Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

GO PYGMIES!!! I suspect many of you never saw the story that the New Mexico Tech rugby team finished second in the national finals for small colleges in December. They finished one place higher than the New Mexico State University rugby team I coached in 1981 to finish third in the final four of collegiateContinue reading “Another rugby final four for New Mexico…”

In 2006, while excavating an area for the new Sweeney Convention Center in downtown Santa Fe, archaeologists found an unusual mix of items that had been tossed down a communal outhouse. As expected, there were many bottles of liquor, medicine (probably mostly alcohol) and laxatives (again, probably mostly alcohol) that had been dropped in theContinue reading “The weird thing they would find at our house are Barbie toes…”

Several things caught my eye today in the newspapers we read daily. The first was the announcement by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that. because of increasing teacher shortages in public schools in the state due to COVID, members of the New Mexico National Guard may be deployed to fill in as substitute teachers. This raisesContinue reading “Will they play reveille when classes start?”

In 1995, birds were making news in New Mexico. In the first instance, several emus were released (either accidentally or intentionally) in the Gila National Forest and were spotted multiple times running wild. One observer reported to authorities that he had seen “a really big turkey.” If it had been spotted further east in theContinue reading “Mutant turkeys and giving a hoot…”

My wife recently received a summons for jury duty, her third since we’ve lived in Las Cruces. (I’ve only served on one jury panel in my life, while living in Santa Fe more than 40 years ago.) Despite some occasional grumbling about it, my Nebraska farm girl wife — armed with straightforward and honest MidwesternContinue reading “Dodging Aunt Millie’s Tupperware party…”

In 2011, a 78-year-old man in Hobbs was trying to accommodate three young men who came to his his house late one evening asking to use a telephone for an emergency. He went to grab his cordless phone but when he came back, the three forced their way into the home, pushed him to theContinue reading “Not being June Cleaver…”

I think I’ve touched on this subject before, but a recent story out of Ohio made me think about it again. The story in Ohio involved the issuance of a new license plate. The plate, the first new design to be issued since 2013, was vetted by many different groups over its 15-month development. ItContinue reading “Something in New Mexico that’s idiot proof…”

I always look forward to the Albuquerque Journal’s annual Cowchip awards, published at the end of the year to document many goofy things that have happened in the state during the past 365 days. I’ve often used these stories from years past as fodder for my own blog. And I’ve also written about some ofContinue reading “Letting someone else have a turn…”

It’s a legendary road house in central New Mexico. Many people who have traveled on I-25 between Albuquerque and Las Cruces have stopped there for lunch.  Lots of folks from  southeastern New Mexico who take U.S, 380 to get to Albuquerque have stopped there as well. And people from all other parts of the stateContinue reading “Even better than the burgers…”

A Las Cruces man wanted to go to the El Paso airport two weeks ago but became annoyed when he couldn’t find anyone to help him get there. He came up with a unique solution, which instead of getting him to the airport, got him hauled off to jail initially and then ultimately to aContinue reading “Unusual approach to hitching a ride to the airport…”

While my wife and I suffered through another painful Nebraska football season, we got caught up in the school’s highly successful women’s volleyball program this year. We watched every game we could get on TV and were rewarded for our faithful support when the Husker women made it to to the national championship match lastContinue reading “Uplifting sports …”

Our grandchildren from Texas are visiting for the holidays, and as usual, we are busy with entertaining them. Their choice of activities today was to take the leaves they helped me rake up from our back yard to the yard waste/compost dump. No really, they were surprisingly excited about a trip to the dump inContinue reading “It didn’t fit holiday mood I was envisioning…”

It seems that every Christmas holiday season, retailers come up with a new decorating trend that everyone wants. Last year, I think, it was black and white buffalo check table cloths, wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, napkins, etc. 2021 is the year of the table top red vintage pickup with a Christmas tree in back. IfContinue reading “They’re everywhere…”

Colleges around the nation have been inspired by the success the University of Florida had years ago in licensing the sports drink “Gatorade” that was invented at the school.  In our state, New Mexico State University has capitalized on its 1888 Pistol Pete Ale, as well as a recently released product called “Pistol Pete’s SixContinue reading “Not a nuts idea…”