November 15, 2002
Still trying to shoehorn in all the great maps, photos and graphics into the Dalton piece. Gus and I rammed and jammed all day. We got a packet from Lui (pronounced Lou) Barndollar in Coffeyville, with three photos of Death Alley. One I had never seen before. It’s of a crowd around the side of a shed with the Dalton gang bodies in their coffins, leaning up against the wall. Really spectacular. Article is going to be great.

We got our office copies of January issue on Wednesday. Bob McCubbin’s 50 Most Important Photos piece is really strong. Great photos (they should be, we flew to Santa Fe to scan the originals) and layout. I predict issue is going to sell quite well.

Came home for lunch and Kathy had told me she left the tv on because she is going to come home after dark and I won’t be there. She called me at work, to warn me, and remind me not to turn it off. So I come in the door, and within six seconds I’m sucked into a soap opera. It’s evil and insidious (the genre and the show!). Some hunky guy comes trotting into a back patio with his shirt off (imagine that!) and a real pretty girl is waiting for him and she wants to know about another couple but you can tell they are going to get involved, maybe in the next ten or twelve seconds. I’m kicking myself because I’ve got to eat, take a shower for the dinner party in the evening, grab some items out of studio, feed the dog and cat and get back to work to finish layouts, but here I am sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of pinto beans, and I hear them talking seductively, and I’m raising up to see over the kitchen half-wall like some housewife in a bathrobe eating bon bons on the edge of the sofa. I finally get done eating, go into the bedroom to take a shower, and Kathy has the damn thing on in there, so now I’ve got a towel and I’m nude, standing by the bathroom door going, “Make your move, Brad! Make your move!”

Worked until six, drove into Phoenix to attend a dinner party at Jana B’s house. Great time with Hans (his 50th birthday party) and Gina Olson, Russs and Wendy Shaw and Christa. Kathy couldn’t come because she had late clients. Jana told a wonderful story about soap operas (after I told the above anecdote). Two college roommates meet twenty years after graduation. They catch up on their different lives and then one says, “Remember how we watched ‘The Bold & The Beautiful' every day? Do you still watch it?” And the other roommate says “No, I had kids and my career leaves me with no time. I haven’t seen it since we left college. It’s hazy, but I remember some guy named Victor and Amber were thinking about having an abortion.” And the other roommate says, “Yes, well now it’s later that same day and...”

Locked myself out of my pickup. Had to call AAA ($10 tip). Got home at 11. Long day.

“I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.”
—Orson Welles