Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

My wife has always suspected that instead of feral cats, we have feral Chihuahua dogs running wild in Las Cruces. We’ve seen evidence of that to some degree. I’m no fan of Chihuahua dogs. To me, dogs need to be medium to large in size, have hair and not be yappy. The only small dogContinue reading “Throw ’em a bone (and hope they have enough teeth to chew it)…”

In a recent blog, I lamented about the lack of copy editors to guard against affronts to the English language in our newspapers these days. Our good friend Cheryl found an entertaining obituary in the local newspaper last week confirming that view. Let me make it clear, the notice of someone’s death was not entertaining.Continue reading “Lettuce not speak eel of the dead…”

Hustlers and scammers seem to find a way to make a buck out of anything bad. As you’ve probably read, there have been lots of schemes to part people from their money during the COVID-19 pandemic — from signing people up for phony vaccination times to shady investment schemes for their COVID relief funds. Well,Continue reading “An idea that’s a day late and a dollar short…”

There’s a friendly little neighborhood park just a few blocks away from our home in Mesilla Park. It’s a real gem because it’s largely unknown, hidden in the middle of a bunch of streets that go nowhere and very cozy. Our grandkids always make the park a top priority when they visit us. It’s myContinue reading “This kid had it figured out 17 years ago…”

I’m proud to say I knew award winning novelist and New Mexico icon Tony Hillerman. He was a professor of journalism when I began my pursuit of a journalism degree at the University of New Mexico in the late 1960s. I considered him a mentor while in school and stayed in touch with him afterContinue reading “Keeping things in perspective on the Navajo Nation…”

I wrote two posts earlier this year regarding the appearance and then sudden disappearance of a pair of still functional cowboy boots along the irrigation ditch road in our neighborhood. Well, strange things keep happening around that location and I’m starting to wonder about what gyrating forces of the unknown are lurking around there. No,Continue reading “The weirdness portal in our neighborhood…”

A story in the Albuquerque Journal several years ago focused on an unusual attempt to steal a stand-alone ATM machine on the city’s west side. A man managed to hot wire a front end loader from a nearby construction site, drive it to the location of the ATM and then proceed to pluck it upContinue reading “Things I never thought of doing with construction equipment…”

Over the years, the owner of an apartment complex in Bernalillo, a bedroom community to Albuquerque, probably found lots of unusual things left by renters after they vacated their digs. However, in 2010, what the owner found was especially disconcerting. Left behind in a kiddy pool on the floor of the the living room ofContinue reading “One upsmanship over alligators, perhaps?”

Apparently too anxious to get out for the party on New Year’s Eve in 2010, an employee of AAA accidentally typed in the wrong number for a “Tipsy Tow” service in Carlsbad. Off by just one digit, it turned out to be an 800 number for a phone sex service.  I’m just speculating here, butContinue reading “It might have kept you entertained enough to keep you from driving…”

My blogs have been a bit scarce for the last week because we were entertaining our daughter and two small grandchildren from Austin for the first time in more than a year. Our week consisted of daily hikes around the area to see things we thought everyone would enjoy experiencing. We visited Slot Canyon, theContinue reading “You really CAN communicate without 5G or a new iPhone…”

When I was beginning my career in journalism, newspapers had copy desks. They were filled with sage older writers who had migrated from the thrill of being a beat reporter to the seemingly mundane task of reviewing every article that was to go in the paper, writing a headline for it and them assembling theContinue reading “The death of the copy desk…”

About six months ago, I wrote about a guy in Clovis who was standing naked on a street corner and ranting about various injustices when city police stopped and tried to diffuse the situation. The naked perp managed to jump into a still-running police unit and streak (pun intended) off to the hospital, where heContinue reading “Maybe this guy had a cousin in Clovis…”

In the last few years, I have started reading obituaries in the Albuquerque Journal about people I’ve never met. I’m mostly interested in what people did during their lives and if they are not native New Mexico residents, how and why they ended up here. I feel that by reading these obituaries, I am inContinue reading “They just don’t make ’em like that any more…”

In 2005, workers at the Albuquerque Zoo discovered something rather gruesome outside the cage of the resident Jaguar. It was a human finger, severed no doubt by the bite of the “panthera onca” in the cage. No one came forward to claim the severed digit, maybe because they were too embarrassed that they really didn’tContinue reading “This was beyond catnip…”