New Mexico Mercury

El Machete: Birds of a feather

Birds of a feather

Fool’s Gold: No Taste Like Home

Those of us still alive survived the busiest travel weekend of the year. Whew! But that doesn’t mean we’re done traveling. We’re Americans, goldurnit, except for those of us who aren’t. We go go go. And when you next leave town, how will you ensure that your pipes don’t burst, or that your copper pipes don’t get stolen, or that your lead pipe doesn’t murder the butler in the conservatory?

Housesitters, that’s how. These people—some of whom don’t even look homeless—are willing to live in your home for about the price of a movie theater ticket per day, minus popcorn...

Breaking Apart - Sentiments of Secession in Spain

“After I vote, I look up into the sky and say a prayer that it will turn out alright,” says a Spaniard named Francisco Noviola. It’s November 9 and I’m in Barcelona, Spain to observe the referendum on independence that was taking place throughout the region of Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital. Noviola was one of the many voters I interviewed...

Five Questions for New Mexico Authors – Toby Smith

This week we ask one of New Mexico’s great storytellers and reporters, Toby Smith, about his new book Bush League Boys: The Postwar Legends of Baseball in the American Southwest, published this year by University of New Mexico Press.

New Mexico Mercury: Anyone who loves baseball and is interested in understanding more about the history of the l940s and 1950s will love this book. How do you think Joe Bauman and Bob Crues, home-run king and RBI record setter, respectively, would hold up in today’s minor leagues?...

Giving thanks for what we can get

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we finally have some good economic news. Without anybody really paying attention, New Mexico’s economy seems to have quietly turned the corner.

Although the evidence is tentative and not easy to read, for the first time since the Great Recession struck seven years ago, substantial signs suggest the New Mexico economy is slowly dragging itself out of the swamps. While one or two months may not establish a trend, these signs have been visible long enough that it is reasonable to conclude New Mexico has hit bottom and is starting to bounce back...

Certified Beekeepers Apprentice Program: A First in New Mexico

The Certified Beekeepers Apprentice Program, new in 2014, launched in May and ended in August. All 24 adult students successfully completed the seven all-day sessions of year one. The two-year program was developed with assistance from the New Mexico Beekeepers Association, the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division and Washington State Beekeepers Association and was held at the Open Space Visitor Center on Coors Blvd. NW, Albuquerque...

Fool’s Gold: The Secret’s in the Stuffing

I have a Thanksgiving secret I need to spill. The holiday is just about here, and like a stomachful of undercooked turkey, I can’t hold it in even one second longer.

But first, I have to tell you about how I’m a vegetarian. I am a hardcore, diehard non-meat eater. And I make no exceptions, except for a significant cross-cultural experience or when I want a hamburger...

New Mexico’s two-billion-dollar gender pay gap

The gender wage gap has been a topic of interest for some time, so while you may not be surprised that women still earn 78 percent of what their white male counterparts earn, here’s something you may not know: New Mexican women who work full time lose a combined total of almost $2 billion every year due to the wage gap. That’s $2 billion—with a ‘B’—and it doesn’t even include what women who work part-time are losing. If New Mexico’s working women had $2 billion more to spend every year not only would fewer of the state’s children live in poverty, but the state’s economy would improve...

El Machete: See no 43, hear no 43…

See no 43, hear no 43

Island in the sky, Texas style

If I were a Texas mountain, I’d feel lonely. Contrary to the old adage that if God had wanted Texans to ski, he would’ve given them mountains, Texas does have 18 mountain ranges, none of them Texas-sized and all of them in the state’s remote southwestern corner. But Texas suffers the indignity of having to share its biggest and highest range with New Mexico: the Guadalupe Mountains, topping off at 8,751 feet, a mile higher than the desert that surrounds this island in the sky...