Saturday was a day with no news. Some people toured a new Mormon Temple in Albuquerque and others lined up for Britney Spears tickets in Santa Fe. A large group of ranchers in Glenwood, New Mexico attended a rally against the reintroduction of Mexican grey wolves to their region. "They're sorry, cunning, and no good," complained one resident named Pat Watland. In the village of Los Ranchos a county building was dedicated, and up in Taos one Felipe Cordova issued a press release. Cordova announced his plan to organize a Hispanic Million Man March on the nation's capitol next January, to precede the presidential inauguration. His story, while interesting, lacked the video elements that inspire television coverage. There was no archive footage of the first of his proposed series of marches. Held last December, it drew 28 people. The wife of an American MIA from Vietnam was the local link to a national item. New techniques in DNA testing might finally identify the missing soldier's remains. The show producer of the ten o'clock news would probably lead with the "Lobos," the New Mexico University basketball team with a wolf mascot. The early news would have to lead with the other kind of lobo, the endangered wolf. Was there any interesting story of the day? "I'd have to go with the squash lady," suggested the weekend assignment editor. One Alice Vargas of Albuquerque had reportedly sighted Jesus in a squash. The viewers of the southwest have a real interest in miracles. Several years ago, Jesus in the Tortilla made headlines for weeks, and one year a similar miracle was discovered in the pattern of a knot in a piece of firewood. In a land where pretty much everyone knows someone who says they saw a UFO, heard the Taos Hum, or rented a cabin to the members of Heavens Gate, remarkable sightings are a part of life. Saturday there was also a report that a horse had been mutilated near El Paso Texas, presumably by aliens, who extracted the reproductive organs of the unfortunate mare. I wonder why this happened on a remote ranch. Why couldn't the aliens go to the livestock auction, like everyone else, and buy the horse? ("Sold to the little fella in green.") As Saturday drew to a close, the assignment editor dialed the squash lady. "If it's interesting to me," he said, "it's probably interesting to everyone, because I've seen it and heard it all." By Sunday, the squash lady was news. |
