Remember General Halftrack, the occasional character in the Beetle Bailey comic strip, who lamented being ignored, as he never seemed to get mail from the Pentagon? Remember Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian who “didn’t get any respect?”
Las Vegas, one of 104 incorporated communities in New Mexico, seldom gets acknowledgement and could reasonably compare itself to the general or to Dangerfield.
Let me explain:
Scores of movies in this natural film playground have been produced right here in town or its environs. The newish series, “Longmire,” has had many episodes produced here. Why, then, does the Albuquerque Journal keep failing to give us our due?
Let’s back up a few months, when the Journal printed a map of activities associated with communities throughout the state. On that map — as if some giant editor had taken a giant eraser and rubbed out a whole section — Las Vegas, Springer and Raton were missing, as nothing seems to exist between Santa Fe and the Colorado border. The map also snubbed Grants and Portales, both sizable cities.
One person who takes these omissions seriously is Ron Wooten-Green, who has written to the Journal, asking for proper recognition for the Meadow City.
Let’s not forget that the 64-page Summer Guide printed by the Journal prompted a host of complaints, phone calls and text messages from annoyed Las Vegans.
Journal writer Adrian Gomez wrote a column last week about the return of the popular Western drama. Gomez mentioned that “Longmire” has been moved from network television to Netflix.
But for Gomez, apparently the only way Las Vegas is identified is by being part of northern New Mexico. But that’s not good enough. Las Vegas, with its dozens of films and TV programs to its credit, deserves credit beyond a mere, vague reference to points on a compass.
Wooten-Green’s letter to Gomez says, in part, “We … wish you had recognized Las Vegas as the place in Northern New Mexico where so much of Longmire is filmed. Every time Walt is in his office after going through the door marked “Absaroka Sheriff’s Office,” the viewer is actually in Las Vegas, NM.
“The copious scenes around the town where the Sheriff’s Office is located are shot in the Historic Plaza Park area, including the Historic Plaza Hotel. Our teenage grandson in Victor, Idaho, recognized Las Vegas as the film site in his very first viewing of Longmire; and he was totally unprepared.
“We just wish the ABQ Journal would pick up on the fact that Las Vegas, NM, is here and that we have a long history of film making.”
Wooten-Green is right. And we hope that newspaper in a large city in central New Mexico begins to give this community — the original Las Vegas and home to three colleges — the credit it deserves.
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Much newspaper ink was devoted to the incessant problems plaguing the superintendency of Albuquerque Public Schools. Too detailed to present here, we’ll just explain that after only about four months on the job, the beleaguered top school official, Luis Valentino, turned in his resignation. But not to worry whether he left APS as a pauper. He received an $80,000 going-away package in addition to a $20,000 award for his final month on the job.
It’s true that the bonus he took away from APS is only a fraction of the $240,000 he was scheduled to receive. But more telling is the glowing recommendation he received from the school board, to show to prospective board members in other areas.
Let’s not forget that Valentino’s resignation came following intense pressure. Is any school board likely to believe what’s in that feel-good letter? Let’s see: The man works for four months for the Albuquerque Schools. He commits a series of professional blunders, agrees to resign and accepts a chunk of money and a letter with a glowing reference?
What school board anywhere would buy the rave reviews inherent in that letter? The recommendation uses terms such as “personable,” “willing to listen to the opinions of others,” “commitment” and “dedication.”
Only the very naïve would buy the argument that APS actually regrets having paid the official to make him go away. But the worst scenario is that such a flabby, exaggerated, patronizing letter may set the tone for other such recommendations, further devaluing future letters of that kind.
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Here’s a quick way of teaching students the proper application of grammatical terms. These appeared on the Internet:
- A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink, it leaves.
- A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.
- A question mark walks into a bar?
- Two quotation marks “walk into” a bar.
- A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.
- The bar was walked into by the passive voice.
- Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink.
• • •
There are some really nice people in this town. For example, Monday at Lowe’s on Mills, my wife misplaced her cell phone in the vegetable department, somewhere between the rutabagas and the endives.
So, Bonnie asked a woman walking by to dial her cell phone, and as soon as the woman had keyed in the number, the carrots began to ring.
Let’s hear it for kindness and high-tech. From now on, Bonnie says, she’s going to take my cell phone along with hers, so if she loses one of them, she can rouse the other.
• • •
“I sure wish we had some of that green chile from Colorado,” said no one ever.