The Hobbs Grinch

Holiday Grinch Turns Himself In
By Geena Martinez
NewsWest 9

HOBBS, N.M. - Hobbs Police got an early Christmas present on Thursday afternoon.

A man they said stole cans from a little girl and then cashed them in for money turned himself in but he said he's innocent and wants people to hear his side of the story.

"I came to turn myself in man, I'm getting charged with a crime I didn't do," Roque Castillo said.

He's known as 'the Grinch' who stole Christmas, but 28-year-old Roque Castillo says he's innocent and the only reason he turned himself in Friday is to begin the process of clearing his name.

"Guess my name's Grinch, guess it fell at the right time at Christmas," he said. "But I ain't guilty. I'm not going to plead guilty to a crime I didn't do."

Hobbs Police said Castillo stole cans from a little girl who was saving them to earn money for Christmas presents.

Then they said he brought the cans to a local metal shop for the money, but Castillo said he was just doing a favor.

He said a friend brought him the cans and asked Castillo to cash them in for him because he didn't have an ID.

"I was at the house with my kids that day, getting ready for Christmas," Castillo said. "I just did it for a friend, I was trying to help him out because it's Christmas time."

Castillo is no stranger to the law but he said those days are behind him.

"You think I'd take something stolen over there with my ID?" he said. "C'mon on man, let's be real, I am a criminal. I live right now, you know I got kids. I don't do nothing wrong anymore."

Friends and family of Castillo held signs in support of their 'Grinch' as he made his way to the police department. Castillo's mother, Janie, said it's all a big misunderstanding and his tattoo just happened to make good timing for all the headlines.

"They're playing off the whole grinch thing because it fell around Christmas. You know the Grinch who stole Christmas," Janie said. "My son didn't steal Christmas. He's got two little girls and he wouldn't do that."

The family said they've got an attorney and their next step is legal action for what they call slander in the newspaper.

And as for Castillo, he said he hasn't heard from the friend since.

"Ever since then, I ain't seen him," he said.

Castillo did bail out of jail on a $529 bond.

(Repost) To Touch an Angel by Paul Crume

Merry Christmas everybody! I posted Paul Crume's 1967 masterpiece three years ago and illustrated it with some rather spooky angel images. This year I thought I would repost it, with pictures we took at Odessa's Starbright Village. This may be a hare-brained idea, but you be the judge.

 You can see the Dallas Morning News animated version here and read more about the author here.
View the Starbright Village tree-lighting ceremony here.


Liz and Robert.

"A man wrote me not long ago and asked me what I thought of the theory of angels. I immediately told him that I am highly in favor of angels. As a matter of fact, I am scared to death of them.

Any adult human being with half sense, and some with more, knows that there are angels.

If he has ever spent any period in loneliness, when the senses are forced in upon themselves, he has felt the wind from their beating wings and been overwhelmed with the sudden realization of the endless and gigantic dark that exists outside the little candle flame of human knowledge.

 

He has prayed, not in the sense that he asked for something, but that he yielded himself.

Angels live daily at our very elbows, and so do demons, and most men at one time or another in their lives have yielded themselves to both and have lived to rejoice and rue their impulses. 

 

But the man who has once felt the beat of an angel's wing finds it easy to rejoice at the universe and at his fellow man.

It does not happen to any man often, and too many of us dismiss it when it happens.

I remember a time in my final days in college when the chinaberry trees were abloom and the air was sweet with spring blossoms and I stood still on the street, suddenly struck with the feeling of something that was an enormous promise and yet was no tangible promise at all.

And there was another night in a small boat when the moon was full and the distant headlands were dark but beautiful and we were lonely.

The pull of a nameless emotion was so strong that it filled the atmosphere. The small boy within me cried.

Psychiatrists will say that the angel in all this was really within me, not outside, but it makes no difference.

There are angels inside us and angels outside, and the one inside is usually the quickest choked.

Francis Thompson said it better. He was a late 19th-century English poet who would put the current crop of hippies to shame.

He was on pot all his life. His pad was always mean and was sometimes a park bench.

He was a mental case and tubercular besides.

He carried a fishing creel into which he dropped the poetry that was later to become immortal.

"The angels keep their ancient places," wrote Francis Thompson in protest. "Turn but a stone, and start a wing."

He was lonely enough to be the constant associate of angels.

There is an angel close to you this day. Merry Christmas, and I wish you well."

Fallen Officers' Memorial.

Robert.

egalliV thgirbratS.

More about Starbright Village

Christmas in Liz's Room!

 Two recurring themes this year:  Snowmen and Snoopy.

This banner has little blue twinkling lights.  Very festive.

 We still have the quasi-legal pinecone.

 Most of the Snoopy items make music.  This one drums to the "Linus and Lucy" tune.

I had never seen a Charlie Brown Nativity before.  We found it at Mardel.



Lunchtime Surprise!

H/T Gazelle.

You Might Be A Democrat

(Compare and contrast with last year's post.

The text came mostly from about.com.
I found the pictures everywhere.)

1.  You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You own something that says, "Dukakis for President, " and still display it.

2.  You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You've ever said, "We really should call the ACLU about this."

3. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You think Carter should be on Mt. Rushmore.

4. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You think Ralph Nader makes a lot of sense.

5. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You don't understand why anyone was bothered by Jane's trip to Hanoi.

(Tote bag for sale at shop.janefonda.com)

6. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You think public housing is great, but just NIMBY.

7. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You got teary-eyed during the film "The American President."

8. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You've never been mugged.

9. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You want to protest something but don't know what.

10. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You've named your kids "Stardust" or "Moonbeam."

11. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

All of your 1970's "Beware of Global Freezing" signs now have "Beware of Global Warming" on the back.

12. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You are giddy at the prospect of the return of bell bottoms.

13. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You think solar energy is being held back by those greedy oil companies.

14. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

You keep count of how many people you know in each racial or ethnic category.

15. You Might Be a Democrat if ...

After looking at your pay stub you can still say, "America is undertaxed."