It’s tough being Albuquerque, although it often shines at the same time. Here we are in early October with the softer fall light sharpening some of the clearest days of the year. The balloon fiesta is in full swing, with thousands of visitors in town, and then the Albuquerque Journal greets you on Sunday, with …
This really is about me and not my 19-month-old dog, but sometimes I think my self-knowledge might not be much deeper than his. I have been struggling lately with too much news and a lost appetite for fiction. You see, I grew up thinking I would be a fiction writer. But my newspaperman instincts …
Sometimes we can see things more clearly from the hinterlands. Here are some important reminders that came to me as I followed Washington political coverage this week. Do not dine with Donald Trump. 2. Do not wear a red tie if you are 6′ 8″ tall and trying to disguise yourself with a blue drape. …
It’s tougher than you might think, being retired and trying to find a second wind as some kind of creative writer — an ambition I call, after 41 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, “Making It All Up.” For one thing, it seems to require discipline, which is a bit of shock to …
I dreamed a famous billionaire real estate developer appeared before the Santa Fe historical styles committee to seek approval of his proposed Torreón de Billy the Kid Hotel and Casino in an old neighborhood near the Roundhouse. The New York developer, who touted Hispanic influences on his Florida resort, wore a Billy the Kid-like hat. …
When it turns dark and cold out my way, I often think of Coronado parking his expedition two winters in Bernalillo. Fortunately, for Cooper and me, there was a break in the weather Saturday for our evening walk. You could sense the storm coming Friday, although neither cows nor volcanoes looked disturbed. Still, we were …
When I googled Fort Stanton and croquet I thought I might have stumbled across another record of Billy the Kid indulging in what seems like an unlikely pastime for gun-playing cowboys in New Mexico territory, 1878. Fort Stanton after all was a military post in the Kid’s neck of the woods during his alleged croquet-playing …
If Justice Antonin Scalia and I did not appear to share certain tendencies toward dietary mischief, he might join me in some good-natured name-calling and concur that I am, in fact, full of “jiggery-pokery” or at least beans. But, there being no hippies around, I will have to explain. Dueling …
Rang in the new year with maddening work computer problems at home on a midnight governor swearing-in story that needed to go online. Fortunately, Journalistos Steve Williams and Rob Browman were on the ball and pitched in to bail me out on the posting of a story our bosses really wanted to get on the …
It takes a long time to clear your head of election-year crud. You’re like a hard-pushed car engine with fouled plugs, oil change long overdue. I awoke twice last night with nightmares about imagined newspaper mistakes. But I am hoping my mind can return to it’s briefly euphoric state just before nodding off on Nov. …
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