Illustration by Chirs Philpot.
Terminal Condition
Dexter resident Robert Mierke went to the Greyhound bus terminal in Atlanta for a ticket to Roswell—the New Mexico one, not the Georgia one. The clerk said Greyhound doesn’t go out of the country. Actually, Mierke said, Greyhound has a terminal in Roswell. “She then told me that she could sell me a ticket to Laredo or El Paso, and that Texas was the closest she could get me to New Mexico,” he says. But wait: Did he want a ticket to Albuquerque? “What state is Albuquerque in?” he asked, as a test. She didn’t know. He ended up buying a ticket to Pecos, Texas, and drove the rest of the way (160 miles) himself.
Uncrossing the Border
Kenneth Harris, of Boulder, Colorado, went to the Greyhound station in Dothan, Alabama, seeking a ticket of a different kind. “Do you go to Mexico?” he asked the clerk. Sure do was the response. So, Harris continued, which cities in Mexico does Greyhound go to? “Albuquerque and Santa Fe,” the clerk proudly answered, surprising no one who lives on this side of the border.
Was It a Foreign Car, Too?
The NPR program Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me quizzes special guests on things they know nothing about. Recently, WNBA standout A’ja Wilson was put through the paces, which included a question about why a man couldn’t register his car at a New England motor vehicle office after moving there from New Mexico. The possible reasons included: The clerk refused to believe there was a car named “Datsun”; the clerk believed the man was Walter White fleeing justice; and … well, you can guess the right answer, as did Connecticut resident Paul Rapo, who alerted us.
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