flight laid over in albuquerque for about an hour more than it should have, due to a mechanical problem back in oklahoma or something. They never quite told us what the problem was but it didn’t matter; albuquerque airport had free wi-fi and I got on facebook and played around for a while. now we’re in the air again, crossing new mexico on our way down to el paso, from whence I’ll catch a shuttle back up into las cruces.

my question about el paso was this (and this may have appeared on this blog years ago): el paso undoubtedly means the pass, as in the mountain pass, but if one gives it the wrong accent, as in el paSSO instead of el PAH-so then one changes it to it happened. my question is this: if you said it that way in spanish would it be considered a clever pun, or would somebody sock you for your insolence? or both? I’ll keep my ears open. btw that general rule that says stay out of Juarez, it’s the most dangerous city in america, has been upgraded to most dangerous city in the world….of course, the guys who said this have never been to rio, say, or goma, congo. and, not that I would know anyway. Here I am going from st. louis to el paSO, and all I’ll do is look at the place.

gave a monster grammar test as I was leaving town and I’ll have to grade it sometime on this trip & I’m not sure, tell you the truth, when I’ll have time. I stuffed it in the luggage and sent the luggage through baggage so I’m taking my chances and those grammar exams could end up in tucson or san diego for all I know, but my point is that I was teaching past perfects (had eaten & had been eating) and future perfects will have eaten & will have been eating) and so I told them, when you learn these you always have to remember, compared to what? Yesterday when I saw you, I had eaten, that’s finished before I saw you. compared to what means it’s finished before something else & we always have to know what else. So then I played them this song I like, compared to what and I had the class rocking for a minute, they thought I’d gone over the edge there for a while, but it was kind of a cool song and the saudi guys obviously went home and listened to it again.

now these are the guys who don’t know grammar for anything, they’re more likely to say had ate or had eating but most of all can’t fathom why there would be any rule at all, or any way of making this stuff or any reason one would have to mess with it at all. but they kind of liked that song, so they were at least attending class, most of the time. one of them lost his book, but he didn’t notice it apparently until the night before the exam. what was I supposed to do, give him a break?

the plane suffers a little from turbulence, the mountains around albuquerque may create an unfavorable set of turbulent gusts. As we get out over the high plains though, across the desert areas and the jornada it might be a little easier. The pilot was going on about whether positivity is a word, but he’s let up a little now & we’re just flying. one thing we’ll fly near would be roswell, home of the ufo’s, and the training area where supposedly everyone saw them so many times. And the town of truth or consequences which one would have to assume, comes from a television show in the fifties or sixties or whenever. And then of course there’s the jornada itself, the walk of death, the place where there was no water at all, and almost nobody who ever crossed it ever made it to the other side. I’m not sure if white sands was anywhere near this, or part of it, or maybe the walkers got captivated by its brilliant whiteness and lost their way, lost their direction, and then ran out of water and died. don’t know the history.

the pilot maintains everything is cool, we’ll get there soon enough, weather’s good, the cool air over the high desert is all good. I’m just hoping the shuttle will still be there for me an hour late, as it goes past Juarez and I peer across the border at life in mexico i always get the shuttle driver to tell me how he feels. and then back into new mexico we’ll go, up past sunland and mesquite, into southern new mexico.

so at the end of this exam, one of them, who has done quite poorly all term, mystified by the whole concept of grammar, walks up to me and hands me his exam, and says, what does that compared to what mean? I mean, what are you talking about? So I explained it to him. he really had no idea. he’s got perfect listening, fluent orally, almost no grammar, no clue. But also, he just didn’t know the meaning of the word “compared”

so, they’re a little bad at grammar. compared to what?