Dim view taken of high beams

Dear Mahatma: Please address the problem of in-town drivers who drive with bright lights. The new halogen lights are bright, even on low. On high, they are blinding. Please consider those driving toward you. It is rude, dangerous and thoughtless. What can we do about them? If anyone can make a difference, you can! — Sissi

Dear Sissi: We are but a humble servant of the driving public.

All we can do on this matter is remind everyone about Arkansas Code Annotated 27-36-211. It says, in so many legal words, to dial down the headlights when within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle.

Also to use low beams when following within 200 feet of another vehicle.

In a way, we’re surprised. Because many recent models automatically switch beams from high to low for oncoming traffic.

Oh Great Mahatma of the Motorways: While on a recent meander from Little Rock to Lake Ouachita for a family reunion, I spied something disturbing on our Toyota’s nav screen. A street in Hot Springs Village is named Cloaca Lane. I find two definitions for cloaca. Neither seems likely to bolster property values in what I’m sure is a perfectly lovely community. Any way of finding out the history behind this? — PersnicketyDear Persnickety:

We looked up cloaca. The first definition is anatomical; the second, “sewer,” is archaic.

Not too archaic for Hot Springs Village, whose director of public services, Ken Unger, says that while he doesn’t know for a fact, he surmises the street was so named because at its end is a wastewater treatment plant.

Dear Mahatma: Had to LOL at today’s commentary! Don’t you know that some people will believe you? We’re dumb enough already and you’re making the problem worse! Think how much power you have. Use it carefully !!!!! — Barbara

Dear Barbara: You make reference, we think, to last week’s column, in which we suggested that Bill Clinton would make a fine lieutenant governor.

We should have added — ha-ha! Because that was a joke. We’re confident that Mr. Clinton would have laughed, too.

Historical facts: Three former presidents were elected to other offices.

John Quincy Adams was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

John Tyler was elected to the Confederate States Congress. (Does this count?)

Andrew Johnson was elected to both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

As Casey Stengel used to say, you could look it up.

Hello Mahatma: I have had the PHYSICS license plate since 2001! I am proud to be a physics teacher at Episcopal Collegiate School beginning in 2001 and am still at it. Tickled it made your column! — Michelle Dowell

Dear Michelle: We’re tickled, too, mostly by readers of this fine newspaper. May their tribes increase. Vanity plate: OLD LADY