The Internet has made it easy to get information. I was using Google, the main search engine, on many computers, long before it became a verb in its own right, as in “I’ll Google that information.”

A man who influenced me during my many years on the Highlands University faculty was also my major professor as an undergraduate, John Adams, who I wish I could have influenced as much as he did me.

Let me explain:

The late English professor simply eschewed modern technology, which he called gimmicks. If, in a fit of nostalgia or trivia, or simply chewing or shooting the fat or the bull (he would have said “masticating the bovine”), I happened to ask him, for example, to cite a passage from John Dryden, I believe he’d have taken the trek to Donnelly Library to find out. Continue reading →

There’s no accounting for some people’s tastes — literally. Take the case of the Santa Fe man who for the third time has been charged with attempted atrocities on the foot of an ex-girlfriend.

The last time, earlier this month, Daniel Anaya was arrested after the woman reported that he attacked her after tracking her down in her new home in Albuquerque. Police say Anaya allegedly tried to cut off her big toe with a cigar cutter.

The ex-girlfriend fought him off by jabbing his back with a fork. Fortunately for the woman she’s all right, even if in an earlier fetish-driven attack, Anaya succeeded in biting off her toe nail. Continue reading →

The plan was to make this my last column. Yes, the idea was to end on this topic, ideally with Column No. 1000, which would have been during the first few months of 2022. Figure, 52 columns a year (I’ve never missed a week!); today’s column is around No. 540, so we’re more than halfway there.

Here goes anyway, but in my round-about way, I need to give some background. I’m a teetotaler now, but not for any religious, social or moral reason. Quite simply, when I checked out of Christus-St. Vincent almost two years ago, after a bleeding ulcer, the attending physician suggested I not drink at all anymore, I assume because ulcers and alcohol don’t mix.

Why didn’t I shop locally and keep my tax dollars in Las Vegas? Well, the only doctor at the time who could treat my condition was out for the weekend. Continue reading →

It was impressive watching a procession of friends making their way up to the podium Monday to pay tribute to the friend of many: Mel Root.

Understandably, several of the testimonials took the form of athletics, a host of former teammates telling the large crowd about this story or that — often sprinkled with humor — about some experience they’d had years ago.

But for the record, Mel was more than simply an athlete; he was a coach, a superintendent, an owner of a camp, a husband, father, grandfather, and — a bit of a rarity in these parts — a Republican in a Democratic stronghold.

Several rose to eulogize the 79-year-old Root at his funeral at the First Baptist Church. Now it’s my turn, and as hard as I try to avoid it, here comes another football account. Continue reading →