One Of Our 50 Is Missing - March 2010
After more than two decades, thousands of our readers have shared their experiences of lost New Mexico in the "One of Our 50 is Missing" humor column, compiled by managing editor Walter K. Lopez. Tell us your experiences at fifty@nmmagazine.com.
DISHING IT OUT: Chuck Kutz, who works at the Very Large Array in southern Socorro County, says a waylaid parts order had the VLA staff scratching their heads.
Kutz, who lives in Socorro and manages the VLA’s Front End Group—responsible for designing, constructing, testing, and maintaining the receivers for the huge radio telescopes—says that one of his technicians, tracking down a late delivery, contacted the vendor to resolve the problem. What he received was more confusion.
After reviewing the order, a vendor representative immediately identified the problem: “The reason for the delay turns out to be that the parts requested cannot be shipped out of the United States.”
Kutz says that the VLA technician digested the response, then explained that he understood the company’s policy regarding international shipping. “But,” he added, “this is New Mexico.”
“Correct,” replied the rep, unfazed. “And we cannot ship those parts out of the country.”
After some more back-and-forth, the technician was switched to another rep. Finally, the vendor agreed to ship the parts. “Funny,” says Kutz, “but, oh, dear.”
SWAPPING STATES: While surfing the Web for travel sites, Rachel Tait, of Santa Fe, who works in the Santa Fe Visitor Information Center of the New Mexico Tourism Department, came across a familiar sight on an unfamiliar site. Tait says she was looking at different websites about Santa Fe when one jumped out at her. “There was one listed for ‘Santa Fe, AZ,’ and I decided to click on it.”
Tait was directed to “Travelogue” at www.americansouthwest.net, and a webpage dominated by an image of a cultural and architectural icon of the Southwest. “To my surprise,” Tait says, “I saw a photograph of our own Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi—which is in New Mexico, not Arizona!”
FOREIGN POLICY: Shirley and George O’Brien, of Dover, New Jersey, received some unexpected distress during a recent vacation in Santa Fe.
On the second day of their visit, George required emergency treatment from a Santa Fe dentist. But the real anxiety surfaced when the O’Briens submitted a claim to their insurance company, in Maryland. The company denied coverage, advising the O’Briens that they had submitted a “foreign claim,” and included in their correspondence a Foreign Claims Shipping Summary Report.
“We immediately contacted a company representative and were on the telephone for more than 15 minutes, trying to explain that New Mexico is within the United States,” says Shirley O’Brien. After the agent had consulted with her supervisor, she came back on the line to say, “Claims from Puerto Rico and Mexico are foreign and cannot be processed.” She then referred O’Brien to an insurance advocate, who advised her to submit the claim to the company’s Albuquerque office.
“The advocate said she knew that New Mexico was within the United States, but we are not confident that results will be favorable,” Shirley says.
