One of Our 50 is Missing...

...is the title of a humor column that makes up the end-matter of New Mexico Magazine. New Mexicans get no respect, sometimes. If you see a car with NM plates, notice that the plates say "New Mexico USA." (Emphasis mine, of course.) There's a reason for that. I've read and heard stories about illiterate cops in New England (or other places far removed from NM) saying words to the effect of "You're in the USA now, we have laws against..." after being presented with a NM drivers license during a traffic stop.

It's happened to me. I was on the phone with Gateway last year trying to arrange expedited shipment of my laptop after an overly-long repair job. The service rep on the phone, after dutifully recording my new address, said "Hold on, I'll transfer you to another department." "Why?", sez I. "Because we have a separate department for international orders." I then tried to explain US geography to this person, but she was adamant NM wasn't in the US. Seriously. I wound up talking to her supervisor, who got it. Gateway still shipped the laptop to California. But that's a whole 'nuther story...

Just for the record, I'm a resident of the Lone Star State and I carry a Texas drivers license.