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Author: Lisa

Lisa Maue lives in Carrizozo, New Mexico. Formerly a reporter, Lisa continues to write about the people and places in south-central New Mexico.
University of Missouri Students Spend Break Volunteering

University of Missouri Students Spend Break Volunteering

Twelve students from the University of Missouri chose to spend their winter break volunteering with Ski Apache Adaptive Sports (SAAS) as part of the university’s Mizzou Alternative Breaks (MAB) program. None of the students had been to New Mexico, none had ever tasted green chile and only two had ever skied before. Perhaps most surprisingly, none of the students knew each other before the trip. Some were interested in adaptive sports as a possible career choice, some knew people with…

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Buffalo Gourd Hard to Love

Buffalo Gourd Hard to Love

Along the side of highways, often creeping along disturbed soil, tendrils of the buffalo gourd seem like something out of a science fiction film. Extremely fast growing, the large triangular leaves can take over large swaths of land, primarily in elevations below 7,000 feet. The plant is foul smelling and the flesh of the tennis ball-size gourds contain cucurbitacins which can be toxic if consumed in large quantities—difficult to imagine given its stunningly acrid taste. Despite these offensive attributes, buffalo…

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A Parrot, a Librarian and a Highway Worker Woven in “A Bird of the Air”

A Parrot, a Librarian and a Highway Worker Woven in “A Bird of the Air”

“A Bird of the Air” (2011), romantic comedy-drama, starring  Rachel Nichols and Jackson Hurst, filmed in Santa Fe. Based on a Joe Coomer’s novel “The Loop,” this is a story of how a parrot brought two people together. Hurst’s character is Lyman, a man who knows little of his past and spends his present cleaning up a New Mexico interstate on the graveyard shift. (In Texas, loops around large cities are common, not so much here.)  Lyman meets a wacky…

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