September 12, 2002
Got a firestorm going over one of our new columns. I never realized “horse training” could be so political. Craig Hamilton had a feature in the October issue (out to subscribers now and on newsstands in about a week) about a horse called Cinco. It’s really about his relationship with a stubborn horse and how the horse taught him more than he taught the horse. It’s heartfelt and witty in a Kingman cowboy kind of way. He has since turned in two more columns to appear in upcoming issues, but his writing is polarizing everyone. One of my editors pronounced his “cowboy philosophizing” as being “just awful.” Today, Sage (who is 24 and can be quite snippy and cynical about what she views as some of our “hokey” tendencies) sticks her head in my office and says, “Hey, I really like Craig’s newest column.” Then our newest salesperson, Stacy, a calf-ropin’ cowgirl, tells me if we continue to run Craig’s column we will be laughed out of business for being “California nuts.” One of my partners, Dave Daiss, weighs in and says he really didn’t care for the Cinco article because of the “politics.” My wife Kathy, who thinks most of the stuff we run is pure drivel, says it’s one of the few things she has actually read in True West and pronounced it wonderful. My business manager tears up when she talks about “Cinco” and the article. Bob McCubbin thinks it has no business being in a history magazine. Amazing. My instincts tell me if this Kingman cowboy is creating this much polarizing energy, he must be on to something. Going to give him his head and let him rip. Interesting.

Mike took the sales staff and me to lunch at El Encanto. Lots of laughs and a celebration for being in record territory.

Finished a “potato chip” article on “Everybody Hates Me!” by Ike Clanton, which is basically excerpted emails to Terry “Ike” Clanton’s website. Very funny. My favorite is, “Your (sic) stupid.”