Nora probably isn’t the first college girl to attend a prom, but I’m thinking she might be the first one to get there by motor scooter. She drove. See photo!
Fun.
Category: Albuquerque & New Mexico
That’s our Pete
At Jack Valenti’s funeral in Washington on Tuesday, I was reminded of the old observation that the powerful always expect to be the center of attention, including “the bride at the wedding, the corpse at the funeral.”
Senator Pete Domenici arrived 20 minutes late, well after the side doors to St. Matthew’s Cathedral had closed, and at the exact moment the cortege reached the top of the steps and paused before proceeding down the center aisle.
Like most senators, Domenici isn’t used to waiting even for the deceased. He turned sideways to gauge whether he could squeeze past the remains of Valenti, a former Hollywood lobbyist. If it weren’t for pallbearers twice his size, he might have. In a church packed with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Michael Douglas, Domenici marched toward the altar, presuming someone would make room for him. Someone did.
Link via New Mexico FBIHOP.
Best lines about Madrid, New Mexico
These were provided by commenters to my item The spirited ghost town but I didn’t want them to be missed.
“There are no traffic lights or stop signs in the entire town, because they don’t want to be in the position of telling someone else what to do.”
“MA – drid doesn’t have any traffic lights YET…there is one in the works, they just haven’t decided what colors they’re gonna use…”
Red Light Pile-up
Exactly!
Read about unintended (but clearly predictable) consequences at Eye On Albuquerque.
As we noted here last summer, according to Santa Fe Sheriff Greg Solano, studies have shown that “accidents increase at intersections with red light camera’s due to motorists making abrupt stops in order to avoid the citation.”
Top 25 Cities for Clean Air (and Dirty)
The top metropolitan areas for clean air.
- Cheyenne, Wyo.
- Santa Fe-Espanola, N.M.
- Honolulu
- Great Falls, Mont.
- Farmington, N.M.
- Flagstaff, Ariz.
- Tucson, Ariz.
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Bismarck, N.D.
- Albuquerque, N.M.
And dirty.
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.
- Pittsburgh-New Castle, Pa.
- Bakersfield, Calif.
- Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, Ala.
- Detroit-Warren-Flint, Mich.
- Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, Ohio
- Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
- Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, Ohio-Ken.-Ind.
- Indianapolis-Anderson-Columbus, Ind.
- St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, Mo.-Ill.
Source: American Lung Association via WebMD
Speaking of Richardson
This is not good.
Two recent stories illustrate the bumbling reality of Richardson’s campaign, and how it contrasts with his glowing resumé. The first concerns the Guv’s dumbass decision during last week’s debate to name Byron “Whizzer” White — one of the two dissenters in Roe v. Wade, and a dissenter from the majority in Miranda — as his model Supreme Court justice. Yet that’s not the worst part. When pressed to square his professed admiration for White with his alleged support for reproductive freedom and civil rights, Richardson made two more boners. Which one bothers you more?
A) He cited the fact that White “was an All-American football player besides being a legal scholar” as a justification for describing the often retrograde White as his model High Court member;
B) He apparently doesn’t really know or care about Roe, given that he excused his White pick by saying, “White was in the 60s. Wasn’t Roe v. Wade in the 80s?”
I can’t choose. (A) is a hopelessly meatheaded answer, and I’m saying that as a serious sports fan. What next? Is Richardson going to name Ford as his favorite president simply because he was All-American at Michigan? And if Bush had said that Roe was decided in the 80s, we’d be mocking him for weeks. Either way, l’affaire Whizzer is a stain on Richardson.
Alas, she’s in the majority
“It seems [Richardson] calls his 92-year-old mother every Sunday, and she’s getting forgetful. One day she says to him, “Son, are you still Governor?” He says yes. Ten minutes later, she says, “Son, are you still Governor.” “Yes, Mom, unless I’ve been impeached since the phone call started. In fact, I’m running for President.” She replies: “¿Presidente? ¿Presidente de que?”
[Translation: President? President of what?]
The first Thanksgiving
On April 30th four centuries ago, our ancestors, led by Don Juan de Oñate, reached the banks of El Rio Bravo (Rio Grande). The first recorded act of thanksgiving by colonizing Europeans on this continent occurred on that April day in 1598 in Nuevo Mexico, about 25 miles south of what is now El Paso, Texas. After having begun their northward trek in March of that same year, the entire caravan was gathered at this point. The 400 person expedition included soldiers, families, servants, personal belongings, and livestock . . . virtually a living village. Two thirds of the colonizers were from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands). There was even one Greek and a man from Flanders! The rest were Mexican Indians and mestizos (mixed bloods).
. . .On April 30, 1598, the scouts made camp along the Rio Grande and prepared to drink and eat their fill, for there they found fishes and waterfowl. Villagrá wrote,
We built a great bonfire and roasted meat and fish, and then sat down to a repast the like of which we had never enjoyed before.” Before this bountiful meal, Don Juan de Oñate personally nailed a cross to a living tree and prayed, “Open the door to these heathens, establish the church altars where the body and blood of the Son of God may be offered, open to us the way to security and peace for their preservation and ours, and give to our king and to me in his royal name, peaceful possession of these kingdoms and provinces for His blessed glory. Amen.”Excerpted from The New Mexico Genealogical Society
The spirited ghost town
NewMexiKen went to Madrid, New Mexico, Saturday evening for the drive, dinner and a little live music. (Our Madrid is pronounced MAD-rid, not Ma-DRID.) MAD-rid is about 25 miles directly south of Santa Fe on Highway 14, the Turquoise Trail.
Eighty years ago, Madrid was a busy coal-mining town of 3,000 people, boasting of many things, including a minor league ball team playing in the first lighted ballpark in the west. But when coal gave way to natural gas by the 1950s, Madrid died away. The whole townsite was once advertised for sale for $250,000; there were no takers.
But the town was reborn in the 1970s when the son of the original townsite owner began renting and selling properties to artists and craftspeople drawn to the mountains. It has evolved from that to the point that Sunset Magazine last year selected Madrid as one of “The West’s best shopping streets” — True grit, great treasures. (There is really only one street in Madrid. The population of Madrid in 2000 was 149 (and according to one report has decreased by one since.)
“The” place in Madrid on a Saturday night is the Mineshaft Tavern, reputedly the longest bar in New Mexico. The food, a good mix of Mexican and burgers was tasty, service friendly, beer cold. The Mineshaft was recently purchased and, during the lull between dinner and the band, one of the new co-owners, Jeffrey from New York, shared the story of how he came to invest in a town of less than 150 people in New Mexico. Good luck Jeffrey. (Putting an old-time piano player in there during lunch and dinner would be our one recommendation. Or even an old-time player piano.)
MAD-rid is worth two trips. One in the day to see the galleries. And one in the evening to see the charm.
Traffic law question
What is the controlling law for making a U-Turn in New Mexico? Only at intersections? Never at intersections? Only when permitted (by sign)? Anywhere that’s not marked to prohibit it?
U-turns are not covered in the driver’s license manual.
In some states, U-Turns may only be made at an intersection.
In others, U-Turns may not be made at intersections (I was cited for this once in California).
A comprehensive look at the nation’s largest landowners
Ted Turner (Number 1) owns more than 2 million acres (that’s greater than Rhode Island and Delaware combined) and 40,000 bison.
It’s snowing
. . . not far from Casa NewMexiKen, though well above freezing down here at 6,000 feet. A day more wintry than spring-like in any case.
Last night I read my third detective novel in the past few days, this time Vendetta: An Aurelio Zen Mystery
NewMexiKen saw The Good Shepherd on DVD over the weekend. It’s a story about the foundings of the modern American intelligence service — OSS during World War II, the CIA after. The film centers on Edward Bell Wilson as the head of covert activities during the 1961 disaster at the Bay of Pigs. In flashbacks we learn how Wilson got to that point.
It’s a good film telling a good story. Matt Damon as Wilson is OK; I am just not a big Damon fan. He doesn’t seem to age when he needs to in a part. Damon is much better in roles where he is a guy in his twenties, now thirties. Angelina Jolie does surprising work as Wilson’s wife. Others include Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, and Robert DeNiro (who directed the film). In minor parts are Keir Dullea and Timothy Hutton.
Balloon Fiesta
It would be so cool if this balloon were to make it to Albuquerque this October.
Oh, it’s a beautiful day for a ballgame
NewMexiKen attended the Albuquerque Isotopes – New Orleans Zephyrs AAA ballgame Sunday afternoon on a lovely spring day. It was public service day, so there were fire trucks and helicopters and a great tug-of-war between firefighters and police — the firefighters won. Sheriff’s Deputy Adriana Escalante sang a super national anthem, authoritatively and with a wonderful, strong voice.
Front row seats along the left field line for $10 each. What a deal!
How can they sell Sam Adams Boston Lager as an “imported” beer? Boston? Imported?
The U.S. Cavalry charge didn’t seem to elicit much of a cheering response. Perhaps many New Mexicans have an inherited aversion to that particular sound.
The ‘Topes won 7-4, a pitcher’s duel in Albuquerque.
Extra highlight: A La Cueva High School kid went deep five times in ten swings in a post game home run derby. Way, way deep on a couple of them.
The Smallest Small Towns
A truly fascinating little essay on The Smallest Small Towns of New Mexico, population 25, 4 and 2. It begins:
As of 2007, almost two million people live in New Mexico. Almost 500,000 of these live in Albuquerque. And more than 300,000 live in Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho, Roswell, and Farmington.
As a result of so many people gathered in so few places, these cities have come to provide a near-majority of New Mexicans with their visual definitions of what New Mexico is, and have become the face this state shows the world. Tourists recalling New Mexico likely think of Santa Fe, with its cottonwood-shaded plazas, adobe churches, and stuccoed Wal-Marts. They might picture Kodachrome balloons wafting over downtown Albuquerque and its dusty suburbs. And they probably won’t call to mind the tiny desert towns that freckle the state, that punctuate its roads, and that offer travelers a relief from driving and residents a place to call home.
Forecast: Hot and Dry
In a nutshell, the dry lands will become more arid, and the humid lands, wetter. And the drying of the West will be accompanied by blast-furnace heat: IPCC’s new report includes an astonishing prediction that temperatures in the American West will increase by an average of nine degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century.
La Niña events, Seager added, will continue to influence rainfall in the Borderlands, but building from a more arid foundation, they could produce the West’s worst nightmares: droughts on the scale of the medieval catastrophes that contributed to the notorious collapse of the complex Anasazi societies at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde during the twelfth century.
AlterNet: Global Warming Hits Southwest
Sources II
According to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), [Kyle] Sampson [told criminal investigators this past weekend] that in early March of this year, Gonzales told him about a conversation he’d had in October with Bush that was specifically about U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias.
Vandalism
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Pasó por aqui, el adelantado Don Juan de Oñate del descubrimiento de la mar del sur a 16 de Abril de 1605. It was on this date in 1605 that vandals first started tagging the rock face at what is now El Morro National Monument. In English: “Passed by here, the adelantado Don Juan de Oñate from the discovery of the sea of the south the 16th of April of 1605.” Click image for larger version. (I know, it looks like 1606, but it was 1605, before Jamestown and before the Pilgrims had even migrated to Holland on their way to Massachusetts.) Update April 17. Better photo of inscription. |
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Sources
Yesterday’s Albuquerque Journal article by Mike Gallagher has been the topic du jour on many of the political blogs. The article claims that Senator Pete Domenici had U.S. Attorney David Iglesias fired and did so through Karl Rove and the President himself.
Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici, who had been unhappy with Iglesias for some time, made a personal appeal to the White House, the Journal has learned.
. . .At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush’s senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.
Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue.
Here’s the rub. As far as I can determine the sole indication of how Gallagher and The Journal determined what happened is this line:
“The Journal confirmed the sequence of events through a variety of sources familiar with the firing of Iglesias, including sources close to Domenici. ”
“A variety of sources . . . including sources close to Domenici.” Not one is identified, even in the most general terms.
Update 9:00AM: Here, for example, Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine) takes the article as gospel.
Update 2 9:07: NewMexiKen is just getting around to reading Talking Points Memo. Josh Marshall posted this early this morning:
But the Journal’s story is a bit vague on the sourcing. The article says the paper “confirmed the sequence of events through a variety of sources familiar with the firing of Iglesias, including sources close to Domenici.” Close to Domenici looks like the key. These are facts no one else has been able to dig up so far. But proxies for Domenici wouldn’t seem to have much interest in putting this story out. So what’s up exactly? And what does it suggest about the facts alleged in the article?
World Wide Web
Always fun to check SiteMeter and see there are visitors to NewMexiKen from such exotic locations as (right now) Beijing, Madrid and Rio Rancho.
(The Madrid in Spain, not the one in New Mexico, though it’s pretty exotic, too.)
Hey, I’ve actually been to Beijing, Madrid (both of them) and Rio Rancho.
The Great Dust Storm
On the 14th day of April of 1935,
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky.
You could see that dust storm comin’, the cloud looked deathlike black,
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track.
From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line,
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande,
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom.
The radio reported, we listened with alarm,
The wild and windy actions of this great mysterious storm;
From Albuquerque and Clovis, and all New Mexico,
They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw.
From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell,
And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill.
From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong,
They thought that they could hold out, but they didn’t know how long.
Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
And the children they was cryin’ as it whistled through the cracks.
And the family it was crowded into their little room,
They thought the world had ended, and they thought it was their doom.
The storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night,
When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight.
We saw outside our window where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown.
It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns,
It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm.
We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in,
We rattled down that highway to never come back again.
Lyrics as recorded by Woody Guthrie, RCA Studios, Camden, NJ, 26 Apr 1940
Transcribed by Manfred Helfert
© 1960, Ludlow Music, Inc., New York, NY
Most prescient line of the day, so far
“Bell said Domenici’s idea is not to respond [to Iglesias’s charges], and hopefully make this a one day story. Unfortunately, I do not think that they can make an allegation such as this goes away so easily.”
Special Assistant to the President J. Scott Jennings in an email to Karl Rove and others, February 28, 2007, regarding Steve Bell, Senator Domenici’s Chief of Staff.
Update: Also via TPM:
The day AFTER the above email, AP reported this:
In a brief interview Thursday, Domenici also denied the accusation. “I don’t have any comment,” he told The Associated Press. “I have no idea what he’s [Iglesias] talking about.”
So, best-case scenario Domenici lied; worst-case scenario, he’s senile.
The 100 unsexiest men 2007
[94] BILL RICHARDSON
DarkhorseChubby presidential candidate has repped the USA in negotiations with some of the world’s scariest and weirdest dictators. Which, unfortunately, leaves the triple-chinned hopeful with precious little time for the treadmill. Chances may improve if he stays hungry — or if he accidentally eats the rest of the Democratic field onstage during the first debate.
See the other 99 from The Phoenix.
Google Earth adds hiking trails
Via Lifehacker, Google Earth adds hiking trails.
Very cool.
Activate Trimble Outdoors Trips under Featured Content under Layers. Description, length, difficulty, photos, GPS coordinates, send trip to your phone, more.
Spring
A dusting of snow and 36° this morning at Casa NewMexiKen. Lovely.
Not.