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

This is my 441st and final column for The Eastern New Mexico News. I have moved and am stepping aside as a “local columnist” to repurpose my keyboard for other endeavors. The first is a parody of...

I have been volunteering with the Workers Defense Project (WDP) in Dallas. The membership-based organization empowers low-income workers to “achieve fair employment through education, direct service...

I recently joined a fitness center to try to extend whatever years I have left — although I’m not sure what it matters (other than survival instinct). Even if I avoid diseases, accidents and...

Recently, I attended the Weed Bluegrass Festival in the mountains south of Cloudcroft. Weed’s population of 60 swelled to 500 for the event, including a couple I knew from Elida. Mitch Hibbard,...

Acquired from the last Portales Public Library sale for a quarter, my book-of-the-month summary for July is “1,001 Reasons to Love America” by Hubert Pedroli and Mary Tiegreen (Stewart, Tahori &...

Garage sales have replaced barbershops for visiting. After recently digging through closets, cabinets and outside storage for one, I gathered enough stuff to help put Sears out of business. Neighbors...

Since Clovis and Portales sometimes fall short of July 4 fundraising goals, they could take a page from Levelland, Texas — a Portales-size town 30 miles southwest of Lubbock. In Levelland ...

Robert Gilbert, who attended Portales schools from the sixth grade until moving to Roswell his senior year in 1970 and spent his career as a professional drummer, recently moved back to Portales. In h...

Purchased for a quarter at the last Portales Public Library book sale, my book-of-the-month summary for June is “How the Body Works: 100 Ways Parents and Kids Can Share the Miracle of the Human...

Here is my latest sermon to butter up my flock at The Podcast Church for Couch Potatoes — where I am the Minister of Defense Against Little White Lies and Great Big Whoppers. To avoid interfering...

Because of his own experiences with suicide, Portales resident Jim Lee is trying to spare others from its devastating aftermath. His father, a World War II veteran, committed suicide at 46, and Lee...

Checked out from the Portales Public Library, my book-of-the-month summary for May is “The New Quotable Woman,” edited by Elaine Partnow (Meridian, 1992, 714 pages). Excerpts: • “I never...

On May 24, 1989, the Portales News-Tribune ran an article I wrote about Portales biology professor Bob Taylor refuting an article in Interview magazine about eastern New Mexico turning into a dust bow...

When I interviewed retired Clovis High School Band Director Norvil Howell a few months ago for a feature, his wife, Elaine, joined us. She was such a delight, I realized she needed her own spotlight....

With the rare exception of using song titles a little too salty for Sunday newspaper reader sensibilities — in which case he gently suggests an effective alternative — my editor has never reined m...

Checked out from the Portales Public Library, my book-of-the-month summary for April is “The Tell: The Little Clues That Reveal Big Truths About Who We Are” by Matthew Hertenstein (2013, Basic...

Today marks another completion of my yearly 584,020,178-mile orbit around the sun. Among those sharing the ride were four fellow travelers I recently encountered during a slightly shorter 17-day,...

I took at least 1,000 photos during my recent 17-day, 4,162-mile journey with Spooky, a fellow Navy spy, stretching from New Mexico to North Carolina. States included New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma,...

Submitted from Charlotte, North Carolina, here is a condensed version of my travelogue of an in-progress trip stretching from Taos to the Tar Heel state. After a 43-year break, a fellow Navy spook (sp...

Stephen Hawking, who died on March 14 at 76, and I had one thing in common: Many do not understand what we are talking about. In his case, it was because of brilliance; in mine it’s because of a...

This concludes my three-part series of looking back at eight years of columns. Today I focus on reflections and meditations I’ve written. • “Every time I feel the wind coming down and see the...

As part two of a three-part retrospective of eight years of column writing, here are excerpts of a few of my attempts at humor: • “I forgot my twin sister’s birthday.” • “The greatest...

For the eighth anniversary of this column (this time around), I am looking back at my greatest hits. And, by hits, I mean mobster — not Billboard top-40. Hits covered in the three-part series will...

According to Time.com, 66 percent of Americans support stricter gun regulations. Support for universal background checks, a mandatory waiting period and an assault weapon ban came in at 97, 83 and 67...