Sportsmanship! Feh!

From today’s Las Cruces Sun News:

“The Western Athletic Conference has issued a warning to all WAC members that any pre-meditated chants that contain vulgar or offensive language will result in a technical foul called against the home team.”

(full article)

You know what, that fine Aggie tradition of shouting “Nice shot, ass–le” at basketball games dates back to my college years. Like, uh, back to the early 90’s.

I started out this blog post going to rant about the demolition of a tradition. But actually, that crowd chant was pretty juvenile back in ’91 (which was why it was fun), but it’s probably time to move it along to something new. And even more juvenile.

Not sure I buy into a Technical Foul to the home team. That’s an expensive penalty, and how are they supposed to corral their own fans, anyway? I guess when the fans lose a game because of the T, they’ll pipe down.

So ok. It’s lame that the WAC is governing this NOW, some twenty years later. They really should have gotten in front of it back then. I mean, you can *hear* it on television! Seems hard to curb this now. But ok, it’s part of the rules now.

So I’ll let this one go. But I’ll *never* let go of the grand SF Giants fans in the bleachers tradition of “what’s the matter with < insert name of opposing team's outfielder here >??……He’s. A. BUM!”

Convergence

The two halves of me, the New Mexico girl living in California (and a ragin’ Giants baseball fan) collided today.

For Christmas someone gave me a page-a-day Giants and baseball trivia calendar.

The entry for January 14, 2008:

“Who is the only National Baseball Hall of Famer born in New Mexico.”

Wha! I didn’t even know we had one!

The answer:

Ralph Kiner is his name, he was born in Santa Rita and he played most for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He’s now a broadcaster for the Mets.

Oh Fair New Mexico, how I love to learn your little secrets.

Image via Wikipedia.

And then there were three.

Was sad to read in the ABQjournal today that it looks like Bill Richardson is giving up his run at the Presidency.

I had rather hoped that he could hang in there at least until Super Tuesday. I had wanted to look down at my ballot and see a New Mexican’s name there. Don’t know if I would have voted for him (I might have).

I think he made a valiant run as the underdog in a race with some big names. He raised the visibility of New Mexico, for both better and worse, in my humble opinion. It hurts to hear on the news about what a poverty state NM is, how low are the test scores in the schools, etc. I know it’s true, but I hate hearing it blared out on national news.

It seems that Bill has gotten on the fighting side of the Clintons too. I’m sure that was a calculated move but I’m not savvy enough to work it out.

For now, I’m sorry to hear that the Governor of Oh Fair New Mexico is stepping out.

I give him applause for making a run at it.

And now, onward.

In a side note…I’m consoling myself today with the news that one of the candidates I’m considering from my open job is a graduate of NMSU. If I can’t New Mexicanize the country, I can start locally! heh!

Update to add an image. Now is that Larry? Or Moe? Wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh!!!!!

Moist!

Ah yes, it’s that special time of year. Right on time. We have arrived at the rainy season when soaking rains last for days and days and make it non-stop damp. Makes slugs and snails slither across sidewalks (: shiver :).

Inspires my auntie (formerly of Oregon) to claim that mold is growing in one’s own nooks and crannies. (ew)

I remember when I’d first moved to the Bay Area back in ’97. I was VERY naive. Incredibly so. I spent the first year living here picking hayseeds out of my hair.

I used to cry at night wondering where all that rain would go. In New Mexico, that much rain would cause massive and cataclysmic flooding.

I had this incredibly caustic friend I worked with at Lockheed. She was a lifelong Bay Area resident and she took me under her wing early on. I remember asking her where all the water would go. She looked at me incredulously, and said “uh…there’s this thing called the Bay?”

“Ohhhhh,” this desert rat said. Beginning to realize that Dorothy was not in Albuquerque any more…

But the best story came one afternoon at work. After weeks and weeks of rain, we were outside so my friend could take her afternoon cigarette break. I don’t smoke but would go outside with her. We were talking and I looked down and saw the most profoundly blue iridescent fuzzy thing on the ground. It was beautiful. I’d never seen such a color. I wanted to take a photograph!

Was it a bug? A flower? What incredibly new and wonderful thing was this that I had discovered?

So I asked my caustic friend!

She took a long drag from her Marlboro Light and kicked at it.

Then she fixed me with a steely glare and responded, “It’s mold on bird shit.”

Ah.

So I’ve toughened up a bit over the years. Age and intention can do that to you.

But just to prove I haven’t lost the wonder of it all…

Yesterday I was on my way to the stop where the work shuttle bus picks me up to take me to the CalTrain station.

And I saw something that caught my eye. And since my phone has a camera, I stopped, squatted down, and took a photo.

Here’s your Bay Area “art shot” for the day. Better then mold on poop, right?