March 7, 2003 Daniel sent us up four Custer covers to pick from. Unfortunately, the red Custer I got up at 3:30 in the morning to do, wasn’t popular with the staff (although Daniel appropriated the Indian at the bottom and used it successfully in the winning cover). We narrowed it down to two finalists and finally decided on one of them. I’ll put up the sketches and finalists tomorrow.

Went to lunch with a circulation specialist. Bob Brink, R.G., Holly and I went to Tonto ($40 biz debit). Learned quite a bit about the ins and outs of circ maintenance. She seems knowledgeable. Bob likes her.

Took Sue and Abby up to Jane Bishoff’s Out West store in El Pedgrigal to show them the kind of T-shirt designs I would like to emulate. Jane always has the latest trends and knows where the market is going before the market knows. I think Abby and Sue were adequately inspired. We are remodeling the store out front and Dave Daiss built out a new wall to include the mail room up front. Sue had the walls repainted and is doing a redesign and restocking. Went over possible new items to try. Settled on our fantastic photo collection of Vera McGinnis images. Jana is working on a cover story of this incredible cowgirl of the 1920s and 1930s. I met Vera’s granddaughter at a Wickenburg speech last year and she told me she had all of Vera’s photos—and she did! Wow! Scanned the best ones, although we lost five through corrupt CDs.

Got our office copies of the new Travel Issue. It’s a honker—136 pages. We are making progress on the layout and editorial. I think this is the most restrained issue yet. There is a tendency for novices to use color and put too much on each page. I always compare it to playing in a band and everyone is playing lead. The drummer is doing a drum solo thru every song because he (that would be me) wants everyone to know how good he is and he’s so insecure that he has to play fills all the time. The bass player is playing lead all the time and the result is a thick mess. I think someone was talking about jazz great Charlie Parker when they said, “He knew what to leave out.” The same is true of magazines and computers have really opened the flood gates. Everyone has some slick new software that they are dying to use and they cram it into every available space until the whole thing sinks. Anyway, this issue has restraint and subscribers will start getting it today. It goes on newsstands in two weeks.

“Every winner has scars.”
—Herbert N. Casson