Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

I start my duties today, Oct. 8, as an election clerk, Machine Judge and Same Day Registration official for the Nov. 5 general election. My first job is fairly simple — retrieve absentee ballots from the collection box outside the polling place where I will be working during the election and turn them into theContinue reading “Glad to be part of something that’s ranked #1…”

“You are requesting information which we have determined does not currently exist and would, therefore, require the TRD (New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department) to create a new public record.  We are, therefore, unable to provide for inspection of the records that would include the information that you have requested.” The above is the state’sContinue reading “Stonewalled, at least for now…”

(Imagine you’re listening to the tune of Sonny and Cher’s “And the beat goes on…”) If I was a resident of New Mexico trying to address a serious problem that I thought state government could help me with, I would have concluded after two days of searching online and by phone that there are noContinue reading “And the search goes on…”

Many years ago, when I was Bureau Chief with United Press International in Santa Fe, the news cycle would predictably slow down during the summer months when the New Mexico Legislature was out of session and bureaucrats went back into hiding to lick their wounds inflicted by the lawmakers. On top of that, many peopleContinue reading “Going down a rabbit hole, Italian style…”

A couple of quick updates regarding fish. Last month, the once endangered Gila trout’s cousin, the Apache trout, was removed from the federal endangered and threatened species list, which is worth another cheer from all of us who love the outdoors. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, formerly a New Mexico member of Congress, made the announcement.Continue reading “Salmonid stories…”

Various news agencies have recently reported the closing of the historic St. James Hotel in Cimarron, a property in northeastern New Mexico known for housing many famous Western characters during its heyday. The hotel, as several other older New Mexico hotels have claimed, is also suspected to be haunted. Take, for example, the Lodge inContinue reading “It’s not just the scratchy sheets…”

There have been two articles in the Albuquerque Journal recently about an apparent bat infestation at Presbyterian Hospital in that city. My most memorable bat experiences was the time I was coaching my son’s soccer team in an evening game under the lights and the players — 10 to 12 years old at the timeContinue reading “Stating the obvious…”

When I last wrote about the mystery of Henry and Linda Twaddle, whose detail-free obituaries had been running for weeks in our local newspaper, my wife suggested that it was time to “just leave them alone.” Finally I can do that, now that I have discovered a bit more about them and that they didContinue reading “May they rest in peace…”

The on again, partially on again and completely missing mystery of the Twaddles’ obituary continues. In an earlier post, I wrote about the twin Twaddle obituaries that appeared for weeks (maybe even months) in the local Las Cruces Sun-News. Separate obituaries for Henry J. Twaddle and Linda M. Twaddle were always published adjacent to eachContinue reading “More twaddling about the Twaddle mystery…”

Every summer, we see a few mushrooms pop up in our back yard. As far as we know, they are not a poisonous variety and our dog Chester seems to ignore them. He likes to chase tennis balls, and I was afraid he might confuse one of the rounder fungi for a toy, but heContinue reading “An invasion in our back yard…”

We’ve all been aware of the hard times that Ruidoso residents have been facing since the huge South Fork and Salt fires and subsequent flooding this summer. Last Sunday, the Albuquerque Journal wrote a great story about how the Ruidoso High School football team was going ahead with its fall season, even though they wereContinue reading “A good news story…”

Our Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus (2002 edition) offer this as the definition of the word “twaddle:” “n. {prob. var. of TATTLE} foolish empty talk or writing. nonsense” For the last several weeks, our local newspaper has been publishing daily separate obituaries for a Henry J. Twaddle and Linda M. Twaddle. The obituaries areContinue reading “A twaddle on the Twaddles…”

Years ago, a journalist colleague of mine while I was working for United Press International in Santa Fe once described a particularly bland news release issued by some state agency as being “as exciting as the third tallest building in Zurich, Switzerland.” That was my reaction a couple of weeks ago when I picked upContinue reading “The third tallest building in Zurich…”

Newspapers.com is a source I refer to regularly for interesting items about New Mexico’s history. I especially like to read how newspaper editors and reporters of the time write about events, specifically about wording they use to describe them. As I was poking through the site today, I stumbled across an article in the MarchContinue reading ““…so grave and heinous…””