Doesn't matter how small you are, you can make a difference.

-- Craig Payne, Fort Worth restaurant owner

I have often shared with readers my problems with squirrels, which I consider bushy-tailed nuisances.

Such opinions are not always popular, but my old friend Robert shares the latest from Texas, where he noticed this weekend's report from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram .

"Thousands of residents in south and southwest Fort Worth were urged Friday to boil their drinking water until further notice, and almost 400 restaurants were ordered to close after a morning power outage shut down two water pumping stations.

"Electricity went off in the area about 9:20 a.m. after a squirrel wandered into the switch gear at an electric substation ... causing two transformers to short out.

"When pumping stations temporarily lost power, about 25,000 to 30,000 households lost water or experienced low water pressure, city officials said."

Then things got really bad.

Because the water department is afraid the disrupted water supply might now be not entirely germ free, they closed the restaurants and asked people to start boiling water for home use.

Teams of city health inspectors, code compliance officers and workers from other departments worked into the night to notify the affected businesses, Amy Casas, a spokeswoman with the city's Public Health Department, told the newspaper.

All because of a squirrel.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

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MORE MAIL: Pat and Wayne Fuller , of North Augusta, send a postcard from Mount Airy, N.C., home of Andy Griffith and inspiration for the Snappy Lunch restaurant, which really exists.

"Just had to stop here for the 'poke chop sandwich,' " they wrote. "Long drive for lunch, but worth it."

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MY APOLOGIES: I referred to Leap Year birthday celebrator Larkin Holmes as "she" in Friday's column, and he's not.

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TODAY'S JOKE: Everett Fernandez shares this one.

It seems an old shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read "Best Deals."

He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign reading "Lowest Prices."

The shopkeeper was panicked, until he got an idea.

He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop.

It read: ''Main entrance.''