Newport - not so new. Old houses and old roads and old fences and old mansions. We toured "Marble House" - a Vanderbuilt mansion in which Alva Vanderbilt staged a "Votes For Women" campaign in 1909. In 1910 she attempted... [...]
That was not my cell phone ringing in the middle of Governor King's funeral, for the record. Even the person sitting to my right thought it was mine. She mentioned it accusatorily as we waited for the traffic to clear... [...]
The 1967 Look Magazines - a four-part series by William Manchester that preceded his book Death of a President are totally absorbing - especially the old ads for Pall Malls and the 1967 Plymouth Fury. I've been too busy reading...' [...]
At Governor Bruce King's funeral today. He arrived at the head of the family procession into a full gym at Moriarty High School - Home of the Pintos (not Mustangs.) The big crowd of King lovers was rich with politicians... [...]
Sad news from the Durango Herald: Family and friends this week are mourning the death of Cassandra Yazzie-Hotchkiss, a 30-year-old Fort Lewis College graduate and Native American activist killed Monday in a car accident. Yazzie-Hotchkiss graduated from FLC in May... [...]
A detour in recent reading veered away from the regimented non-fiction book diet. American Wife, a novel by Curtis Sittenfeld modeled on the life Laura Bush is reviewed here in the NYTimes by Joyce Carol Oates who does a better... [...]
The Albuquerque Journal reports our lame duck Mayor got a back injury in 2004 while pretending to be MacGyver - jumping a fence during a bosque fire. Now he has filed for workers' compensation and is getting a pay-off. It...' [...]
The Albuquerque Journal reports yet again on the stalled "progress" with west side development. These repetitious articles attempt to present this is a bad thing. You see, Quail Ranch is being "hurt" by water issues. The "massive Quail Ranch community"... [...]
Just finished devouring Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest, by Arnold Berke with color photographs by Alexander Vertikoff. It is a beautiful book. If it can be faulted it may be that this beauty nearly outweighs the substance. Clearly this... [...]
Are we really gonna believe a guy waving a five gallon plastic bucket? We found lots of these! Who told him to bring the prop? Peter Gleick writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: Why do we care? Obviously, this water... [...]
Kate Nash wrote about how Governor King rode a horse to the Roundhouse and I remembered this great biography cover photo on him riding in a parade. He died last night - just rode off to heaven from his Stanley... [...]
Just watched the film about a notorious Italian politician - Giulio Andreotti. It may be appropriate to call him Italy's Richard Daley but we've already established that I see Daley's ghost in all public corruption. And in the grocery store....' [...]
Durango Herald reports that the three member County Commission of Garfield, Colorado has decided they don't want the feds to regulate hydraulic fracturing. The concern about regulating the practice is being trumped up by the oil and gas industry. I'm... [...]
Between the frustratingly few showings of my for-sale home, for which I scurry to tidy and exit for the coco and goat movies, I inhabit my house thoroughly - reading and packing and reading AND READING. Shh! Among the other... [...]
The "goat movie," as people buying tickets referred to it, was great. Goats, Clooney and it was filmed in New Mexico. What is not to love? White Sands National Monument is a Middle Eastern desert again. Just like in the... [...]
It's hard to do both. A good book can eclipse everything - bathing, cooking, blogging. The most recent addition to my retirement reading list* is The Death of a President by William Manchester. I was intrigued about it after reading... [...]
This New York Times editorial notes Cheney's gift to Halliburton in the 2005 energy bill - free-for-all-fracking - and what it is doing to water supplies. There's a bill in Congress to study the risks, which are poo-pooed by the... [...]
Joe Shirley Jr. is channeling Mayor Richard J. Daley. Although to be fair, since reading the aforementioned 600 page biography my head feels thick, my face feels jowly and everyone sounds like Daley. I think I saw him in Smith's...' [...]
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is - like the news in the Journal of the discount prescription drug card generously offered by the Chamber of Commerce. What's in it for them? A dollar a card... [...]
Just finished reading American Pharaoh, Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation, by Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. This is not just a biography. Because of his position as boss and builder of Chicago for so... [...]
