New Mexico Mercury

Artists in the Desert

The idea of art as therapy was established in the late 18^th century when it was used as “moral treatment” for psychiatric patients. The term “art therapy” came from a British war artist named Adrian Hill who used to go out on patrols with his sketching kit in World War I and who later recognized the therapeutic value of art while he was recovering from tuberculosis. This concept grew with the establishment of the British Association of Art Therapists in 1964 and the American Art Therapy Association in 1969, as well as similar associations in about a dozen other countries and it is now a well-recognized form of therapy. For example, the Southwestern College here in Santa Fe offers an MA in Art Therapy, focusing on “the healing process of making art.”

But what if you have one hundred mental patients and no therapist or even an instructor and can only infrequently afford the necessary paint and art supplies?..

The Home of the Brave: Americans and Torture

According to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll, 59% of Americans believe that our use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” was justified after September 11. Perhaps CIA Director Michael Hayden was farsighted when he said in 2007, “This is not CIA’s Program. This is not the President’s Program. This is America’s Program.”

But I have to wonder how many of those who offered their opinions have actually read the executive summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It’s a quick read. The findings and conclusions cover only 18 pages; it is the documentation of the findings that takes over 500...

Rio Rancor Public Schools: Doin’ the Inquisition Boogie

I’ve always thought, and I’m sure you’ll agree, that the Inquisition marks a highpoint in human history. When incidents such as what happened recently at V. Sue Cleveland High (see last week’s post) or public figures like V. Sue Cleveland herself, the Grand Superintendent of the Rio Rancor educational fiefdom who actually has a high school named for her, when this stuff burns itself into my frail synapses, I am reminded of the good old days when we used to roast disagreeable folks, or drown them and hope and pray they would confess to being minions of Satan...

Fool’s Gold Returns: The Hobbit – Part… 4?; or, Here We Go Again

The final Hobbit installment is the most anticipated film to come out this particular Wednesday. Literally no one, not even director Peter Jackson, knows how it will end. Yet we here at Fool’s Gold have obtained the ultimate in sneak-peeking exclusives that no one in Hollywood wants you to know!

SPOILER ALERT: Reading the rest of this column will make your scalped movie tickets worthless. All the hours you spent crafting a costume? Toss ’em down the Cracks of Doom. You won’t be able to attend the midnight showing, because possessing these secrets will make everyone avoid you even more than your authentic hobbit foot odor. So proceed with caution, dearest readers. Caution!...

A Little Story about Satan and the Rio Ratchet Schools

Have you heard about Katrina Guarascio, the former Rio Ratchet Cleveland High School teacher and poet whose real name is S-A-T-A-N? Satan, I mean Guarascio wanted to make the classroom a safe place where students could express themselves freely. Can you believe that?

In her creative writing class, Satan-Guarascio asked her students to take a fairy tale or legend and rewrite it for our own enlightened, forgiving, tolerant, and compassionate times.

One of the kids in her class compared the story of Jesus, the loaves and fish in the Bible to Jesus handing out medical marijuana to patients today...

Reflections on Mary Jane

Okay, here it is: I started smoking pot in 1967, and I’ve continued to enjoy the Herb, on and off, since then. I’ve lived through it all. Mexican weed, which was the only kind you could buy, was ten bucks a can. A “can” was literally a 1½-ounce Prince Albert shiny red oval tobacco can, with a metal top, a lid, filled with their leafy “crimp cut” rolling or pipe tobacco.

The dealer would stuff one of these empty cans—a classic example of early recycling— with marijuana from Mexico, stems and twigs and buds and seeds into this can—a sawbuck.  Two fins...

Fool’s Gold: Moolah Kalikimaka

You guys! I just got an Angebot I cannot possibly verpass! The email also said many other things in German, but the gist is that a kindly old woman wants to bequeath me six million euros. (That’s like Europe’s version of Canadian dollars.) And in return she wants … nothing at all.

I feel like I’m living in a medley of Charles Dickens novels. I started out as Pip, the poor soot-covered orphan who couldn’t even afford a real name. Now that I have a Generous Benefactress, I’m turning into Ebenezer Scrooge McDuck, a fabulously rich fellow whom everyone loves for his personality...

Wind power benefits New Mexico

Though we are lucky here in New Mexico that almost every day is sunny, 2014 is on pace to be the hottest year on record for the planet as a whole, according to the latest U.N. analysis. Scientists say we are already experiencing the impacts of global warming, such as drought and wildfires.

None of us wants to leave the next generation a world where drought and wildfire are the new normal. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, scientists are clearer and more emphatic than ever that we must cut our dependence on dirty fossil fuels in favor of clean, renewable energy...

Logic fails to disuade county sprawl push

Yesterday marked a historic moment in Albuquerque but not for the good of the people, well I guess that really depends on what side you're on.

For those of you who still haven't heard or who have been detached from the whole thing, the Bernalillo County Planning Commission (CPC) approved the massive and now looming Santolina Master Plan in a vote of 4 to 2. The Santolina Master Plan is a 13,700-acre development with a projected population of 95,000 proposed for the West Side...

WiseGuys

Some WiseGuys here in BurqueAlb are going to send UNM Ath-uh-letic Tzar Crawl Pebs $5 million dollars to turn the beloved Pit into one huge pizza pie.

The WisePizza will be thousands of sq. ft. and will feature a soft crust, anchovies, green chile, and pepperoni, extra cheese, please...