Bits and pieces and a crossword puzzle?!

No, really ...

A couple of dispatches ago, when I had the identify-a-photo contest, someone suggested trivia, instead. I like the idea, and will surely do a trivia contest before long, but it also sparked another notion: a Land Desk crossword puzzle. I love doing the New York Times crossword on Sunday mornings, so why not build one for my readers with Western U.S.-relevant clues?

Turned out to be a bit tougher than I anticipated, actually, and this one doesn’t have a lot of Land Desk-themed clues (it takes time to build a dictionary). But it’s a start. I haven’t figured out how or if I can embed an interactive version, so you’ll probably have to print this one out and do it manually (which is the best way, anyway). If it’s too small in the email, you can go to LandDesk.org, click on this post, and save/print the image. Have fun! And let me know what you think.

Speaking of the photo contest, here are the answers (in the caption) and winners of last week’s contest!

Winners: Geoff Thompson, Betty Lasich, Soren, Jay Canode, and Ann Bond. Y’all need to pick a prize and send me your mailing address if you haven’t already. (landdesk@substack.com)

1. Fredonia, Arizona; 2. The Colorado River from the Amtrak; 3. Cahone, Colorado; 4. Gas station at turn-off to Black Mesa mines (between Kayenta and Tuba City, Arizona); 5. Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch on Route 66, California; 6. Truck at an abandoned uranium mine in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona. All photos by Jonathan P. Thompson.

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In Tuesday’s dispatch on the energy transition in Farmington I didn’t have room for these graphs, so I’ll put them here. They show how clean energy jobs tend not to be in the same places as fossil fuel jobs, creating a challenge for energy transitions. Note that San Juan County, New Mexico, is one of the top fossil fuel-job counties in the nation (as of 2022, when the U.S. Energy Department compiled these data). For context, see this.