Category: Albuquerque & New Mexico

Water usage

NewMexiKen found these “Water Usage Facts” (from my utility company) somewhat interesting:

  • A normal shower uses approximately 25 gallons of water.
  • Brushing your teeth uses approximately 10 gallons of water.
  • Tub bath uses approximately 36 gallons of water.
  • Shaving uses approximately 20 gallons of water.
  • Dish washing uses approximately 30 gallons of water. (tap running)
  • Automatic dishwasher uses approximately 16 gallons of water per cycle.
  • Washing your hands uses approximately 2 gallons of water.
  • Flushing the toilet uses 5-7 gallons per flush.
  • A normal washing machine cycle uses 60 gallons of water.
  • Outdoor watering uses about 10 gallons per minute.

Billy the Kid

… was killed 125 years ago tonight.

Henry McCarty was born in New York City (or Brooklyn) in the fall of 1859. With his mother and brother he moved west — Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico. Mrs. McCarty married a man named William Antrim in Santa Fe. After she died in Silver City in 1874, the boy got into minor trouble, escaped jail to Arizona Territory, and used the name William Antrim. His size and age led to “Kid” or “Kid” Antrim.

Billy the KidArrested for shooting and killing a blacksmith who was beating him in 1877, the Kid escaped back to New Mexico and assumed the name William H. Bonney. He enlisted in the range war in Lincoln County on the side of John Tunstall against Lawrence Murphy. After Tunstall was killed, the Kid rode with a group called the Regulators, a quasi-legal vigilante gang. The Regulators captured two of Tunstall’s killers and someone, most likely the Kid, killed both before they reached Lincoln and the jail. Later the Kid was among the group that killed Sheriff William Brady. The Kid was wounded in the fight at Blazer’s Mill with “Buckshot” Roberts. There were other gunfights between the warring parties. In July, the Kid was in the “five-day battle” in Lincoln where the leader of his group, Tunstall’s lawyer Alexander McSween, was killed. After that the war was considered over and the Kid lost any legitimacy. In August 1878, he was present when the clerk at the Mescalero Indian agency was killed.

Incoming New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace (the author of Ben Hur) issued a general pardon for the Lincoln County war, but it did not apply to Billy Bonney because he had been involved in the killing of Sheriff Brady. After another outburst of violence led to the killing of a lawyer named Chapman, Governor Wallace offered the Kid a full pardon if he’d testify against Chapman’s killers. Bonney agreed and was arrested in early 1879. Meanwhile Chapman’s killers escaped.

After waiting several months for the pardon, the Kid, who had some liberties, walked away from his guards, mounted a horse and escaped. He became a cattle thief, claiming it was owed him for back wages. He killed a saloon braggart whose gun misfired. Another man was killed in an attempt to capture Bonney.

The new Lincoln County sheriff, Pat Garrett, finally caught the Kid at Stinking Springs, 25 miles from Fort Sumner. After a gunfight the Kid was arrested. He was first charged in the murder of “Buckshot” Roberts, but eventually brought to trial and convicted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. Before Bonney could be hanged, he killed two deputies and escaped. Garrett located the Kid at Pete Maxwell’s ranch, waited in the dark bedroom, and shot him twice when he saw him outlined in the opened bedroom doorway. The Kid died without knowing who had killed him. He was 21 years old.

Billy the Kid Tombstone

NewMexiKen photo, 2006. Souvenir hunters have chipped away.

Best line of the night, so far

“Daniel Silva, another one of my favorites, will be there. Doris Kearns Goodwin. Joan Didion (!!!). Alice McDermott. All in one place! Whoa. I still have to pinch myself to realize I’m on the list with the likes of them. Deep down, I still feel like that dreamy girl with the HUGE PERM, sitting outside the bandroom at Del Norte High School, scribbling poems and songs into a spiral-bound notebook while a storm rolled in over the mountains. I truly feel like not a thing has changed. Weird, no?”

— Albuquerque’s very own Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez celebrating her invitation to the National Book Festival in Washington this September.

No, not weird at all.

Terror Target List

New Mexico, though 37th in population, is 17th among the states in the number of “assets” in the Department of Homeland Security data base. Presumably, there are, according to data submitted to DHS by New Mexico, 1,348 targets in the Land of Enchantment.

But 553 of these were information technology assets (73% of the national total). The next highest state (Virginia) had just 68 information technology assets.

In another anomaly, California listed the Bay Area Rapid Transit (1 asset). New York listed subway stations (739 assets).

Nationally 1,305 casinos were listed and 34 Coca Cola plants.

Source: DHS Inspector General’s report [pdf]

Mass market monopoly

Did you know that the 32 commercial radio stations that earned a share in recent audience rankings for the Albuquerque market are owned by just six companies and one Albuquerque church?

  • Clear Channel of San Antonio operates nine AM or FM stations.
  • Citadel Broadcasting of Las Vegas, Nevada, eight.
  • American General Media of Bakersfield and Univision of Los Angeles five each.
  • Entravision Communications of Santa Monica, California, and Vanguard Media of Albuquerque two each.
  • Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque one.

Once upon a time, not very long ago (1981), a broadcaster could own and operate just one AM and one FM station in the same market — and only seven of each nationwide. Clear Channel now owns more than 1,200 radio stations.

Speaking of which

Notice that tax increase this past week my fellow Bernalillo countians?

Yup, the sales tax in the county (actually a gross receipts tax) went up .125% on July 1. The increase is to pay for the West Side jail.

The new rate in the county is 5.6875%. The new rate in the city is 6.875%.

What I don’t understand is this. The county took over the jail from the city. OK, so the county tax went up. Why didn’t the city tax go down?

Build an ark

An astonishing rainstorm at Casa NewMexiKen this morning around 3. And, by my count, three lightning strikes way too close. You know, “One Mississippi, two Miss … oh damn, that was close.” NewMexiKen really doesn’t like lightning since my house was struck and set on fire in 1995.

Anyway, the rain was falling so fast and furiously I began to wonder if Lowe’s carried gopher wood.1 Then I panicked when I couldn’t remember the conversion from feet and inches to cubits (did we learn that in school?). And would it be OK if I accidentally on purpose forgot to bring two scorpions and two rattlesnakes. (But I did remember I’d only need one New Mexico whiptail.) It was really raining!

But it slowed to nothing much after 25-30 minutes. The arroyo2 next to my house is still running deep and fast, but things are returning to normal otherwise.

1 Genesis 6

  1. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
  2. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

2 “Arroyo” is Spanish for concrete ditch.

People don’t believe me

… when I tell them about the New Mexico whiptail, so I thought I’d publish this again. (It first appeared here a year ago.)

How come having a New Mexico whiptail lizard in the utility sink in NewMexiKen’s garage is so much more pleasant than say finding a tarantula or mouse there would be? I scooped her (and they are all females) into a coffee can and released her outside.

A single female New Mexico whiptail, all by herself, quite efficiently and handily produces entire populations of lizards without dads: offspring that are genetically identical to her in every detail (except for very rare mutations). All are striped and streamlined, and all are healthy females that, except for mating, enjoy doing the usual lizard things, like basking in the sun. The entire species is a thriving girls club; no sperm allowed.

This bizarre method of reproduction is known as parthenogenesis, a Greek word meaning “virgin birth.”

Animal Planet

The New Mexico whiptail (Cnemidophorus neomexicanus) is the official reptile of New Mexico.

Fort Union National Monument (New Mexico)

… was created on this date in 1954, when President Eisenhower signed a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the site and remaining structures.

Fort Union

Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During it’s forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. The third and final Fort Union was the largest in the American Southwest, and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the southwest. Today, visitors use a self-guided tour path to visit the second fort and the large, impressive ruins of the third Fort Union. The largest visible network of Santa Fe Trail ruts can be seen here.

Fort Union National Monument

Petroglyph National Monument (New Mexico)

… was authorized on this date in 1990.

Petroglyph National Monument

As you walk among the petroglyphs, you are not alone. This world is alive with the sights and sounds of the high desert – a hawk spirals down from the mesa top, a roadrunner scurries into fragrant sage, a desert millipede traces waves in the sand. There is another presence beyond what we can see or hear. People who have lived along the Rio Grande for many centuries come alive again through images they carved on the shiny black rocks. These images, and associated archeological sites in the Albuquerque area, provide glimpses into a 12,000 year long story of human life in this area.

Petroglyph National Monument stretches 17 miles along Albuquerque’s West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city’s western horizon. Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acre monument is cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque.

Petroglyph National Monument protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 25,000 images carved by native peoples and early Spanish settlers. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. Their meaning, possibly, understood only by the carver. These images are inseparable from the greater cultural landscape, from the spirits of the people who created them, and all who appreciate them.

Petroglyph National Monument is a place of respect, awe and wonderment.

Petroglyph National Monument

Hey, guess what?

It’s raining at Casa NewMexiKen.

Posted at 4:35 PM. Temperature dropped 16 degrees in a few minutes.

Update: The rain lasted about long enough to write the above; it did leave the street damp and settled the dust.

Alas, we are a pathetic people, us desert rats, when it hasn’t rained in forever.

Update update: It rained again around 10 PM, longer and harder. Not enough, but we’re getting there!

I wish it would rain

Please, some rain. And not the six-inch rain we had yesterday and then again last night in parts of town — a drop every six inches.

So far in 2006 there has been measurable precipitation in Albuquerque just 11 times (including yesterday’s two occurences) for a grand total of 44/100ths of one inch. Seven of the eleven times the moisture was just two-hundredths of an inch or less. That’s not enough to do more than put rainspots on your car.

The humidity is in the thirties this morning. The dewpoint above 50. The monsoons are coming.

Population estimates

U.S. Census Bureau today announced its 2005 population estimates for U.S. cities and towns.

According to the estimates there are just six cities in New Mexico with more than 40,000 people:

  1. Albuquerque…494,236
  2. Las Cruces……..82,671
  3. Santa Fe………..70,631
  4. Rio Rancho…….66,599
  5. Roswell………….45,199
  6. Farmington……43,161

Albuquerque was the 15th fastest growing city in the U.S. 2004-2005 (ranked by actual count), adding 10,392 residents (2.1%).

More evidence that the World Cup isn’t a premier event in the U.S. (at least not in New Mexico)

Because of FCC-mandated children’s programming from 9-11 a.m., Saturday’s Ghana-Czech Republic and Italy-United States matches were aired by Albuquerque’s KOAT-TV on a tape-delay basis.

Today’s matches (Croatia-Japan, Brazil-Australia and France-South Korea) will be shown tape-delay for the same reason, KOAT sports director Bob Brown said.

KOAT on Saturday issued the following statement: “The soccer games are being tape-delayed because we are required by the FCC to air a set number of children’s programs in a consistent time period. That time period is 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, 9 to 10 a.m. on Sunday. Because of that, we will bring you the games tape-delayed to meet the FCC requirements.”

Today’s matches will be aired live on KLUZ-TV, a Spanish-language station, as were Saturday’s.

Albuquerque Journal

NewMexiKen watched the U.S.-Italy match on a one-hour delayed basis, knowing that the results were a computer screen away.

One understands, of course, that this same KOAT would have pre-empted the kids programming in a heart-beat for a live report on a two-acre fire someplace.

(NewMexiKen cannot find that this delay is a practice for west coast stations, where World Cup matches begin yet an hour earlier.)

UNM

NewMexiKen attended a graduation party Friday evening for the daughter of a dear friend. The daughter recently graduated from prep school and will be attending the University of New Mexico.

Or, as we in Albuquerque call it — UNM.

University Near Mom.

Albuquerque among America’s brainiest cities

The report, produced for the New Mexico Business Weekly’s parent, ACBJ, for its Bizjournals.com Web site, says 18.4 percent of Albuquerque residents hold a bachelor’s degree, while 13.4 percent have earned a graduate or professional degree. Another 24.2 percent attended college, but didn’t earn a degree, according to U.S. Census Bureau data evaluated for the report.
…

The city with the most highly educated population in the nation is Seattle. An analysis of Census Bureau data puts Seattle’s No. 1 ranking in perspective:

* Forty-seven percent of Seattle’s adults hold bachelor’s degrees, the strongest proportion of college-educated residents in any big city. It’s nearly double the U.S. average of 24.4 percent.

* Seattle is second to Washington, D.C., in the share of people with advanced diplomas. Twenty-one percent of Washington’s adults have earned graduate or professional degrees, followed by Seattle at 17 percent. The national average is 8.9 percent.

San Francisco and Austin are the runners-up in the Bizjournals.com study, which ranks the relative brainpower of 53 large communities.

Rounding out the top 10 are Colorado Springs, Minneapolis, Charlotte, San Diego, Washington, Portland, Ore., and Albuquerque.

New Mexico Business Weekly:

Thanks to Duke City Fix for the pointer.