Columns

How The Hen House Turns: DeeDee and Scooter

by

How The Hen House Turns: DeeDee and Scooter
By Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

Sometime in the mid 1980’s, our daughters went off to college and the dog (Poncho) died–the classic scenario.

Our nest was empty for a while. The daughters’ pets had also met their assorted fates. Work at the lab and the excavation of dinosaur Seismosaurus filled the gap.

Apparently, still feeling that gap, I adopted a turtle or two. Husband Don gave me a proper aquarium.

In the summer of 2000 I rescued Freddy the water dragon from Pete’s Pets, our local pet store prior to Pet Pangaea. Other dragons

Read More

Hannemann’s Music Corner: The Hook

by

Hannemann’s Music Corner: The Hook
Column by RICHARD HANNEMANN
 
A chord is any three or more different letter notes, either in a stack or in melodic sequence. This definition reflects modern usages and spellings.
 
Certainly Bach would not have been quite so liberal in his definition. In the Common Practice period – appx. 1700-1900, Bach to Wagner, a chord would have been specifically a triad with, or without, the addition of the 7th (and, later, the 9th and the 11th.)
 
Other than the 7th, any note which was not part of a triad would have been considered a non-chord tone.
 
Read More

Kendall: Martinez vs. Garcia Richard – Gotcha Politics or SOP?

by

Column by GREG KENDALL
Los Alamos

Did State House Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard break her promise to voters? She vowed to help repeal the Richardson era driver’s license law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses.  

Gov. Susana Martinez and anonymous robo-callers would like you to believe that Garcia Richard broke her promise.

Martinez went live on Los Alamos radio station KRSN AM 1490 March 7 to make that claim directly to local voters. But it is not that simple.

House Bill 606, sponsored by Rep. Paul Pacheco (R-Bernalillo & Sandoval-23), Read More

Help With The Hard Stuff: Lawyers Can Be Quite Versatile

by

Help With The Hard Stuff

 

Lawyers Can Be Quite Versatile (But They Might Not Think To Tell You That)
Column by GINI NELSON, JD, MA
Part 3 (of 10)

I ended my last column asking you to think about what role you wanted the lawyer to have in helping you with your problem, and I suggested there are perhaps 10 different roles.

I use as analogy the roles identified by William Ury in his 1999 book Getting to Peace, later retitled The Third Side, and itself now the foundation of www.thirdside.org, part of the Global Negotiation Project that Dr. Ury directs at Harvard University.

Some of the basic premises Read More

Money IQ: Commercial and Industrial Loans on the Rise

by

Money IQ
By AL HERNANADEZ

Commercial and Industrial Loans on the Rise

Banks large and small are looking to increase their lending activities as the economy continues to show signs of improvement. 

At the beginning of the economic downturn a lot of financial institutions slowed or halted lending, especially for commercial real estate related loans. 

Since this time, many banks have changed their lending appetite and are now more diversified in their product offerings. 

Commercial real estate, development loans and other real estate secured loans, once a common staple of Read More

Column: Are Female CEOs The Only/Best Role Model For Women?

by

Are Female CEOs The Only/Best Role Model For Women?
Column by ELENA YANG

Recent news brought to us stories of two prominent female executives of Internet companies, whose decisions and publicity have stirred up some debate and reflection on women’s lives within and outside organizations. 

Sheryl Sandberg’s book, “Lean In,” a semi-autobiography cum new feminism manifesto, offers women advice on how to advance in the corporate world by mostly evoking those dormant internal strengths. 

Sandberg is the current chief operating officer for Facebook. Marissa Mayer, the (fairly) Read More

Hannemann’s Music Corner: The Romance

by

Hannemann’s Music Corner: The Romance
By RICHARD HANNEMANN
Los Alamos
 
There are a variety of difficult and challenging pieces for the guitar – Recuerdos de Alhambra, Malaguena, Concierto de Aranjuez all come to mind (oh, and one I wrote “La Vida en Plaza”.)
 
But, oddly enough, one piece is much more challenging than you might expect: The Romance.
 
The Romance is not a particularly technically difficult piece. Nor is it particularly fast. But there are other reasons why it, and similar pieces, can be a real challenge.
 
First, the thing is ubiquitous.
Read More

A View from the Stacks: Winter and Summer Programs Promote Reading

by

Column by ANGIE MANFREDI
Head of Youth Services, Mesa PUblic Library

Quick! Name a Caldecott winner! Name a book written by an author whose last name starts with “T”! 

Name a book with frogs! If you were one of hundreds of children (237 to be precise) who registered for Los Alamos County Library System’s Winter Reading program over the last three months or who had someone in their lives who read with them or to them, you’d be able to answer these questions.

Here are some answers: My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann, Three Times Lucky by Shelia Turnage, and Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London. Read More

The Pain Free Athlete: Shin Splints Can Occur in Seasonal Transition

by

Jessica Kisiel

 

The Pain Free Athlete
Column by JESSICA KISIEL
 
Shin Splints Can Occur in Seasonal Transition

Transitioning from skis to running shoes can be painful.

When skiing, our foot is connected to a long board and never makes contact with the ground. In running, the foot is free to move on its own and comes in direct contact with the earth.

How the foot interacts with this surface can make the difference between a pain full or pain less run.

The functional design of the foot is to strike the ground on the center of the heel, roll to mid-stance and push off over all fives toes.

The big Read More

How The Hen House Turns: Fire, Dog Crates and Straw

by

How The Hen House Turns
Fire, Dog Crates and Straw
By CARY NEEPER　

Spring. The first crocus makes me remember to organize for possible evacuation.

During the Cerro Grande Fire in the year 2000, all we had to evacuate was a turtle, a plecostomas and two swordtail fish.

They didn’t like being evacuated, but at last I convinced them to stay in the largest salad bowl I could find – all but the male swordtail. I couldn’t catch him, and time was ticking away. A huge plume of black, orange and white smoke rose overhead.

It broke my heart to leave the male swordtail behind. We spent five anxious

Read More