August 3, 2004
In this morning’s staff meeting, RG Robertson relayed to us a phone message: “I just got your September issue today and it sucks. This will be my last issue.” With that, RG read the following e-mail from Neil Carmony:

“The September issue of TRUE WEST came in the mail today, and I have been going through the article ‘Building a Western Library’. What a great list of books! Muy bueno, muy bueno!”

Like I always say, you can’t please everyone, especially my mother.

We are getting an exclusive on some new Earp related research that just surfaced. For now it’s top secret and we are working out the details. I’ll tell more when I can.

We lost a big advertiser because of the “offensive cadaver” on the September cover (John Wesley Hardin). That hurt. They were on a two-year contract. Being edgy and outrageous does have its price.

Got an e-mail from my old drumming buddy Dave Walker (we both played in the Zonies for a decade or two). He turned me on to a cool Ringo drum-set t-shirt. You can check it out at:

http://www.rerock4ever.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=BTTSDRK001

Like he promised, Jim Thompson, the owner of the Cave Creek Dairy Queen came up the street this afternoon with a box of Moo-Lattes and treated us all. It was a cool respite from the searing heat, and we even had three left over, if you’d like to drop in and have one. They’re in the freezer. Help yourself.

We’ve had three fires in the last several days—just in our area. I could clearly see the “Lewis” fire from my studio, burning across the ridge of Black Mesa. The terrain was so rugged they couldn’t get fighters in there. They evidently fought it successfully with slurry bombers because it’s clear today.

Got an e-mail from Jeff Hildebrandt weighing in on the t-shirt debate. He thinks we should definitely do a “Good Saddle-Bad Saddle,” t-shirt design, which is one of the most popular True West Moments I have done for Jeff and the Westerns Channel.

"If I'd been a ranch, they would've named me Bar Nothin'."—Rita Hayworth, in "Gilda"