From the morning paper, Day 1 (Day N?) of my Rio Grande death watch:

JARALES – There’s a great line about New Mexico’s central river, often attributed to Will Rogers: “The Rio Grande is the only river I ever saw that needed irrigation.”

Whether Rogers said it or not (and there is some question), it is no longer a joke.

“We’re irrigating the Rio Grande,” water manager David Gensler said as he watched a small flow off the Sabinal canal in southern Valencia County, where workers have cleared an old ditch and diverted a bit of the precious liquid into the otherwise largely dry bed of the Rio Grande.