New Mexico Mercury

Leaving Albuquerque Behind

Ten years ago we rolled southward down I-25 on our way to retirement in an entirely new culture, and the finest sight of all was Albuquerque in our rear view mirror. That's the way this narrative is supposed to read, is it not? That's the well-trodden script, the one we all know so well, and I violate it at my peril.

Change. That's really what our departure was all about. And Albuquerque, that seductress by the River, was to blame. It's the kind of place that can become too comfortable, because of its beautiful natural setting in a vast land where the imagination can soar, and also because of its deep ugliness as the 'heights' keep spreading outward across lands we once explored as children...

The Art of Clifford Berryman Or, Why Do Things Remain the Same?

George Santayana famously wrote that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Examples of this axiom can be found everywhere in our nation’s history. Sometimes, however, it’s necessary to look to our artists to reveal them to us.

Clifford Berryman was a political cartoonist who worked for the Washington Post during the start of the last century. He worked until his death in 1949. He was the man who in 1902 first associated President Theodore Roosevelt with a small bear cub, one he refused to shoot, thus earning him the nickname “Teddy”—the cartoon, “Drawing the Line in Mississippi” inspired New York store owner Morris Michtom to create a new toy and call it the Teddy Bear...

‘Tribes’: When no one wants to listen

Fusion’s new production of Tribes at Albuquerque’s Cell Theater is all about deafness—not just the inability of some people to hear but the unwillingness of everyone to really listen.

None of the members of the family at the center of this award-winning play by the young British playwright Nina Raine listen to each other, sending a potent message to the audience that our private preoccupations prevent us from ever knowing even those closest to us.

The “tribes” of the title are families, especially one family, but also communities—intellectuals and “hierarchies” of those with varying types of hearing impairment...

El Machete - Gabriel García Márquez, Rest in Peace

Gabriel García Márquez, Rest in Peace

Mark Rudd: The Albatross Around Alan Webber’s Neck (You Should Be Scared!)

Stop the presses. In a copyrighted story this morning, the Albuquerque Journal’s James Monteleone links those two forever political siamese twins, Santa Fe candidate for Gov., Alan Webber and far, far leftist Weather Undergroundie Mark Rudd. I for one am shaking in my boots, or my sandals, as the case may be. 

Rumor has it that in 1532 Rudd rode with Pancho Villa. Rumor has it that Rudd was spotted somewhere near a place where Fidel Castro coughed after lighting up a stogie. Rumor has it that some forty years ago Rudd didn’t like the little military scuffle in Vietnam one bit. Rumor has it that he became a terrorist who wanted to blow up government washrooms and buildings, which is probably why he ultimately became a math teacher at CNM.  Teachers are pretty much all terrorists, you know...

Mountain love affair

Who is there in New Mexico who does not love mountains? Our love affair with our mountains may be because aside from the mountains the land is more drab brown than vivid green, more desiccated than lush. There is not a lot to be said for our flatlands, the Chihuahua Desert landscape of rocks and brush, where what we call rivers are really streams and what we call streams are more often seasonal arroyos.

This mountain love affair has spawned a lot of books, of which the newest, and one of the most lavish, is the just-published, New Mexico’s High Peaks: A Photographic Celebration, by Michael Butterfield (UNM Press, $39.95, 188 pages including 134 color photographs)...

Climate Foreclosure / Climate Migration

Climate migrants may soon be a new breed: the latest wave of those forced to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. These will not be people fleeing political violence or poverty. Or not simply those two things. They won’t be leaving only their homes and the graves of their ancestors behind. These will be the hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—forced to migrate because their homes, ancestors’ graves and every bit of familiar landscape will have disappeared, beneath the rising sea levels caused by global warming...

District court ruling removes Rep. Jeff from the June 3 primary election ballot

Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM) and plaintiff Larry King announce that the New Mexico Eleventh Judicial District Judge Louis DePauli ruled yesterday that State Representative Sandra Jeff did not gather enough valid petition signatures to appear on the June 3 primary election ballot.

Plaintiff Larry King said that “the judge did the right thing today. His decision confirms that everyone has to follow the rules.”

We commend Judge DePauli for examining each signature individually over two full days. He left no stone unturned in the search for the truth...

Hey, remember…

Hey, remember the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women? Of course not.  Temporary Governor Martinez killed this stupid commission that served women thoughout the state with a line item veto that severed the funding.  That was one of her first and signal acts as Temporary Gov. Yippee KiowKaiyay!

Recently an article in the shamelessly liberal, slanted, and desperate Mother Jones quoted our soft and caring ersatz governor saying right before her blessed election, “What the hell is that?  What the hell does a commission on women’s cabinet do all day long?”...

Semana Santa or Holy Week in Spain

Suddenly the lights go out in the whole town. We’re in pitch black darkness. The crowd is silent. Then with a great creaking sound, the enormous wooden doors of the cathedral slowly open.

We’re in Caravaca de la Cruz, a small town in the little known region of Murcia in southern Spain. It’s midnight and this is our first Semana Santa or Holy Week experience. Frankly, we have no idea what to expect...