Mike Smith - The Daily Lobo

Culture

Large and diverse, the Land of Enchantment may as well be its own country

Mike Smith | July 23

Exceeded in size by Alaska, Texas, California and Montana, New Mexico is America's fifth largest state. Within New Mexico's 121,365 square miles, you could fit more than 78 Rhode Islands, 62 Delawares, 21 Connecticuts or 13 New Jerseys. All of America's 10 smallest states could fit inside New Mexico's borders with room to spare, as could all five states of New England.

Culture

Roswell's stellar dairy industry sits in the forefront of citizens' civic pride

Mike Smith | July 16

If you were to ask most New Mexicans - or even most Americans - to name the most strange, controversial and wildly celebrated place in our entire state, chances are the name of one town would be mentioned again and again: Roswell. If you were to ask those same people exactly why Roswell has such a reputation or how it became such a mythic destination, they would probably all reply: "The milk!"

Culture

Richardson shook so many hands that he set a world record

Mike Smith | June 25

In 1998, Kevin Cole, of Carlsbad, New Mexico set a new world record for the farthest spaghetti nasal ejection, sending 7 1/2 inches of noodle rocketing from his nose in a single blow.

Culture

Supposed UFO crash film may have been footage of weapons testing

Mike Smith | June 11

On a rolling desert plain, shabby with yellow grass and sagebrush, a large, white, oval-shaped object falls through the sky at an estimated speed of 200 to 300 mph - bouncing and skidding across the desert before exploding into a shower of fiery debris. As if expecting it, a camera captures the entire event - panning smoothly to the left along the course of the crashing object, carefully framing its every motion - and the footage sweeps across the Internet.

Culture

White Sands UFO crash footage may have been concocted by hoax artist

Mike Smith | May 29

In the last "My Strange New Mexico," we examined a mysterious film that many believe shows a UFO crashing in the desert of the White Sands Missile Range in 1997. In the film, a white, football-shaped craft plummets from the sky, skips violently across the ground and explodes. Where the film came from, who shot it, or even when it was first viewed, has remained uncertain.

Culture

Cryptic video may point to UFO crash in White Sands

Mike Smith | May 3

by Mike Smith Daily Lobo It was October of '97, and the second annual Australian International UFO Symposium had just gotten underway in the eastern Australia city of Brisbane. Writers gave lectures on the latest extraterrestrial news and theories, various groups manned booths to help counsel alleged former abductees, and the organizers of the symposium presented what they suggested was the first ever filmed crash of a UFO.

Giant Cuban owl or Ornimegalonyx oteroi.

Culture

Enormous prehistoric owls may have migrated from Cuba to a town near you

Mike Smith | April 26

In the piney mountains and desert mesas of south central New Mexico, residents of the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation still share the legends of an enormous and evil bird: Big Owl.

Culture

Big buildings and plazas can't compete with the charming lore of small towns

Mike Smith | April 19

As of 2007, almost 2 million people live in New Mexico. Almost 500,000 of them live in Albuquerque, and more than 300,000 live in Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho, Roswell and Farmington.

Culture

Soltero the perfect definition of musical evolution

Mike Smith | April 11

Aside from the desert, writing and my family, the greatest love of my life has always been music. Music has always been there for me - providing lyrics to justify my adolescence, soundtracks for my friendships, and a major source of relaxation, energy and catharsis. And usually, my favorite music is made by musicians willing to evolve - bands like Radiohead and Wilco - bands that change, play around and push themselves to do more.

Culture

Panic-inducing catfish the size of school buses make waves and good stories

Mike Smith | April 5

Elephant Butte Reservoir can get fairly deep - around 80 feet near the dam - deep enough for sunken boats to stay sunken, for enormous fish to stay hidden and for stories of such fish to remain nearly impossible to confirm.