Category Archives: Uncategorized

Last week, we accompanied our grandkids on a tour of Lincoln County where I grew up in southern New Mexico. Our trip included stops at the Smokey Bear museum in Capitan, the Malpais lavabeds north of Carrizozo, old Lincoln, Fort Stanton, Ruidoso and other points in between. On the way, we stopped at the InternationalContinue reading “Atomic rocks…”

Yogi Berra’s famous quote may have more significance than I thought, given some developments around our house. My wife recently started noticing a dramatic decline in certain items in our every day eating utensils. We were down to just two forks and four spoons after originally having eight of each when we acquired the setContinue reading “When you come to a fork in the road, take it…”

Being as close as Las Cruces is to the border with Mexico, it’s not surprising that smuggling — in both directions — has been going on in this area for centuries. As you may recall, I resurrected my finely honed investigative reporting skills (yes, that was a joke) about three years ago to find outContinue reading “Why did the chicken cross the border?”

I’ve been working my way through a book edited by my former journalism professor, Tony Hillerman, entitled “Best of the West: An Anthology of Classic Writing from the American West.” The book contains 142 short stories on a variety of subjects, mostly historical in nature. Under the section of the book entitled “Tall Tales andContinue reading “Fur bearing trout…”

A friend and neighbor asked me last week if I was interested in helping with a project that I had never known about until he extended me the invitation. It’s called the “New Mexico Ramp Project.” It is a volunteer-based program to construct wheelchair accessible ramps to homes of low-income disabled residents in 15 NewContinue reading “Ramping up…”

The New Mexico Legislature, which I covered as a reporter for seven years, always seems to have time in between debate on major issues to bring a bit of levity or silliness into their work. Witness in the last few years that we have added adopted legislation that declares the “official” state almost everything. WeContinue reading “The state state…”

I suspect when you think of organ music, long dark-themed dirges come to mind — like Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor during which the entire concert hall vibrates when the lowest notes are played. My wife and I were pleasantly surprised last weekend when we attended a free local concert given by JohnContinue reading “From the plazas of New Mexico to the concert halls…”

For those of you who might not be aware of ski racing history, Hermann Maier was a phenomenal racer for Austria during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was known for overcoming an almost fatal motorcycle accident to win two gold medals in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He won many other OlympicContinue reading “No “Red Sleds” or ROC 550s were injured during this repurposing…”

The Mescalero Apache Tribe’s Mescalero Fish Hatchery has come through again with help for the Ruidoso White Mountain Elementary “Trout in the Classroom” project. Trout in the Classroom is a nationwide program of the non-profit Trout Unlimited organization. The program is aimed at teaching students the value of preserving clean cold-water fisheries, educating them onContinue reading “Apaches to the rescue, Part II…”

As you may remember, our dog Chester picked the Philadelphia Eagles to win this year’s Super Bowl, using his enigmatic canine selection process to choose between a green and a red squeaky ball tossed into our back yard. His selection process is made even more incomprehensible since dogs are essentially color blind. When he pickedContinue reading “Relishing his pick…”

If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t pick the Philadelphia Eagles to win this weekend’s Super Bowl. That’s because Chester, our overly enthusiastic Goldendoodle, has made what is likely to be his fourth bad pick on which team will win the football game. As we’ve done for the past four years, we’ve tossed twoContinue reading “Chester’s choice…”