Please note that this episode has been edited to fix a few major factual difficulties. I haven’t gone back to find the source of the errors, but I suspect it was my head. Just to make things clear, to the best of my knowledge (obviously my best is none to good), Major Jim Bibb is not running for the governorship of anything. Since it’s only a matter of time before someone reads this and mistakenly thinks I care, or that I matter, I have updated the episode. In the great plastic press that is the Internet, it’s very easy to go back and change what you said.
Apparently there’s an election or something going on back in the Land of Enchantment, and up for grabs is the Attorney General’s seat. Attorney General is a politician in charge of honesty, which is especially oxymoronic in New Mexico. Insiders report that as of a couple of days ago the campaigns were clean and issues-oriented. [Apparently, as of this edit, that is no longer the case, and my man was the first one spotted by the elite muddled team of political trackers with his paw in the mud pot.] For all of you who worked on Pirates of the White Sand, here are a few things you need to know:
FACT: When we asked some menial flunky of governor Bill Richardson for jets to fly over, we got squat.
FACT: When we asked Major Jim Bibb for helicopters, he personally represented us to his C.O., and we got a helicopter.
FACT: Major Jim Bibb is running for Attorney General of New Mexico.
FACT: Bill Richardson is running for governor — or so he claims. Rumor has it that he and Hillary have scheduled an arm-wrasslin match to see who gets to run for president. Prognosticators give Richardson the nod based on his larger biceps, but there’s no denying that Clinton has leverage.
FACT: While Sikorsky gets all the glory, Piaseki broke the ground (or at least, that what his grandson told me).
INDISPUTABLE FACT: Major Jim Bibb is a good guy.
DISPUTABLE FACT: Major Jim Bibb would be a good attorney general. No one seems to expect the head lawyer of the land to have a legal background, but does that make him overly dependent on the entrenched bureaucracy?
COMPLETE ABSENCE OF FACT: I have no knowledge of the other guy, except that politically his father was (is?) a big ol’ wheel in those parts.
I was surprised to hear that Major Jim Bibb (You can’t edit that name. ‘Major Jim Bibb’ has a cadence to it that cannot be ignored.) was running for the hot seat in New Mexico. He struck me as an easy-going guy who saw the humor in life, although as a guy in charge of helicopters with big red crosses on the side, I expect he’s seen a lot of things that weren’t so funny. He didn’t have the ‘flyboy’ swagger or strut about him, just a love of life and the desire to make every day a good one. Not that I really got to know him that well; I am probably reading too much into his easygoing smile and willingness to help me get what I asked for. Nevertheless, I like Major Jim Bibb.
OOPS –
Major Jim Bibb is running for Attorney General.
Bill Richardson IS running for governor, albeit he is doing most of his campaigning in states that have early presidential primaries in 2008.
Ahrrr, he be a right fine gentile sort of person, although his ‘copters be a bit on the slow side. It matter not if he be a runnin’ fer Attourney General, for I be votin him in as Gov’nor! It be the New Mexico way.
Ugh! Bibb has cast the first dirty advert! He may lose my vote!
vote smart! vote lucy barcelona!
Nico’s got a point there. If you are following the elecitions in New Mexico as closly as I am, you have then obviously been exposed to the Smear Campaign that is Lucy Barcelona! I’m votin for Owen Luke!
I aint’ votin fer any helicopter ridin major who don’t like the smell of napalm in the mornin. So does he?
I have some somber news of some negligible import to a certain fraction of the readership here: Olyo’s Pizza is closing. After October 20th, the pizza ovens will be forever extinguished. Having been alerted to this sorry state of affairs by Tom Braski, the Sherwood family made a final pilgrimage to the pizza and volleyball Mecca this evening. Another touchstone of my wasted youth sacrificed to the irrepressible hunger of progress. (Or in this case, the gentrification of Encinitas, as the entire building is being turned into office space for lawyers.)
I know Bob always liked going to Olyo’s when he had the munchies.
I am saddened to hear that Olyo’s is closing. It is (soon to be was) indeed a mecca to beer, pizza and beach volleyball. The beach part is so self evident to Keith that he doesn’t even mention it, but the fact that it was withing walking distance to some fine beach courts doubtless prevented several motor vehicle accidents over the years.
As for Keith’s second comment, that one is sad in another way.
In keeping with the lit bent of MR&HBI and the recent nostalgia over high school English, here’s an allusive simile:
Waiting for Keith to grow tired of one of his own jokes is like waiting for Godot.
In New Mexico politics, it’s not just who you know, but who’s in your family, that counts.
Jim Bibb’s father-in-law is former Democratic Governer Toney Anaya.
Jim Bibb’s opponent is Gary King, son of former Democratic Governor Bruce King.
Say it ain’t so, Keith! I have some fond memories of that place. Good pizza (onions and bell peppers no charge), good beer, and a great beach atmosphere. What will moonlight be without it?