Next Stop: The North Pole
Bunny Doyle, of Albuquerque, was delighted last Christmas when a colorful envelope arrived in her mailbox and made her a firm believer in miracles. The envelope had five postmarks—one for each state it had visited in its evidently long journey to Bunny’s mailbox. Across the front was written, by some not-terribly-well-informed employee of the U.S. Postal Service: “New Mexico—not in the U.S.!”
Your Papers, Please
Shortly after graduating from NMSU, Henry Goldenberg arrived in Pittsburgh to begin his first job. He was interested in politics and wanted to make sure to vote in the upcoming presidential election. One day he noticed a “register to vote” sign at a nearby school, went in, filled out the form, and presented his New Mexico driver’s license. The three ladies seated at the registration table passed it back and forth suspiciously. Finally, one of the women asked Goldenberg if he also had his birth certificate and citizenship papers. Patiently, Goldenberg explained that he’d been born in New Mexico. The admission almost caused his expulsion from the office. He quickly provided a geography lesson, explaining that New Mexico is the state between Texas and Arizona. Reluctantly, the three women accepted Goldenberg’s registration.
Baby, Let’s Go to New Mexico
Joe King Carrasco, the King of Tex-Mex Nuevo Wavo rock’n’roll, called a major electronics dealer to order a new laptop. He told the nice lady taking the order that it would be picked up by a friend at the retailer’s store in Las Cruces, so he could set it up and give it to the King when he passed nearby on a tour. She paused, seemed confused, and said that they do not have stores in that country—Carrasco’s friend would have to come across the border and present his passport in order to pick it up. “I then said that Las Cruces is less than an hour north of El Paso, Texas,” reports Carrasco, “and asked if there would there be a place my buddy could tie up his burro and give it water. To which she said, ‘We do not allow pets in the store.’”