She was looking at me with that big, sad eye
Past Perfect
The remarkable life of Laredo plantswoman Anna B. Nickels lost to the river of forgetfulness; the cactus collection she discovered and assembled for the 1893 Columbia World Exposition in Chicago was located at her Arcadia Gardens nursery at the corner of Matamoros and San Agustín
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She traveled by rail to Chicago and so did a boxcar carefully packed with the 300 specimens of her exhibit
Past Perfect
The Peyote Chronicles: Part I – While “The Gateway City” got a bad rap in literature and song, Elsie Moore’s Orchid Farm in Laredo earned acclaim for 100 peyote buttons for $8
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In the movie adaptation, the defiant peyote purveyor is played by Salma Hayek; she drives a ’61 Cadillac convertible
Past Perfect
The Chinook Jargon Pocket Dictionary: six pages, ready when you need it
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An inspirational motto for 2020: Kopet wawa. Mamook kwollan, literally, “Stop words. Do ear”
Past Perfect
Decameron Tale VIII – The dying cowboy’s tale: he wasn’t shot; he was dying of an untreated STD
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Don’t expect an appreciative smile when you start singing “As I walked down the streets of Laredo”
Past Perfect
Decameron Tale VII – Uncle Billy’s Tale: the road map to an ill-gained bounty of buried treasure under Lake Falcon
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Dr. Norman Baker’s border radio station racked up profits in bogus weight loss and cancer cures
Decameron Tale VI – Chief Seattle and Ted Perry’s Tale
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It’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. How’s the planet done in the last half century?
Past Perfect
Decameron Tale IV – The Timothy Leary trial put Laredo on the map in 1966: the world had come to town
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The trial took five days, the verdict 15 minutes
Past Perfect
Decameron Tale III – Larry’s tale: the buzzards for the filming of McMurtry’s Hud in Amarillo were Laredo zopilotes
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The imported buzzards were wired to the tree branches, tried to fly away, and dangled upside down
Past Perfect
Decameron Tale II: The short, unhappy life of my self-inflicted mullet
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One of the falling dominos in this disaster was the image of Rod Stewart rocking one of the first mullets