March 17, 2003
Well, the Parker panorama speech photo is only half the room (see March 15). I’m not sure quite how that happened (production was supposed to composite the four photos). I’ll try to get the other half of the room up as soon as possible.

Big day out at Festival of the West on Saturday. Huge crowds. Ted had the crowds lined up and we sold a bunch of everything. I judged the chuckwagon cook-off from about 11:30 to 1. Nine chuckwagons this year. Actually very good food this year. Enjoyed it and talking to my old friends like Louise DeWald (her late husband gave me my first cartoon-article assignment at Arizona Magazine—The Republic Sunday supplement mag—back in 1969 or so). She’s a peach. As is Lois McFarlane, another writer.

Had our traditional Old West matched photo at 3:45. Buck Taylor came, along with Marty Cove, Alex Cord, Peter Brown and other Western stars. We took a Texas Ranger photo of Bob McCubbin’s and then matched it rifle for rifle, sombrero for sombrero, vest for vest. Drew quite a crowd as John Beckett shot off several roles of film.

Worked the booth until around 6:30, then met everyone at the Buffalo Chip for a victory dinner (Ted swung the whole deal). Buck Taylor and his wife, Goldie, sat right across from me, and over the din of the band, we leaned over the table and talked about all things Western. He’s going to be in the new Alamo movie (he’s already filmed his scenes) and he told me some of the plot points. I was concerned that it would be too politically correct and not have any heat, but from what he told me it sounds like it could be good. Billy Bob Thorton as Davy is excellent casting and some of the lines he gets to deliver are quite juicy. I hope they knock it out of the park.

Got home at 11. Long day, but fun.

Rained all day Sunday. Helped Deena move out of her house in Tempe. Hard work, but found three pristine Wyatt Earp TW issues (she had them in the garage from the time when she sold ads for us). That felt like dicovering gold (each one is worth $20-$40). Ate at Adrians ($42 cash). Fun having soup and watching the rain and laughing.

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
—Rene Descartes