THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT SANTA FE RIGHT NOW

By the time this newspaper hits your hands, the pre-order period for the Christmas holiday version of YouthWorks’ Social Justice Kitchen will be over. But this is a good time to follow YouthWorks on social media or sign up for the nonprofit’s email list so you don’t miss the next bake sale. We’ve eaten YouthWorks catering at city events and private ones and we’ve never been disappointed. Plus, the crew came to our Best of Santa Fe party in the Railyard and gifted everyone with free brownies, outta sight pulled pork and other goodies last summer. But our last-minute decision to supplement the pumpkin pie scene with a dozen biscochitos from YouthWorks at Thanksgiving led us to surprise and delight everyone who tried them—the cookies have the perfect flaky blend of sweetness that melts in the mouth. What’s more to love is that the bakers are learning culinary skills and raising cash for the nonprofit’s mission. (JAG)

What’s better than a good book? A free good book. That’s why libraries are the bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas, or as the kids say, the GOAT. The list of reasons to visit the Southside Branch on Jaguar Drive includes a giant kids’ room with cool little reading nooks; a couple of spacious reading rooms; and a whole dang shelf devoted to jigsaw puzzles you don’t even have to check out. (They just ask you to bring them back when you’re done.) Also find a seed library where you can snag the annual of your choice to drop in your home garden. If all goes as planned, you’ll have some seeds of

your own to bring back. The branch boasts shelves full of Spanish-language books, lots of windows with some pretty fantastic views and plenty of seating to take in said views, or you know, read a book. Don’t sweat it if you don’t have a library card. The staff is super friendly and will get you set up before you can say Dewey Decimal System. (AL)

ANDY LYMAN

You know the train park. No, not the one with train tracks next to it in the Railyard—the train park. Map-readers and historybuff types know the place as Salvador Perez Park, and this

fall its most prominent feature received a facelift. The Old Santa Fe Association “adopted” the train, then cleaned up the site and hired local company Xtreme Painting to apply a fresh coat of rust-resistant paint. Volunteers restored the hand-lettering and painted the trim in time for a bell-ringing ceremony in November. It’s like a whole new train! Only it’s a pretty old one, truth be told. We mentioned earlier how much Santa Fe loves history. This is just another example: Our city Parks Division plopped this machine—built in 1944 for the Atchinson, Topeka, Santa Fe Railroad—on the edge of the park to preserve it for future generations whose cars will fold up into little briefcases when they walk into their floating offices. (JAG)

COURTESY OLD SANTA FE ASSOCIATION

ANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN

Remember when I said I was from the South? Well, I’ve lived in Albuquerque—or, “that hellscape you call a city,” per SFR Editor and Publisher Julie Ann Grimm—since 2002. And as SFR’s news editor, that means I am a commuter, typically rolling up Interstate 25 two or three times a week to make the newspaper y’all love so well. It’s a fascinating 60 miles, and it’s never gotten old for me. Watching the landscape change between Bernalillo and Santo Domingo Pueblo; that moment when the Sangre de Cristos appear; the 10-degree temperature drop from my place to the newsroom (OK, OK, that one’s not as great in the wintertime). Each of these things is precious to me. And the drive back can knock your socks off via sunsets and vistas if it’s taken at the proper time of day. Also, I’ve had a wild time in recent months with vehicle repairs, which has given me occasion to carpool with Andy Lyman, one of my best friends whom we hired in September as a staff writer. With four-plus hours in the car each week, Andy and I have deepened our friendship, solved the world’s problems and hatched conspiracies to continue assaulting the powerful in the pages of SFR. Winning! (JP)