MWC Tournament Throwback

Here are a few images from the Las Vegas area during the busy college basketball tournaments.

This was the championship game of the WAC featuring the NMSU Aggies and Seattle.  It was held in the Orleans Arena.  The Aggies won, moved on to the NCAA where their fate was sealed.  Maybe next year!

Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV Campus ready for the Mountain West Tournament.

Lots of fans for the UNM Lobo Women's game.  The most of any team, easily.

EVERY seat in Thomas & Mack is a "chair"... cushion seats and backs.  Sure is nice!

Perched high above, in the 2nd deck - during the Championship Game that was won by the Wyoming Cowboys.  Thus all the yellow!   Lots of fans...and they stand out...lots of teams have red or black, so counting the fans can be confusing.   Not so for the Cowboys!

This was taken from my assigned seat.  That's why I headed for the top deck for most games.

The best part of games at Thomas & Mack.  Gin & Tonic, and you can take it to your seat & enjoy!

Dr. George - what TV used to be

Received news reports that one of New Mexico's 

most cherished TV notables, Dr. George Fischbeck, has died.

He was 92.

This LA Times photo shows him at his finest!

Enjoying the time, and telling a story.

Shortly after Dr. George left the Albuquerque market to work at KABC-TV in Los Angeles I had occasion to visit him. 

Although we never worked at the same place, we worked in the same business.

He was already a hit on TV, having been there only months.

At the TV studio that night, as he was often to do, he went about the "scientific" explanation of smog.

He was going to do it by breathing air (fog) into a 5 gallon water bottle that was filled with smoke. 

Well, as he approached the water bottle and proceed to take a deep breath, preparing to blow into the bottle, he got too close to the bottle and inhaled smoke and started coughing.

The experiment to make studio smog ended with Dr. George coughing and waving and the anchorman saying good night. 

It was so Dr. George.

Thanks for the memories - and for touching so many thousands of people.

Rest In Peace - and keep teaching!

Throwback Thursday

Las Vegas Unbound

After spending a few days in the glory that is the glitz and “glamour” of Las Vegas, these observations:

Bugsy Siegel, the mobster who built the Flamingo Hotel, died in 1947.  Well, not!  He's alive and well.   Here's proof:

The drive back was longer than usual.  It took more than an hour to get through Boulder City (I think it’s a ploy to get people to stop and do business with the locals).   Then on the new highway from Hoover Dam’s bridge to Kingman…this…another hour delay.  A Photo essay.

I don’t know the fate of the driver.  I do know that along the way, I saw another 18-wheeler crunched up along I-40, and approaching Flagstaff a pickup towing a recreational boat scrunched up along the embankment.   

It’s good to get home. 

Throwback Friday

Way Back When

Albuquerque Storm Update

What a difference a day makes: