Work of Art

Except for the fact that more than half of them are Dallas Cowboy fans, it looks like a fairly balanced account of how this Sunday’s Super Bowl will turn out.

At 4:28 p.m., as the world sits down to a big helping of football and meatball stew, the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants. The game features some of the cleverest, new commercials on TV, and that’s the reason at least one person interviewed plans to be watching on Sunday.

And even though some of those randomly interviewed on their Super Bowl predictions are inveterate Dallas Cowboy fans, let’s still respect their opinions. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember when status in school meant something? Remember when the more popular kids thought of themselves as royalty?

As a senior today, four times older than when I was the other kind of senior, I look back and wonder why popularity, or lack thereof, mattered.

Let me explain:

The other day my wife told me about the frantic preparations for basketball homecoming at the school where she teaches. She said some of the candidates for king and queen are taking matters quite seriously, going into debt to finance a campaign that might enable them to wear a crown for an hour or so.

Now at our school, Immaculate Conception, back in the ‘50s, we didn’t have homecoming goings-on; we merely had misgivings. We did have something like a prom, in which the biggest fund-raisers were lauded and lorded during their 15 minutes of fame.
Read the rest of this entry »

At least we passed out a syllabus. Yes, the course outline that we gave out on the first day of class explained what a student needed to do to pass the class.

So, the students at least had some direction: In order to earn a certain grade in this class, thou shalt accomplish certain things. But that’s only part of the issue in that some students believed that simply by performing various tasks they were guaranteed an “A.” The other part of the equation was how well they performed the work.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I refer to the grades awarded to New Mexico schools, just like the report cards students receive. The Public Education Department of New Mexico just last week released grades, all the way from an “A” to an “F.” No doubt the grades raised a few eyebrows.

But it seems few people fully understand the criteria employed by the PED. As a now-layman, I certainly don’t understand how to negotiate all those hoops and won’t try to explain them here. It seems strange, though, that nearby Mora High School receives an “A,” whereas the local Family Partnership gets an “F.” Does that give the Rangers bragging rights? Read the rest of this entry »

Several years ago, I made a trade: a bicycle I hardly used for a dachshund. Heidi (what else does one name a weenie dog?) had acquired bad manners, gulping her food, piddling on the carpet when chided and scratching and chewing on wooden items.

My friend, the trader, who lived next door, bought an expensive, kennel-trained Great Dane to teach Heidi some manners. The trainer promised my friend, Bob, that in no time, the bigger dog would set such a good example that Heidi would soon follow suit by eating only with a napkin around her neck, using knife and fork, wearing a pad, chewing each morsel 17 times and eschewing wooden furniture.

You can imagine where that experiment went. Soon both dogs were behaving like Heidi. They growled for their food, wolfed it down, dog-in-the-manger style, and in short, behaved badly. People often imitate the animals.

Let me explain: Read the rest of this entry »

Like Banquo’s Ghost, “it will not down.” The Stapleton-Espinoza-Gov. Martinez brouhaha keeps appearing in the press and on TV. Since it seems everybody has had a turn, here’s mine:

To review: Angry at KRQE’s Larry Barker for his investigative piece, the Albuquerque Democrat State Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton, directed some of her umbrage at a Republican representative, Nora Espinoza, from the southern part of the state, accusing her of “carrying water for the Mexican on the fourth floor.”

Now that Mexican in high places happens to be Gov. Susana Martinez, whose office is on the fourth floor of the state capitol. Then all hell broke loose.

Stapleton was angry because of Larry Barker’s exposé about how Stapleton has a high-ranking job with the Albuquerque Public Schools and is a state representative. Though not the only one in that position, Stapleton gets two checks, one from the schools, another for her legislative work.

We call it double-dipping. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a pity to be guilty of what I condemn, but just a few weeks after criticizing the “ignorance is bliss” stance of some people, particularly politicians, I find myself having done the same thing.

Let me explain.

I refer to the admiration Herman Cain received a few weeks ago by professing his ignorance of world affairs, matters that a prospective U.S. president ought to know something about. You may recall that Cain prided himself on his dearth of knowledge on geography, politics and history. And I quoted passages from Sam Cooke’s song, “Don’t Know Much About History,” trying to make the point that to many people, lack of knowledge is admirable.

Well, ignorance is not bliss. Really. Sure, it’s true that “what you don’t know won’t hurt you,” but the ignorance/bliss saying goes beyond that. Thomas Gray, an 18th-century English poet, wrote, “Where ignorance is bliss, / ‘Tis folly to be wise.” And that’s not quite the same as saying that being in the dark makes people happy. Read the rest of this entry »

Like many people, we Trujillos have problems with “stuff.” Problems not as in “We can’t get enough stuff,” but as in, “We have simply too much stuff.”

Let me explain:

A trip to Samaritan House or Salvation Army is supposed to put our household on a diet: The intention is to take clean, usable stuff to either repository in order to 1) help someone else out, 2) help keep a few people employed and 2) help clear out our own place.

But when we return from these places with much more than we took, the “stuff” issue gets exacerbated. The same goes for this column: I have millions of ideas for each week (I’m approaching 500 columns, from May 2003, never having missed a week), and lots of submissions from readers. Sometimes it’s difficult to get to these contributions, and they accumulate like a lot of our “stuff.” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a great feeling when someone I know says he remembers the people I wrote about in a previous column.

“You know this ‘Sopandas’ guy you mentioned? Well, he was my neighbor,” a childhood friend told me recently.

Indeed it is great for my column to have jogged a memory or two. But along with that is the inevitable question (often from a sibling, “Are you sure we grew up in the same household”). Somehow I believe I’m blessed with a keen memory of childhood events, thus my pre-occupation with things I did or were done to me in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

And there’s often a difference of opinion. I’m sure this has happened in many families, where one family member retells a humorous incident of yesteryear. But in doing so, she’s changed the names of the characters: Instead of Mom it was Dad; instead of Immaculate Conception School it was Vegas High or Town High.

Short of DNA evidence and film-type documentation, or the sworn testimony of six nuns, it’s hard to prove very much. Who’s to say my recollection of things isn’t as great as yours? Read the rest of this entry »

A new movie — one I haven’t yet seen, but plan to — is titled “Anonymous.” The subject is about doubts that the works of William Shakespeare — the 37 plays, many sonnets and poems — were written by someone else.

Purposely, I haven’t delved into the reviews to avoid forming a strong premature opinion, but I will posit that those who say the man from Stratford-Upon-Avon was a fake, an imposter, generally aren’t literary types.

Few serious authors, writers, poets or critics have taken up the anti-Shakespeare banner. The most vocal folks who argue that someone else deserves the honors are housewives, lawyers, doctors and some plain folks. Mark Twain, by the way, refused to believe the Bard was legitimate.

Some people say Shakespeare could not have ventured into the realm of more educated, traveled writers, such as Sir Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe. Like some of today’s “birthers,” many critics consider Shakespeare’s place of birth as a benighted back-street slum through whose mired alleys trudged the lowest form of humanity that ever gibbered in the suburbs of Dogpatch. Read the rest of this entry »

For years, Readers Digest carried a feature called “Pardon, Your Slip is Showing,” highlighting journalistic “slips” that appeared in the American press.

When Las Vegas attempted a commercial airline and offered rides to families at a penny a pound, there were quite a few takers. But as interest dropped off, apparently the airline sponsored a promotion, which provided breakfast before each flight.

The Optic carried a small item on Page 1, announcing a “fly breakfast.” Some typographical gremlin must have clipped a few letters from “Fly-Out Breakfast,” leaving an unsanitary and unappetizing alternative. Readers Digest, however, gobbled it up. Read the rest of this entry »