read 'em and weep

The endorsements are on the street, and if there were any justice I'd be sitting somewhere getting a little mani/pedi shoulder rub. Instead, we're embarking on our 88 page summer guide double press run gotta start in five minutes next issue. Ah spring! Ah summer! Ah love! Ah publishing!
I'm taking a day off next week for sure, before I really go bonkers.
Some of the races were hard to choose (AG, LC) because the candidates all seemed pretty qualified. Some were the opposite. And see how I'm not saying which?
Of course, endorsements ain't predictions.
Maybe they should be!

because that's how it gotta be

I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.
I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.I will not blog until I finish writing the primary election endorsements.

Sometimes, when I have days like this, I just think: What would Buffy do?

the cookie, it doth crumble

Still find the mistrial in the Robert Vigil case awfully anticlimactic. Not sure, either, why a mistrial is cause for celebration for the defense, unless this means they know the case will be a mistrial next time as well. If this were an episode of The Sopranos, that lone juror would be a suspicious character. It has been difficult, not being in court, and just relying on the media reports, to really gauge how effective the prosecution has been in its case. When all you hear is salacious, r.e. videotapes etc., it's hard to believe they won't convict. Still don't get why there weren't transcripts of those tapes for the jurors to read. Life is a mystery.
Found half a smoked joint on the locker room floor of my health club last night. Turned it in at the front desk. Mostly just to amuse myself. Almost left it in lost and found, but that didn't seem quite as amusing.
We are on deadline right now. A new book arrived in the mail today called Frozen Lightning, Bill Richardson's Strike on the Political Landscape of New Mexico

The book describes itself as a history of political corruption in New Mexico. So I'm looking forward to reading it. They can sell copies at the next trial of Robert Vigil. The authorship of the book says "featuring Bill Althouse and a Thousand and One New Mexicans" so I'm not sure what that means. Bill has been an aggressive alt.energy guy around here for years, and a critic of Richardson's. Wish we'd had this book a week ago—it would have been interesting fodder for tomorrow's cover story. And that's all I'm saying.

postscript

It makes me happy to read this article about Toni Morrison's novel Beloved for a variety of reasons. One, it is a beautiful novel. Two, I love reading anything on Slate. When I was in college, my former and late professor, Larry Cave, pushed through having a preceptorial on Beloved. Big deal, you might say, except this was 1989ish and this was St. John's College, bastion of dead white men books. Having a contemporary novel in a St. John's preceptorial, particularly one like Beloved, was pretty outrageous. We all loved the book and Larry Cave was a wonderful tutor, probably too wonderful for St. John's, in my opinion. He died just a few years after I graduated, from AIDS. But I'll never forget that precept.

the grand yuck

Some Mondays feel harder than others. This feeling is likely enhanced by:

1. too much weekend, ending with Andy Primm's CD release party at WilLee's followed by poor pool playing at Cowgirl. Although I only drank two beers over the course of six hours I still feel somewhat squishy-headed. Normally Sundays are spent watching the Sopranos and working.

2. first weekend with laptop went well as in I saved gas, did not drive to work but worked comfortably from a coffee shop. Did result in drinking too much coffee and it feels like maybe I didn't get as much done as I should have.

3. Holiday weekends, such as the one looming. Nice to get a three-day weekend, but the preparation to make that happen usually makes it kind of a wash.

4. Fires burning are leaving me with yet more squishy-headed feeling.

5. Must write all primary election endorsements by the end of the week. It's enough to make a person want to go back to bed and wake up on, you know, Tuesday or something.

sometimes it's like a jungle

I'm embarking on an annual tradition of mine called cleaning my office. It's quite awful in here. First off, it's the size of a shoebox and secondly I receive approximately 8 million pieces of paper a day. So, ya know, it's out of control. But I have to clean up before dealing with writing the May 31 endorsements for the June 6 primary. Gotta say, not looking forward to it as much as usual. There's something about this particular political season that I have found to be a real drag. Besides many of the candidates, that is.
On another note, we had a nice story today on problems at the Department of Labor. DOL Secretary Conroy Chino, used to be a tv reporter, called me when we were on deadline with the story, somewhat upset about our line of questioning, and implying that, perhaps, we weren't going about the story the right way. There is almost nothing that makes me more convinced we are, indeed, going about the story the right way than when the person who is the focus of the story tries to tell me otherwise. I could say more, but I'm trying to be more polite these days. Hence, the silence on this blog.
Other things I'm not talking about:

1. the outcry over the sexual content in SFR's newest classified column Savage Love. You know, it's a famous column by a famous writer carried in 40 other cities where people live in reality, but whatever. I mean, you don't have to read it if you don't like it and it's not as racy as The Sopranos, which is also something you look at by choice. And in every other city gay activists would be screaming at the calls we're getting to cancel this column but in Santa Fe, supposedly so gay friendly, everyone is too busy being horrified at the language. So be it.

2. The anti-smoking ordinance, which includes patios and outdoor space, even though most ordinances like this don't, just cause they can, just cause no one is going to argue, even though smoking is a legal activity, even though you can't do it in most places, even though people have a choice about whether they go and work at places with smoke. No one wants to be the pro-cancer advocate so, you know, let's just pass a law.

And these are things I'm not talking about today. Because I have evolved past having opinions.

Fumes from cleaning my office making me dizzy. Must go outside.

rainy like monday morning

I heard one of the best debates/discussions on immigration this morning, a radio cast of a townhall in San Antonio with many well-known speakers. I would highly recommend it, as it was one of the most, if not the most, interesting and nuanced debates on this issue I've heard. You can listen to it here.
Today the march of elected officials into our office continues. As it will all week and then, with any luck, and lots of caffeine, we'll bang out our endorsement issue for the 31st. The way it works is we (the edit staff) meets, discusses, debates, decides who we'll endorse, and why, and then I write up the endorsements. Occasionally, when we can't just agree, I make the final call, although we're pretty good at reaching consensus. There's a few tough ones in the primary, and for those candidates who also will have a general election, part of our job is to figure out who will do the best in the general, not just who would make the best -fill in the blank. Of course, candidates we can't talk to don't get too much consideration, although I can count on maybe three fingers the # of candidates who haven't come in over the last six years. Mostly they do; it's kind of what you do when you're running for office, unless you just know that you don't need an endorsement, which I suppose is true for some candidates. Robert Vigil certainly didn't get one, and it didn't stop him from getting elected.
On that note, back to work. Enjoy the rain!

wither doth the time goeth

Ten things you've been spared from hearing about due to my blogging absence.

1. I need a haircut and a pedicure.
2. I have wind sickness from the wind storm, i.e., dizziness, vertigo and confusion.
3. I had a seriously good time at Atmosphere last weekend at Paolo Soleri and can't stop playing "Watch It" on my ipod.
4. I am getting carried away preparing for my power point presentation next month at AAN and am probably going to make a huge fool of myself.
5. Snarky comments about Journal Santa Fe reporter Laura Banish accepting a job as the city's PIO and how questionable I think it is to know your city reporter who has been reporting on the city while waiting/negotiating/knowing a job is in the offing.
6. After a month of slaving away on Annual Manual now I get to answer all the calls from people pissed off they aren't in it or aren't in it the way they want to be. It's an annual event, like Christmas, but without presents and without joy.
7. How sweet writer Dan Frosch was to bring me back a beautiful book of photos from France.
8. How the cliche, " if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all" relates to my lack of commentary on our endorsement interviews for the June primary election.
9. I am getting a laptop, which means I will still work every Sunday but can do it from a coffeeshop, not here in the dirtiest office that ever existed.
10.Best of Santa Fe voting has commenced. Vote!

monday, monday

Mario Burges picked up on our Guy Riordan and Con Alma story and runs with it today. Good reading, and so clearly the tip of the iceberg. We will keep digging. If you think you know some untapped ground for us to point our shovels at (oy, too busy for metaphors) let me know. And there's another political blogger in the New Mexico mix. No ID but is clearly not a fan of the Democrat administration here so that means it's likely, um, well it could be anybody.
One of the writers asked if we could leave a blank page where an article should be as our part of the immigration protest but I said no. He was joking. I think. Joe M has some good stuff on the immigration protest today, and also points out how boring a primary election season it's been so far. It is pretty boring so far. I'm sure when our endorsement interviews heat up it will get interesting. Heat up is the right word. We conduct all our interviews in our airless conference room, which now has two massive fans in it and yet still no air. It's kind of like a torture chamber of some sort.
OK, paper on my desk, people having questions. am going back to work.