May 21, 2004
Lots of controversy in the office about the next cover. We first plugged in a famous photo of John Wesley Hardin at age 18, but it just didn’t look right. Hardin was shot down at age 42 (he’s being featured in Classic Gunfights), so the earlier photo just seemed wrong. So we sent down the morgue shot of Hardin to Dan yesterday and he whipped out three versions, one close-up and colorized, another two, black and white, with the frame of the photo card showing. The most common reaction has been, “You’re not going to put that on the cover, are you?” Robert Ray absolutely hates it and thinks the headline is way intrusive and overdone. I may post it here to get your opinions.

Speaking of opinions, we have a new poll up. “Do you think buffalo are still an endangered species?” You can vote right here.

More social observations from our correspondent in Spain:
“Valencia just won the UEFA cup which is the winner of the Spanish league and the winner of the French league. That´s two things they have won in one year and the place is going crazy. We went down to the Politecnico University where they played the game on a huge screen and had a bar and announcer set up. There were hundreds of people sitting on the grass and people would always cut across to get to the bar. We couldn´t see the game while they were cutting so people would start yelling and throwing trash at them. The funny thing though is that when a couple of hot girls walked through, instead of getting trash thrown they would get a round of applause. Spaniards are funny.”
—Tomcat

“The ethics of any idea are completely overruled by a good logo."
—Kathy Radina, speaking of her husband’s main, guiding principal