Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

During the 2010 New Mexico election campaign for governor, Republican candidate and Dona Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez and Democrat candidate Lt. Gov. Diane Denish engaged in several contentious debates. During one, Denish was attempting to accuse Martinez of giving large pay raises to her staff. She meant to say the Republican candidiate gaveContinue reading “She couldn’t blame auto-correct for this…”

In 2005, the New Mexico State Fair Commission was faced with a difficult decision. It seems that many people had begun to complain that the annual fall exposition had become to long and cumbersome. The commission decided to go into special session to discuss how they might cut some of the days out of theContinue reading “More is less, I guess…”

I’m known by my family, friends and neighbors for being fastidious about keeping my vehicles well maintained and showroom clean. I can see my neighbors rolling their eyes when I’m outside on a 42 degree morning, washing my cars or pickup. I even wash off the inside of my wheel wells and scrub dirt offContinue reading “Well, poop…”

Many times over the years, I’ve escorted new visitors to Las Cruces on a tour of the campus of New Mexico State University to show off our great land grant institution. The campus gets new improvements constantly, and there’s always something interesting to see that I haven’t noticed before. One stop I always try toContinue reading “Instead of a herd, they’re a fleet…”

You might remember a few years ago when several cities around New Mexico started using mobile vans to capture photos of speeding vehicles. Those caught on camera faced a fine and traffic citation. In one incident eight years ago, a Santa Fe resident became so enraged at having “big brother” watching the streets all theContinue reading “They don’t need a lunch break, but they could probably use some defensive assault training…”

My wife, dog Chester and I recently embarked on another one of our Sunday trips around the Las Cruces area to escape the monotony of COVID-19 seclusion. This time, we ventured to Picacho Peak on the northwest side of our city. We weren’t ready to scale the 4,959 mountain that I always believed to beContinue reading “Blue rocks to make you feel better…”

In a recent post, I quoted the late cartoonist Walt Kelly about never lacking sources for stories in his clever cartoon “Pogo.” “I came to understand that if I were looking for comic material, I would never have to look long,” he said. “The news of the day would be enough.” I’ve taken that aContinue reading “Actually, my neighbor and I might have a use for it…”

We are fortunate to live in a critter-diverse part of town. Even though the street in front of our house looks hopelessly suburban, walk just a few blocks any direction from here and you’ll find open fields, pecan orchards, onion and chile plots, alfalfa patches and horse pasture. Because of the open space nearby, weContinue reading “It was like Grub Hub or Door Dash for a fox…”

On one of our daily walks through the neighborhood, we took a detour and wandered through the back streets and irrigation ditch paths in the Town of Mesilla. It’s a fascinating walk because there is so much history, tradition and “local color” on display. One of the things we found was this piece of propertyContinue reading “Just a little “fixer-upper”…”

My very good friend Victor in Albuquerque sent me this tantalizing tale from his “Nextdoor” neighborhood bulletin board earlier this week. Found chicken. Anyone missing a chicken? Caught a chicken in the middle of the road on Tramway and Copper. It’s really sweet, definitely seems like someone’s pet. So this raises all sort of questions,Continue reading “Well of course it was crossing the road… that’s what they do.”

At a New Mexico Department of Health holiday gathering four years ago, many of the 200 people who attended the Santa Fe event contracted food poisoning from eating the tapas served to them at the festive event. It turns out the event was catered by a woman who did not hold a license to caterContinue reading “Was it crow they ate?”

In the Sunday Albuquerque Journal want-ad section under “purebred dogs” was this confusing appeal: WANTED WOMEN TO BUY White German Shepherd or Black and Silver. We lost our pretty baby will be trained to be a service dog for an autistic boy. (505) XXX-XXXX Okay, I think I understand the desired outcome of this bunchContinue reading “Maybe the ability to construct a comprehendible sentence should be a requirement for dog ownership…”

Albuquerque has become a hotspot for local criminals to prey on travelers along Interstate 40 who stop in the city overnight on their way to or from some out-of-state destination. Many cars have been broken into at local motels and some vehicles have been stolen outright. The materials swiped from the cars is usually pawnedContinue reading “It was like a scene from a National Lampoon movie…”

About two weeks ago, I wrote about a mysterious pair of abandoned cowboy boots left in plain sight on our walk along one of the many irrigation ditches that meander through our rural/urban neighborhood. The boots were well worn, but could have been saved with a new sole. I pondered all kinds of theories onContinue reading “The game is afoot — or at least the boots are…”