51 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
51 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
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SEE THE MAP; SEE THE U.S.; SEE NEW MEXICO; NO, NEW MEXICO
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By Eugene Carlson for the Wall Street Journal 11/17/86 p. 37
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Geography has never been the strong suit of Americans. To prove the point,
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consider New Mexico.
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A proud member of the union since 1912, New Mexico's name nonetheless sounds
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vaguely alien. This leads to problems. Residents tell of publications that
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demand higher-priced, overseas rates for New Mexico subscribers, and of letter
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that arrive from elsewhere in the U.S. with enough overseas postage to assure
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delivery to Buenos Aires.
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Then there was the young man from New Mexico who applied to Harvard Business
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School. Back came the school's reply: Since you are an "international
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candidate," you must first take a test proving your proficiency in English.
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Since 1970, the state's tourism magazine, New Mexico, has been collecting
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anecdotes that speak to this extraterritorial image. They are printed each
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month under the headline: "One of Our Fifty is Missing." The best of these
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geographic gaffes have been published in a 48-page paperback. Some examples:
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- A Texas woman talking to a New Mexico county courthouse operator inquires:
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"If it's Friday in Texas, will it be Friday in New Mexico?"
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- An upstate New York man applied for Social Security numbers for his two
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daughters. He was told they weren't eligible because they were born in New
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Mexico.
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- William Boehmer, a Florida resident, was taken ill during a New Mexico
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vacation and received treatment in a clinic in the town of Tierra Amarilla.
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Later, he wrote Medicare, seeking reimbursement for his clinic bill. No
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way, Medicare replied in a letter. Medical expenses "incurred outside the
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United States are not payable." Mr. Boehmer finally got his Congressman to
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help him collect.
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- Mr. and Mrs. Harold McAskill moved from Florida to New Mexico and
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notified MasterCard of their new address. MasterCard replied, "Since we do
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not mail any credit cards out of the continental U.S.A., we must
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temporarily cancel your account."
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- A bulletin issued by the sheriff's office in Grand Island, Neb., advised
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law enforcement authorities: "Aircraft may be involved in transportation
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of drugs from New Mexico to the United States."
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- George Seher of Bay Shore, N.Y., commented to an X-ray technician during an
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examination that he was retiring to New Mexico. "That's wonderful," the
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technician replied, "You should do well there now that they have devalued
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the peso."
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