Columns

How the Hen House Turns: Trouble With Chickens

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How the Hen House Turns
Trouble With Chickens
Column by Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

I hate to admit it, but domestic birds have some questionable social … uh … tendencies that are less than attractive. Take, for example, the serious pecking order incidents that erupted amongst the Hen House gang years ago.

Peeky’s broods had grown into handsome black and white roosters. All were fine until they started crowing. We knew we couldn’t keep them. There’s a reasonable ordinance in town that prohibits roosters. Some male chickens have no regard for neighbors who like to sleep past 4 Read More

This Week at the Reel Deal

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Column By JIM O’DONNELL 
Reel Deal Theater  

Reel Deal Tuesday’s are back! All movies, all day Tuesday, are only $6.50! Holidays, winter and summer break excluded.

This week we are opening Nightcrawler. We will hold Fury, John Wick, and Book of Life for another week. Alexander will end this Thursday. It’s funny and a great family film, try to get by and see it.

I understand the scary Halloween films are not that scary this year so we chose the creeper, Nightcrawler. It is a truly original, macabre, ominous film starring Jake Gyllenhal. It is receiving very good reviews. Try it out Read More

LAPS Superintendent Gene Schmidt Issues Open Letter To Staff And Community

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Open Letter to Staff and Community:
By Superintendent Gene Schmidt
Los Alamos Public Schools

An article in the Sunday Edition of Los Alamos Monitor (DeRoma, 2014), posed the question of illegal drug use in our community. The drug awareness event, which was held in Smith Auditorium, presented an opportunity for community members to voice concerns on illegal drug use.

As Superintendent of the Los Alamos Public Schools, I would be naïve to say that drugs have not made their way into our schools and our community. But in saying this, I would state very affirmatively school staff and administration Read More

Classical Music World: Pianist Orion Weiss Shares Thoughts On Upcoming Performance

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Orion Weise and friend. Courtesy/LACA
 
Classical Music World
Pianist Orion Weiss Shares Thoughts on Upcoming Performance
By ANN MCLAUGHLIN

When you go to a classical concert, you are usually handed a printed program that includes some information about the music that you will hear.

But reading about music never comes close to the pleasure of just listening to it and program notes rarely give you any idea of how the artists up on the stage feel about the music they are playing.

That is why I want to share something really special with you.

The next Los Alamos Concert Association event features Read More

Food on the Hill: Calabacitas

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Food on the Hill
By FELICIA ORTH

 

This week’s recipe:

Calabacitas

Photo by Felicia Orth

Fall 1986. We had recently moved to Santa Fe from St. Louis. “What are you bringing to the Church potluck?” “Calle-besitas,” I said, showing off my new pronunciation skills with my new recipe. “Little street kisses? Sounds like an interesting dish….” We talked long enough that our friend was able to (stop chuckling and) correct my pronunciation of a New Mexican dish, calabacitas. Squash, corn and chiles—all vegetables long grown in the New World. The Pueblo Indians shared this ancient dish with Read More

Yang: The Prison Walls For The Top Group

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The Prison Walls For The Top Group
By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos

(This is the third piece in this series of intergroup dynamics.)

First, author’s clarification. When I typed “dynamic conservatism” in the previous post, it crossed my mind that in this election cycle, people might associate this “conservatism” with political affiliation. Far from it. In the usage of “dynamic conservatism,” the word just means the preservation of current power status. 

Have you ever contemplated what’s like to be in a dramatically different working condition? living situation? position of power (or lack of)? Read More

Johnson: Giving People Cash Works

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By DUSTIN JOHNSON
Los Alamos
(Currently in a master’s program in Nova Scotia)

Much emergency aid in disaster and war zones takes the form of in-kind assistance: food, shelter, clothing, medicine, etc. Part of the reason for this is that these may simply not be available in the area. Often though, some forms of services are still operational, especially near refugee camps or after natural disasters in heavily populated areas.

So, why not give people in these situations cash to take advantage of available, local services? The conventional wisdom has been that if you just give people cash, Read More

Food on the Hill: Curried Squash and Mushroom Soup

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Food on the Hill
By FELICIA ORTH
 
This Week’s Recipe:
 
Curried Squash and Mushroom Soup
 
 
Photo by Felicia Orth
 
The acorn squash is glossy green, ribbed, and sits next to the butternut squash–tall, pale yellow and smooth.  No need to choose between them. They are delicious together, whether roasted and mashed, sliced into gratins or casseroles, and in this lovely soup. This recipe is lightly adapted from the 1977 Moosewood Cookbook, which holds many of the soup recipes I use and adapt. Although you could take a shortcut by adding a tablespoon
Read More

How the Hen House Turns: A Homesick Dog?

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How the Hen House Turns
 
A Homesick Dog?
Column by Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

In late summer 1983 we drove to Flagstaff, Ariz. to begin a delightful year of teaching and folk dancing. Our Santa Fe shepherd, Poncho, went with us. He hated riding in the car, until we stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Gallup and shared our lunch with him.

What a mood change! Instead of moping, all curled up in the back seat, he sat up and stuck his nose eagerly into the crack in the rear window, all the way to our rented house on the hill above the railroad station in Flagstaff.

The house was nice enough there, but Read More

Solo Traveler: Spectacular Rocks

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Beefsteak Hill on the road from Albuquerque to Los Alamos. Photo by Sherry Hardage
 
Fall color in the Jemez. Photo by Sherry Hardage
 

Solo Traveler: Spectacular Rocks

By SHERRY HARDAGE

When I returned to my home state in the 1980s, I bought Halka Chronic’s book, “Roadside Geology of New Mexico.” Her books are a great resource for people who want to know more about the amazing scenery they drive through.

But the New Mexico book left me cold because one of the prettiest drives in the state wasn’t even mentioned – the road from San Isidro north to Jemez Springs and on to Read More