Nestled in the Texas hill country in Austin's outskirts, the telecom and electro unit ought to be leading 3M into the future.

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There's the Gulf Coast, Texas Hill Country, the Great Plains, Sonoran Desert, Rocky Mountains, Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Lakes, and so on.

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Early in his career, Fisk might have appeared like a wacky wizard working in a secret laboratory in the Texas Hill country mesquite brush.

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This suggestion comes from Texan Greg Kagay, the securities analyst who left New York last decade to set up shop in the Texas Hill Country, to the envy of his friends.

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Different life experiences altogether, but in each case, the core lessons, the character-setting events, all occurred in haberdashery shops and Texas Hill Country classrooms and practicing law with Phil Buchen in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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If the story of chilli is the story of Texas, the whole book is neatly abridged in the Hill Country, the rolling uplands north of San Antonio.

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