GREETINGS FROM BOSTON

I've been lax on the blog for the past few days, I know. Teetering on exhaustion yesterday. Apparently lost a company camera. But I'm still alive.

The New Mexican published my main story today, but not the "notebook" sidebar. I'll run that below. I'll post Wednesday's in a few hours:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 27, 2004


BOSTON -- The New Mexico delegation is headquartered at the Boston Sheraton downtown. The hotel is exploding with convention activity. Besides all the people milling about - many of them New Mexico political folk - the first thing you see when entering the lobby is a vending table. There's a whole array of $22 T-shirts -- among them one featuring John Kerry in a Paul Revere hat with the caption "The New Boston 'D' Party."

There's also a galaxy of buttons -- standard Kerry-Edwards pins at the table by the front door. But one floor up, where most of the people walking around are there for the Democratic convention, the buttons sold at another vending table take on an edgier anti-Bush tone. Some of the buttons have slogans such as "Read My Lips, No New Texans." One refers to the controversy surrounding Bush's National Guard service, "Where was George Bush May 1972 - April 1973." Another declares, "Somewhere in Texas There's a Village Missing Its Idiot."

There are Kerry-Edwards golf balls, Kerry-Edwards coffee mugs, Kerry-Edwards shot glasses and Kerry-Edwards polo shirts selling for $50.

Going to the Chapel

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish jokingly told a reporter Monday that she will soon be resigning to take up a singing career. The night before, at a party for the New Mexico delegation sponsored by Southern Pacific Railroad, a five-man doo-wop group called North Shore Acappella performed an after-dinner set. At one point the group called six women in the audience, including Denish, to perform the old Dixie Cups hit "Chapel of Love."

"My husband Herb has a beautiful tenor voice," the lieutenant governor said. "When he found out I was singing in public, he was rather disheartened."

Meanwhile, at a breakfast for the state delegation, Denish advised fellow delegates not to be disheartened by transportation problems in traffic-choked Boston.

"We're going to be waiting for several hours to get in and out of the (convention) center," she said. "It's not going to get any shorter if your string gets short."

Embedded Delegate

Normally reporters don't interview other reporters, but one new CNN reporters also happens to be a delegate from New Mexico.

Frances Williams of Las Cruces, a delegate for Wesley Clark, is one of four delegates "deputized" by CNN to give daily reports. The network issued Williams and the other three video cameras to record interviews and convention events from a delegate's perspective.

"It's like a reality show about delegates," Williams said Sunday.

Williams said CNN isn't paying her, but she's loving her new gig.

She was excited about one of her first interviews -- the celebrated sleaze/talk show ringmaster Jerry Springer, who has been cited at various convention-related events.