialist, will talk about preparing a “Wildfire Ready Checklist,” and after lunch, author John Erickson will lead a rancher panel discussion at 1 pm. Canadian VFD Fire Chief Scott Brewster will follow with a panel discussion by fire department chiefs at 2:15 pm, and the meeting will adjourn at 3 pm. This event will be a face-to-face meeting in the Sand Sage Room of the Hemphill County Exhibition Center, located at 10965 Exhibition Center Lane in Canadian, with lunch sponsored by North Plains Electric Cooperative and catered by Alexander’s. Additional sponsorship has been provided by Silveus Financial. A Teams link will be provided to members of the public who wish to join the online meeting for a cost of $10/person. Registration is required for both the live and online events by calling the Hemphill County AgriLife Extension office at 806.323.9114.