Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

Sports venues around the nation have long been given nicknames by fans. There’s “The Pit” in Albuquerque, home for the University of New Mexico basketball team. The Albuquerque Isotopes baseball team has played for years in “The Lab.” In Las Cruces, we have “The Field of Dreams” for our joint-use high school football stadium. AndContinue reading “Critters trying to get an NIL* deal???”

I followed with great interest a story out of California earlier this month about a fire that had severely damaged an overpass on Interstate 10 in Los Angles. Initial analysis by naysayers said it could be weeks or maybe months to get the heavily traveled section of one of America’s most important east-west routes repaired.Continue reading “Waiting for the adobes to dry…”

State Police reported that they were summoned to investigate a knife attack on a passenger aboard an Amtrak train during September. The train — en route from Los Angeles to Chicago — had to be stopped along its route through Valencia County so the incident could be investigated, according to a report by KOAT-TV inContinue reading “It wasn’t quite “Murder on the Orient Express” and other New Mexico railroad tales…”

I confess, I like junk food and eat it more than I should. Maybe once a week (although my wife would probably argue that point.) This morning, as part of our usual routine to pick up groceries, I grabbed something for breakfast at McDonald’s. I placed my order for an artery-clogging Egg McMuffin and hashContinue reading “Do as I say, not as I do…”

Pity poor Asha, the lonely Mexican gray wolf who has wandered around a good chunk of New Mexico this year looking for a proper mate, but still hasn’t found the right guy. In June, I wrote about how the animal — ignominiously identified by federal wildlife officials as wolf #F2754 — had strayed from herContinue reading “Her fella must be out there somewhere…”

I found a school of them (pardon the pun) at White Mountain Elementary in Ruidoso last Friday. They’re excited and ready to watch tiny trout hatch and grow in their classroom this coming spring semester and then be transplanted as fingerlings into rivers or lakes near them in the Lincoln National Forest. Here’s what’s happening:Continue reading “Fishing for Third Graders…”

After a 14-hour day working the polls on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 7, I am finally recovering. This year’s experience as a poll worker was much less intense than last year’s election. I first worked as a “Same Day Registration” and “Sample Ballot” clerk for two weeks beginning Oct. 21 through Nov. 4. On electionContinue reading “Recovering from the election…”

I just finished reading what I considered to be a really entertaining and engaging book by a retired New Mexico State University economics professor. And no, it’s not some scholarly tome analyzing micro economic impacts of locust infestations on eastern European wheat farms. The book, by long-time friend, neighbor and distinguished NMSU professor Jim Peach,Continue reading “International intrigue, Oklahoma and the Cubs…”

My readers may be tiring about recent posts regarding my father, but I hope you’ll forgive me for writing one more. The posts are the result of me acquiring some documents, drawings, letters and other memorabilia in a box given to me by a step sister who I had not seen for years. I recentlyContinue reading “Snooping around…”

I was driving to the auto parts store last week when I spotted this gem rolling through the parking lot. I walked over to the vehicle when the owner was getting out and asked if he minded if I could take a picture of it. He was proud of his ride and proud to haveContinue reading “Just in time for Halloween…”

As I think I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been going through a stash of personal papers and memories of my father that were given to me last month by my step-sister. One that caught my eye was photograph my father took when he was editor and publisher of the Ruidoso News of artist PeterContinue reading ““The ugliest thing I ever saw…””

You can always tell a true New Mexico resident by these three behaviors: In Tuesday’s Albuquerque Journal, there was a story that Texas has erected a razor wire barrier in southern Dona Ana County to keep people in New Mexico from entering the Lone Star State. For years, many of us in New Mexico secretlyContinue reading “The irony of it all…”

Sometimes, you get weird inspiration while you’re tossing and turning in bed trying to go to sleep. This is the story of one such inspiration. In 2018, a total solar eclipse passed directly over my wife’s family farm in Nebraska. We had thought about going there to view it, but making the trip became somewhatContinue reading “Corona, corona, Corona…”

What follows is important journalism, loyal readers! It may take a while to read and digest it all. As I think I’ve mentioned several times in my blogs, I grew up in the southern New Mexico mountain community of Ruidoso in the shadow of Sierra Blanca peak. Sierra Blanca is the tallest mountain in theContinue reading “We’re missing 22 feet, and I have a plan to get it back…”