You know when you think of that perfect comeback a few minutes after you should have used it? There’s no real term for it in English, other than feeling sorry for yourself. But the French, of course, have a term that sums it up: Esprit d’escalier—courage in the stairwell. Coulda, shoulda, woulda—it all falls under the bravery we suddenly develop when the heat is off.

Clyde James Aragon is an Albuquerque humor writer whose work has appeared in national magazines, as well as many Southwestern newspapers and magazines. Here, he tackles "How to finally get rich from writing..."

A short, not-so-sweet piece of civic legislation scooted through the Santa Fe City Council this month. Ordinance 2009-52 amended the law regarding the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages on city property: You can’t do either.  There are exceptions: Feel free to get tanked at the Community Convention Center, the airport or the city-owned golf course. 

Beginning Dec. 15, bills can be pre-filed for the state legislative session that begins in January. The anatomy of the session will develop as the goals and motives of lawmakers become clear. This even-year, 30-day session is dedicated to fiscal matters and, of course, we know there will be continued budget wrangling and copious hand-wringing related to tax increases.

Following a sudden tide of rumors, Locals Care confirmed to SFR on Nov. 23 that it had ceased operations. Two days later, it issued a formal public notice that declared Locals Care had terminated its efforts earlier in the month. The company claims it was "one more struggling small business" in a tough economy.

It was early and so was I, but I figured that I’d enjoy a well-needed drink at the empty bar. The bartender handed me a menu and I scanned it. The night before, some other friends had served me a fancy rum and, although I usually choose that spirit only when I’m sunburned and somewhere that pipes in reggae music, I figured—what the hell?—I’d let my freak flag fly.

We don’t deserve Zozobra. Through accident, ego, artifice, multiple cultural thefts and genuine art-party-fueled abandon, Santa Fe is home to probably the most basic, pagan, ritualistic event in the United States. Yet it is more ritualistic than ritual.

Asenath Kepler puts affordable housing and infill at the center of her mayoral platform, but what does that really mean? Meanwhile, the New Mexico Film Museum is increasingly looking like an underused facility--a thinly veiled marketing tool with an overpaid director.

Many Santa Feans were recently surprised to learn that an asphalt production plant had been slated to fire up at the Caja del Rio Landfill. The plant’s permit—granted by the New Mexico Air Quality Bureau—allows up to 600 tons of asphalt to be produced every hour.

Here’s how you can tell the truth about wages in Santa Fe: No one who is against the living wage would ever agree to work for a rate as low as the living wage. They’ll say it’s economics. But we can go ahead and call it hypocrisy.