Category Archives: Uncategorized

Okay, it’s official. I am a new grandfather — well, if you can count a rainbow trout as a grandchild. I got word yesterday that at least three of the 35 rainbow trout eggs we carefully placed in an aquarium in a 3rd grade classroom at White Mountain Elementary School in Ruidoso have hatched. TheContinue reading “BULLETIN — I’ll be smoking that celebratory cigar…”

As a marketer, I often studied cases focusing on life-cycles of maturing industries and products. The product cycle curve is bell shaped, where best opportunities for profit and growth are early in the beginning of the industry or product. By the end of the cycle, there is deep discounting, increasing competition and declining sales andContinue reading “Signs of a maturing industry…”

My wife said the whole process sounded like a Pony Express delivery from the 1800s. Only it wasn’t mail that was being delivered — it was rainbow trout eggs. On the evening of Feb. 11, a batch of freshly fertilized eggs was shipped by truck during a snow storm from a New Mexico Department ofContinue reading “Waiting for the hatch…”

The last time I flew a hot air balloon was about a year ago. It wasn’t much of a flight — just three short hops on vacant field to get current (the FAA required three take offs and landings every 90 days.) At this time, I’m no longer current and I also need to do aContinue reading “An uplifting weekend…”

I skipped writing anything last week because we were really tired. We are still recovering from almost two weeks of fun with grandkids and adult children (who we love very much), but it’s a lot of work and stress as we get “gracefully older. “ I’ll begin by ranting that the Albuquerque Journal did notContinue reading “New Year’s musings…”

I read an interesting article in the New York Times online edition recently about how skiing has become so expensive in recent years, mostly because of the monopoly of two giant corporations which have acquired ski resorts around the United States. One or two of those areas are in New Mexico. I realize I’m soundingContinue reading “I’m going to try to go this season…”

It happens every year right before Christmas. A frantic search for votive candles and the right size paper lunch bags. I start looking for candles in July every year, knowing that the shelves where they can usually be found are stripped bare by the 15th of December. And while paper bags are not quite asContinue reading “The official sound of a New Mexico Christmas and my Aero-Cordero gift to you…”

A new type of restaurant opened in the last couple of weeks in Las Cruces that calls itself “The Roasted Rooster.” Its specialty is waffles and chicken, but they have several other things on the menu, including an odd-sounding green chile and cheese waffle. The chicken is baked, not fried as you would expect fromContinue reading “The Fetid Fowl…”

A couple of quick updates for my readers. First, my good friend from Albuquerque, Ken Tabish, and I got the fish tank filled and running this week at White Mountain Elementary School in Ruidoso. If you’ll recall, Trout Unlimited sponsors programs to allow elementary or middle school students to raise trout in a large aquariumsContinue reading “Fish and finished…”

I the last few years, I’ve taken an interest in reading newspaper obituaries of people I’ve never heard of or known. I think it’s a natural curiosity about people’s lives that comes from my background in journalism to gather information. My wife says when I’m introduced to new people, I often end up “interviewing” themContinue reading “New Mexico’s best invention…”

Imagine that a 911 operator gets this phone call from a frantic woman in Questa in northern New Mexico: “Please send the fire department and an ambulance. My kitchen is on fire. The grease from cooking tortillas caught my curtains on fire and splashed hot liquid on my arms!!!” The response from the 911 operator:Continue reading “I hope residents of Questa have lots of fire extinguishers and first aid kits…”

Sports venues around the nation have long been given nicknames by fans. There’s “The Pit” in Albuquerque, home for the University of New Mexico basketball team. The Albuquerque Isotopes baseball team has played for years in “The Lab.” In Las Cruces, we have “The Field of Dreams” for our joint-use high school football stadium. AndContinue reading “Critters trying to get an NIL* deal???”

I followed with great interest a story out of California earlier this month about a fire that had severely damaged an overpass on Interstate 10 in Los Angles. Initial analysis by naysayers said it could be weeks or maybe months to get the heavily traveled section of one of America’s most important east-west routes repaired.Continue reading “Waiting for the adobes to dry…”

State Police reported that they were summoned to investigate a knife attack on a passenger aboard an Amtrak train during September. The train — en route from Los Angeles to Chicago — had to be stopped along its route through Valencia County so the incident could be investigated, according to a report by KOAT-TV inContinue reading “It wasn’t quite “Murder on the Orient Express” and other New Mexico railroad tales…”