Columns

Looking back at my own education, I was far from a perfect student.
So many lessons went unheeded, dusty stacks of knowledge pushed aside so that I could watch cartoons on Saturday morning.  I seem to recall thinking that the Barbary Wars had something to do with fighting over hair styles.
One lesson that I do remember however was a “Fruit Fly Experiment” we performed in biology class.

The Gulf oil spill has shown us just one of the downsides of petroleum.
That makes the mind of even a geologist like me turn to several questions about the future.
Could we Americans grow more of our own fuel – enough to run a number of our cars, trucks and airplanes?
And, quite importantly, could we do so without displacing food crops like corn?
Pretty much everybody from all sorts of political persuasions is interested in those issues.

Tucumcari for the first time. Other than a few lawyers’ offices, its lifeless main street was a canyon of vacant storefronts and hollow buildings.
A Kmart had opened on the outskirts of town, and one business after another abandoned downtown to be close to the action. The only retail was a place that sold Bully Bags, little bags made of bulls’ testicles, and business wasn’t exactly booming.
Other than the Bully Bags, Tucumcari’s scene was playing out in many small towns.

SANTA FE — New Mexico’s gubernatorial contest has become Susana Martinez’s race to lose. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish can still win it but unless Martinez stumbles over a pile of kryptonite, she’s the favorite.
Yes, I said kryptonite. I realize that is Superman’s nemesis but I can’t recall what weakens Wonder Woman. And Wonder Woman is what I am christening Susana Martinez.