What is New Mexico? Just an idea, really. Just words to help us think and talk about an arbitrarily framed area of the planet we call Earth. And what is the news? It’s people doing something. People doing nothing. Events and eventlessness. Inspired by Félix Fénéon’s Novels in Three Lines, this feature presents news from New Mexico, briefly, written by author Mike Smith and illustrated by ¡Brapola! "I just hate seein’ all them queers tanglin’ all their fingers up all sexy-like, like that," the shuttle-driver didn’t say but totally could have. A Portales columnist remembers the kindness and advice of his Aunt Maude. "Boy, when someone hands you money, you take it," she would say. Seventy years ago in Union County, the girls of the Order of the Rainbow had a sleepover. And Leland B. Gray learned to use a machine gun. Unsmiling tween girls slouched determinedly into a Las Cruces mall store, hoping for above-average deals during a sales-tax-free weekend. AT&T wants to put an 85-foot cell tower on a rural road in mountainous Cedar Crest. Locals say no. AT&T says, “but it will look like a tree.”The old state prison, where inmates rioted in 1980 and 33 people died, may be re-opened as "New Mexico’s Alcatraz," a tourist attraction.A paved road in Ruidoso does seem to be sinking into the ground and compacting in random spots, say officials, but it’s probably still safe.That last big storm did $1 million in damages to Albuquerque, ripping cottonwoods out of the ground at Hyder Park, and tearing up pavement.Albuquerque author Justin St. Germain’s debut memoir, Son of a Gun, has been receiving rave reviews from the New York Times, NPR, O Magazine, and others.Smiling high-schooler Sarah Ferguson is this year’s Lincoln County Fair Queen. Years ago, both her aunts were. Before that, her grandma was. Someone poured accelerant over a refrigeration unit, and then lit it on fire, at the horse slaughterhouse that was about to open in Roswell.The Cimarron River was dry as dust, but now it roils over with whitewater, flooding, cascading over ledges, filling lakes along the way. At a McIntosh dog kennel, 15 dead dogs rotted outside, dozens more ate one other, and all but five had to be euthanized, they were so sick.At "1 Nite 2 Unite," 400 people met at Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park to wave their arms, close their eyes, and sway to Christian rock music. Someone keeps smashing the front window of Roberta’s Place, in Grants, a shelter for abused women and their children. Three times this month. A Truth or Consequences woman went home early, and found her boyfriend and her young daughter, naked, watching porn. Get dressed, she said. Wait outside. Escaping from police, a man drove his car through a guardrail in Grants, and rolled. He’s in bad shape, and a woman in the car is still missing. At a fundraiser for an Albuquerque cancer patient, a motorcycle gang showed up, fired seventy bullets into the crowd, and killed a man.A house burned in Las Cruces, and although firefighters extinguished the blaze within ten minutes, two pet guinea pigs died in the flames. Seventeen years old and shot to death at a birthday party in Rodey, in Doña Ana County. He’d been trying to stop a fight when he was shot. Not every hero wears a uniform or has a gun, says the LINCOLN COUNTY NEWS, beneath a photo of men in flag hats, flag shirts and a flag car.
Follow New Mexico News on Twitter, @New_Mexico_News. Usually updated daily.
