Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

No, not our wedding anniversary. That was 51 years ago on Feb. 13, 1971. This anniversary was March 30, 1982, when the Space Shuttle Columbia landed at what was then called Northrup Strip on White Sands Missile Range, virtually in our back yard here in southern New Mexico. Columbia, which began its mission on MarchContinue reading “A 40th anniversary I missed a year ago…”

I read with sadness last week that Chevrolet was planning to end production of the Camaro, introduced in 1966 to combat Ford’s wildly successful Mustang. That car, as well as the Mustang and many other followers, fueled the desire of young men to look cool in a sporty but relatively inexpensive set of wheels. IContinue reading “The end of many young men’s dreams…”

But first things first, my good friend Don in Montana spotted another error in my writing. And to make it worse, it was in an article about how careful we need to be with writing style. I apparently inserted a semi-colon in place of an apostrophe in the word “it’s.” I blame my fat fingersContinue reading “Being handsome and sartorial wasn’t enough to save him…”

As a former journalist, I pride myself on proper spelling, being grammatically correct and being consistent in my writing style. In my more than 50 years as a journalist, the United Press International Stylebook was THE proper way of writing. It;s my writing Bible, so to speak. For example, it says to always spell outContinue reading “A correction and an observation…”

A couple of quick updates. First, my good friend Don in Montana sent me an update about plans to auction off Elvis Presley’s private jet that had been left on the tarmac for years at the Roswell Industrial Air Center (old Walker Air Force Base). The plane, complete with a red velvet interior, was aContinue reading “Elvis and the chihuahuas…”

I’ll bet that many of you remember 5th or 6th grade geography class, in which we had to remember the names of each state capitol. Montpelier, Vermont, always stood out in my mind, for some obscure reason. So when it came to Arizona, it was always easy to remember Phoenix as the capitol because itContinue reading “Mesilla, Arizona???”

I’ve been driving past this place in Las Cruces Several years. It was the location of Church’s Chicken franchise which apparently did not do well in our city, perhaps because of its location on a busy one-way street, and was forced to close because of limited business. (Truth be told, I ate there one timeContinue reading “Stating the obvious…”

The Territory of New Mexico was established on Sept. 9, 1850. At that time, the territory included a vast swath of land in the Southwest, including all of our current state and what is now Arizona, the southernmost portion of Nevada and a portion of Colorado which included the headwaters of the Rio Grande. TheContinue reading “New Mexizona???”

On one of our daily walks about three years ago, my wife and I discovered some spectacular artwork on the side of an arroyo just east of the New Mexico State University golf course. Images of various animals, reptiles, birds and insects were created out of rocks, tiles, glass and other materials were displayed inContinue reading “Moveable Art…”

I’m glad I’m not flying a hot air balloon these days — especially an all white one. The recent shoot-down of four high altitude balloons by the U.S. Air Force over the U.S. and Canada made me wonder if some loose cannon might decide that any large orb seen floating in the sky might beContinue reading “Open season on balloons???”

As usual, New Mexico has been hijacked again. With the kerfuffle surrounding the New Mexico State University basketball team this week, NBC and its various offshoots seem to have grabbed the wrong name and the wrong video when attempting to link the incident to the correct school. Much to the chagrin of Lobo fans, theContinue reading “Ends and odds…”

Well, Mexican bologna is in the news yet again. The first notable item occurred when President Biden visited El Paso last month to see what was happening with the large influx of migrants from Mexico, Central and South America. He spent a lot of time with U.S. Border Patrol Agents, and one of the thingsContinue reading “You just can’t get enough balogna from me…”

I’m not going to get into the arguments that have erupted about the Chinese “spy balloon” in recent days. I will say it has created a treasure trove of comedic responses on both sides of the issue. I’ll say that the one below made me laugh out loud the most. So here’s what I knowContinue reading “Overly inflated…”

I’m sure many of you saw recent news accounts that the New Mexico Legislature is considering legislation to make the scent of roasting green chile the state’s “official aroma.” My first response is a big thank you to the lawmakers for giving me a wonderful topic for my blog. My second response is amusement aboutContinue reading “Smelling your way around the USA…”