Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

In 1927, a 13-year-old orphan of Aleut-Russian descent, came up with the design for the Alaska state flag. The simple design featuring the big dipper and the north star in gold on a dark blue flag, was submitted by Benny Benson to the Alaska Department of the American Legion, which had conducted a design contestContinue reading “A horror story that only Hollywood could make up…”

In 2017, someone accidentally flew the Nebraska state flag upside down at the capitol in Lincoln for 10 days before someone noticed the error. It’s understandable. It’s a busy state seal placed over a dark blue background that looks like state flags from several other states that seems to have been designed around the sameContinue reading “Homely would be a generous description…”

Frequent reading of the Albuquerque Journal’s “Business Outlook” section provides fodder for my brain to turn the mundane into a blog. For example, there’s always the Restaurant Inspections section which provides some cringeworthy details of why certain eateries have been shut down. Consider these: “Person in charge unable to provide records…” “Unlabeled spray bottles containingContinue reading “Um, I thought that was already invented…”

Remind me in the future to always check first with my good friend Jim Libbin, retired Acting Dean of the New Mexico State University Department of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences before I post anything agricultural related. He thankfully called me out on the errors I made in post earlier this week regarding New Mexico’sContinue reading “Moo (less)…”

By just one place, New Mexico missed being in the top ten among states of something I never quite thought about. While browsing the internet this morning, this surprising statistic showed up unexpectedly on Instagram. So according to this non-sourced post on Instagram, New Mexico is 11th in the nation for the number of cattleContinue reading “Moo…”

My wife recently suggested that before I write anything historical about New Mexico in my blog posts that I should check first with our very good friend Cheryl, a retired librarian at New Mexico State University and a great researcher and diligent fact checker. I mention this because of a recent blog about the bigContinue reading “Meeting in the middle revisited…”

I’ve always said that you can tell a true long-time New Mexico resident by the fact that they stand outside to watch when it’s raining. We’re getting some rain this morning, a bit of an anomaly for the first week of June — at least four weeks before the usual summer monsoon rains start. WhileContinue reading “Maybe people in New Mexico stayed mostly inside in 1941…”

I know, it would sound better if the squirrel was a mole, so I could say “Holy Mole.” But no, I spotted the actual ground squirrel that has been “ventilating” the otherwise lovely grounds of our church, St. James’ Episcopal in Mesilla Park these last few days. Not only has it dug several holes, butContinue reading “A holy squirrel confirms river history…”

For some reason that we can’t explain, the hollyhock flowers we have on the east side of our house have exploded into more blooms than we’ve ever seen before from the humble plants that are honestly really close to just being weeds. We planted some of these years ago and have had a few stragglersContinue reading “Hollyhock histrionics…”

The Trout in the Classroom program at White Mountain Elementary school in Ruidoso, which has had its ups and downs this year, concluded last week with the release of three fish that we think were raised in the 3rd grade classroom of teacher Rachel Lutterman. The 150 kids who witnessed it, along with a tourContinue reading “The big fish dump…”

About 40 years ago, we planted a cottonwood tree in our front yard, hoping the species would be appropriate for the Rio Grande valley area in which our home is located. The tree has done well but is beginning to show its age with several large branches dying and some infestation by mistletoe. I calledContinue reading “On Cybertrucks and soup kitchens…”

Imagine that you’re walking along the dusty main street of Taos, NM, 125 years ago in April. It’s a pleasant day with fragrant flowers and fruit trees in blossom, temperatures in the low 60s, no blustery spring winds and a receding cap of snow on towering Taos Mountain just to your east. Somewhere in theContinue reading “There weren’t any EV charging stations back then…”

The chair I’m sitting in as I write this and used while writing all my previous blogs was a roadside find. A home just down the street from us had placed it outside in hopes someone might want it. It was a classic design, solid oak, in need of a new cushion and some structuralContinue reading “Roadside relief…”