The Eastern New Mexico News - Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

On this date … 2006: Newspaper columnist Bob Huber of Portales wrote about his love for a Model-A Ford he’d purchased when he was a young man. “My longing for (the vehicle) ranked up there with a gnawing appetite for winsome...

Jay Miller is a quitter. After just 26 years and 7,200 columns, he’s tacked a “Gone Fishing” sign on his Inside the Capitol column. Jock dads put a little football in their sons’ cribs. Jay’s daddy must have left a tiny...

I asked Facebook friends for stories about the best cats they’ve ever owned. Pep’s Betty Williamson offered the tale of “Fizz Bomb,” named after a “Western Horseman” cartoon character: “Fizz ruled our roost for many...

It took Portales Municipal School officials a year of fine-tuning their plans, but once the right plan was presented to Portales voters overwhelmingly approved a school bond to build a new elementary school. In higher education,... Full story

A daily look at top news stories in August reported in the Clovis New Journal: Aug. 1: A 79-year-old Clovis man had posted a handmade sign in his yard on Calhoun Street, urging drivers to slow down and watch out for children. “I...

Five or six dozen friends and family members gathered in Roswell last week to remember Bob Huber, a journalist and longtime columnist for the Portales News-Tribune and Clovis News Journal. Huber died Aug. 3 at age 76. His columns...

He liked a laugh and a good cigar. He enjoyed plenty of both. Robert “Bob” E. Huber, journalist, freelance writer and newspaper columnist, died early Friday morning at his home in Portales. He was best known in Portales and...

Whenever I write about the wonder of school children and their test papers, I get enough fodder for another column from teachers who save them. Some, of course, are a little too shady to appear in a family newspaper, and so I sell...

A recent trip to our local hospital stimulated my memory banks and brought forth an experience I had with modern medicine a dozen years ago. That memory is entitled, “The Case of the Missing Funny Bone” or “Does an Asafetida...

Folks in these parts aren’t real familiar with deep snow, toboggans and holiday omelets, and that’s probably a good thing. But I’m recalling the now famous Great Toboggan and Omelet Debacle of 1945, an unparalleled event in...

Now and then I dig into my stale-notes vault seeking something unusual to write about. This year I plucked a familiar poem especially for victims of Post Christmas Blues Syndrome. It’s titled “’Twas a week after Christmas,...

Christmas Eve always reminds me of the old bromide, “Bizarre conditions are easier to get into than out of.” Which somehow explains why I’m too old to play with toys, but I’m just not willing to give it up and go through a...

This time of year I’m always reminded of a Christmas season my wife, Marilyn, dragged me to a holiday concert. In fact, it almost erases a previous Christmas memory — the time my wife and I were caught with other travelers in...

Before sunup each day, an east-west train rumbles through town while everyone sleeps. The engineer pulls a rhythmic whistle cord on the east side of town, and he doesn’t stop until he breaks out on the west side. By the time the...

Whenever the yuletide season rears its evil head, I’m always reminded of my world-class journalistic enterprises. In fact, I get all teary eyed and go looking for Kleenex tissues with wintry scenes printed on them. Back in olden...

I recently entered into deep debate with my dog, Cody — short for Co-dependent — concerning the relative differences between man and canine. It was Cody’s contention that dogs were intellectually superior to men. I know...

I once asked a gubernatorial candidate to give me one word that would describe why he put himself on the awful election campaign trail, and after a moment, he looked at me and said, “Ego.” So now that all the election rhetoric...

I was still in high-top shoes when my Uncle Claude, a luckless man, tried to cash in a one-way ticket to eternity. He tried to commit suicide. It was in the autumn years of the Great Depression, and Uncle Claude’s luck fit the...

I’m convinced that influenza is the curse of great men. It was undoubtedly the root cause of Napoleon’s Waterloo, Noah Webster’s misspellings and Custer’s — well, the Little Big Horn was no place to sneeze, because Sioux...

First they shut down daylight-saving time. Two days later they celebrate Halloween. Is that a conspiracy or what? The mystery is, who’s behind it? Here at the Academy for Thorny Plots I’ve researched that question, coming...

With the thrill of elections just around the corner, it’s time to play “Who Said It?” which is a test of how smart you are about government and who said what about it. The game reveals whether or not you can cast your ballot...

If you’re looking for answers that have eluded mankind for a dozen millennia, find a bunch of kids. They have all the answers. I received a real-life list of these answers recently from my niece Whitney, a soon-to-be college... Full story

Now that summer’s over, we can all give thanks for seasonal changes. In other words, no more steaming days, sweltering nights, grass clippings and asparagus sprouts. The asparagus liturgy at our house began one day years ago... Full story

(Editor’s Note: WARNING—The following column may produce symptoms of depression and queasy stomachs and should not be taken lightly by people over the age of 60. Old news reporters are also advised to avoid alcohol after consum... Full story