Mark Shreffler wanted to address the throngs of people sounding off at last Monday's public hearing by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.

But he never got the chance. Shreffler, along with dozens of others who showed up for the TNRCC's public hearing on its aggressive plan to eliminate smog in Houston, couldn't get into the hearing room because of overcrowding.

The hearing drew hundreds of citizens, protesters and officials, including Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt and a representative from U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's office, to the Houston-Galveston Area Council offices.

"I think Houston is an excessively wasteful place in the summertime," Shreffler said. "They air-condition downtown buildings colder than they are in the wintertime. It's 90 degrees outside. It should not be that cold."

Shreffler believes we can reduce smog by burning less fossil fuels. For example, he said it's wasteful to completely light up our streets and freeways at night.

"They're straight, there's nothing happening, yet they light them up like daylight," he said. "That's not necessary."

But while Shreffler longed to complain about the city's wasteful practice of over-air conditioning, the Phoenix native wanted Houstonians to remember one thing next time they fill up their car:

"You go by a gas station and you see that tanker truck standing there with all that gasoline in it? Well, it gets used up by the cars, right? And it's gone forever ... Pretend that was the last tanker."

Does La Bare give scholarships too?

The men of the Houston Firefighter Calendar put on a Western fashion show Friday at the Women's Business Support Network 15th anniversary luncheon -- but the firemen got something in return for their work.

One of the WBSN members stood at the foot of the runway and stuffed crisp dollar bills into the firefighters' Wrangler jeans. When she found herself out of dollar bills, she dug into her pockets, produced some spare change and stuffed it into the rear pocket of one model's tight-fitting blue jeans.

Such resourcefulness shouldn't go to waste -- perhaps the woman's actions will inspire a new method of fund-raising for the WBSN Foundation. Or maybe not.

The Reporter's Notebook is a collection of offbeat, interesting and informative items and personal insights our staff members have collected while working on their normal assignments. It normally appears Mondays in The Daily Cougar.