I Boffed the Big One...Shot the Tail, Missed the Tale

NOB HILL--I sure missed the real story a month ago. I posted a photo of our ex-governor Gary Johnson on the Duke City Fix. He was wearing a pony-tail, sort of confirming a rumor I had heard that he had grown long hair and was hiding out in Taos Ski Valley. But this morning's ABQ Journal ran a front page article about him leaving his wife for another woman, an athlete.

You see, when I spotted the ex-gov in the Flying Star he had come in with another woman. Both of them were wearing bike togs, although those revealing bike shorts were covered over with a pair of regular shorts on his part and a skirt for her. Now, I know I was obnoxious. I did snap his picture while they were eating breakfast. And when they left the restaurant, the woman saw me turn on my digital camera. I was waiting for another shot: them turning left on the sidewalk and walking past me with that big picture window giving me a nice angle on the two of them. Well, she was talking to him, and when they left, she turned left and walked past me...but Johnson turned right and went around the block the other way.

I thought it was kind of funny. Every politician I ever heard of loved to have his picture taken.

This is where I screwed up. SHE was the story...not Gary Johnson's haircut. All the pictures I took of him that morning were of him alone. I did not include her on purpose. What an idiot! And now it is the lead story on the front page of the ABQ Journal.

Of course the Journal might have been happy to have the ex-gov's life up there rather than Tom Delay's indictment. Tonight's ABQ Tribune did not mention the ex-gov's personal reorganization effort at all. Not that they had important news to cover...they had a big 5-column article on A2 about "miffed" former officers in an elementary school parent-teacher group.

Gary Johnson has not been one to stay away from exposing his thoughts and feelings. He is famous nation-wide for his stance on legalizing marijuana, for instance. He has addressed NORML as well as the Cato Institute on this issue. So I was not surprised when I heard the following expressed by someone who claims to have heard it straight from the horse's mouth. I only tell it as part of the Gary Johnson Myth...not as absolute truth.

Johnson's construction firm, which made him a rich man building the Intel plant, derived its name "Big-J" from Johnson's affinity in his youth for smoking what used to be called "bombers." Oh well...joints, j's...what's the dif? Nice joke...but maybe it refers to something else. His "joint" is almost visible in that outfit on the right. And that number, 164, could be millimeters. That would be about 6 1/2 inches. Not a shorty...but probably not a really Big J either.