Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

And other odds and ends… First, a couple of updates. The woman in Albuquerque who lost her pet cockatiel is still advertising periodically in the Albuquerque Journal for the bird’s return. As mentioned in a previous blog, she used an “animal communicator” to determine that the bird is still alive and was rescued by someoneContinue reading “Steam, Cheetos and Horses, oh my…”

New Mexico hasn’t had the best record on public executions for bad guys over the years. I previously wrote about the botched hanging of notorious outlaw Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum during which his head snapped off when he plunged through the gallows at Clayton, NM, April 16, 1901. Ketchum, who had made a career ofContinue reading ““Old Sparky” wasn’t much better…”

I’m finishing up a more than two-week stint as an election official for early voting in the Nov. 4 primary in Dona Ana County. My location, as it has been in the previous four elections, is the town hall of Mesilla. Surrounding me are displays about the history of Mesilla, many focusing on the connectionsContinue reading “In old Lincoln, it really was like that…”

When I fly commercially, I always try to get a window seat so I can look out of the plane at the landscape and wonder about things I see on the ground. I even pick a specific side of the plane I’m on if I know there’s something special along the route that I canContinue reading “It must have been a really BIG bang…”

Like many in the Land of Enchantment, I always assumed that our state’s name was derived from Mexico, the nation to our south. I figured that our state was named after Mexico had been established as a country. I was wrong. Read on. I made that assumption when you consider the pattern that many placesContinue reading “Las Cruces, Andalucia, has a nice ring to it…”

In Las Cruces on the banks of the Rio Grande where the old highway to Deming, Tucson and California crosses the river is La Llorona Park. The river here is shallow and slow even during the summer when water from Elephant Butte reservoir is released for the irrigation needs for farmers. In the lean precipitationContinue reading “And just in time for Halloween when you thought it couldn’t get weirder…”

The Albuquerque Journal carried a story this week about a plan floated by University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University students to establish some kind of traveling trophy to be awarded to the winner of the annual football game between the two rivals. Their idea was to mount a table-top chile roaster onContinue reading “Better than a broken chair???”

The town of Ruidoso had its beginnings around 1868 with the construction of a water powered mill that was first used to cut timber, then later used to grind grain produced by farmers in the area. It became the hub of activity in Ruidoso in the late 1800s, attracting such visitors such as Billy theContinue reading ““More bolts than wood…””

As I’ve done many times in the past, I did a presentation to a group of elementary school students last week about hot air ballooning. I usually did a demonstration with my balloon on the school playground, but since I no longer have a balloon and stopped flying about four years ago, this presentation wasContinue reading “Well, I never thought of it that way…”