Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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In terms of pure economics, our biggest national holiday is, of course, Christmas. I read somewhere that Halloween comes in as a strong second, but I’d be surprised if it’s anywhere close to the money we Americans spend for the yuletide. Perhaps that makes me a little out of the ordinary, because I don’t remember much about the Christmas presents I’ve acquired in years past. Instead, I recall the experiences, and I’ll bet that’s true for a lot of you, too. When I was growing up as a preacher’s kid, Christmas caroling was...
Geraldine Barber came by the Santa Rosa newspaper office recently to register a grievance — too many people are letting their dogs “do their business,” as they say, in other people’s yards. She was particularly disturbed by a big pile of dog poop in a church yard near her home. Such messes are the responsibility of the pet owner, though it’s hard to pick up after a canine running wild. Plus, we’ve heard concerns about packs of dogs that roam our town without restraint. We’ve even noticed occasional reports that someone was b...
“Now the captain, he said to John Henry, ‘I’m gonna bring that steam drill around. I’m gonna bring that steam drill out on these tracks, I’m gonna knock that steel on down, God, God. I’m gonna knock that steel on down.’ “John Henry told his captain, ‘Lord, a man ain’t nothin’ but a man, But before I let that steam drill beat me down, I’m gonna die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord, I’ll die with a hammer in my hand.’” — Lyrics from the folk song “The Ballad of John Henry” as performed by Bruce Springsteen’s “We Shall Ov...
SANTA ROSA — I’m an optimist by nature, but lately I’ve been having a hard time. Like most Americans, I’m none too pleased with our political leadership. We have an amoral and narcissistic president who says he doesn’t even believe in one of the most important issues of our time, climate change. For someone like me, a believer in real news and real science, these aren’t exactly uplifting times. I can’t even get excited about our growing economy, because I figure it’s all a house of cards. Short-term gains, I suspect, that’l...
Picture this: An Arkansas preacher and teacher have six sons who grow up, get married and have children of their own. Then those children grow up and have their own kids. Even the cousins have cousins, and our extended families grow and grow … and so it goes. That’s my family. I’m one of those six sons. We’re scattered all over now, but every year this loud and large family finds its way back to our Ozark Mountain heritage for an epic Thanksgiving reunion. We take over a lodge on a secluded mountaintop, pack in plenty...
SANTA ROSA — There may have been mixed results nationally, with the Democrats winning the House and the Republicans increasing their majority in the Senate, but here in New Mexico, an indisputably blue tidal wave overtook the midterm elections. I know it’s due at least in part to Susana Martinez’ unpopularity these days, but if I were a New Mexico Republican, I’d blame it on President Trump. He made this election all about him, and New Mexicans rejected both his agenda and his divisive tactics by taking it out on the Republic...
SANTA ROSA — If there’s anything the baby boomers did well, it’s music. We rocked. Of course, rock and roll wasn’t born entirely out of our generation. It was the byproduct of all sorts of musical genres, including and especially rhythm and blues and Southern Gospel. Suffice it to say, I’m no expert on music — I can’t read music, nor do I play a serious instrument — but I think I have a few insights owed to my eclectic taste of musical genres. It takes no great insight, however, to see that the music that came out of the...
SANTA ROSA — Getting old sucks. At least that’s what I’ve heard. OK, I’ll admit it. I’m getting there myself. I’m 62 years old — but I’ve always been about 10 years younger, in maturity, than my actual age. In my teens, I rebelled against my peers; in my 20s, against my parents. I didn’t even start getting serious about life until my 30s, when I finally got married and started a family of my own. And while I was being a daddy to two young girls in my 40s, I had peers becoming grandparents. … I guess the only thing that explai...
Here we are, on the verge of one of the most important mid-term elections in American history, and Russian meddling is being charged. Guess it never really stopped. Last week, Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova was charged with trying to influence the 2018 mid-term elections with what Justice Department officials are calling an “information war” against the U.S. and its elections. According to Reuters and other news services, Khusyaynova was chief accountant for Project Lakhta, an operation started in 2014 and financed by a Putin-f...
SANTA ROSA — The other day I overheard an argument between friends over two particular candidates for the same office. One is the incumbent, so the question was posed, “What’s he done for us?” I’ll leave out the particulars — which candidates and which race — because I don’t want to water down my larger point. I’ve heard that sort of question a hundred times through the years when talking politics, and I’ll bet you have too. It speaks to the self-interests that always swirl around elections. What can this particular candidat...
The way I figure it, the Republicans are getting the Supreme Court judge they want but they’re going to pay for it by losing big in the mid-term elections. If Democrats don’t at least take the U.S. House this time around, I’ll be both stunned and disappointed. America needs a check on Trump’s irrational hold over Washington, and I’ll bet a lot of outraged, anti-Trump people — particularly women — are going to vote with a vengeance this year. Have you seen the television and internet ads, the paid-for-by-the-party or special-i...
