December 7, 2004
I know some of you are going to find this hard to believe, but no matter how much of a stickler I am about authentic details in Old West history, rest assured there are people, no, make that friends of mine, who are even more anal than I am. Case in point:

Got an Email from Alan Huffines, who's back from Japan. Here's what he had to say:

"Congratulations on another great issue. The saddle article was incredible.
One request; I assume your artwork on the editorial page are the boards for
the 'Good Saddle-Bad Saddle' T-Shirt. Please, consider a different 'Good
Saddle.' The one you drew is late 19th Century at best and a California
pattern with fully covered tree. Can you choose one of the images from the
saddle article perhaps? A nice Stagg half-seat without jockeys and no
Cheyenne Roll on the cantle? I want one of these shirts but could not bear
(or is it bare?) to wear a California Saddle on my Texas chest.”

Your honor, I rest my case.

In this morning’s staff meeting, we all got to hear the adventures of the sales staff, fresh back from their road trip to Vegas. Tens of thousands of cowboys and cowgals descended on the Strip for rodeo, single-action-shooting displays, jewelry, clothing and horse trailers. And cheap hooch. Comments on the cheesiness and gaudy nature of the place were quite galore. Melrose told us how much he absolutely loves the town. Not surprised.

Worked all day on Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce layout. Gus and I reconfigured the entire piece, moving type and images around. Hard work, but it is going to be good.

Went to lunch with Dave Daiss, RG and Mike Pellegatti to talk about TV production. Good talk about budgets and content, but I'm still not sure we have what we need. Paul Hutton may come over this weekend to pow-wow. We need his brilliant insight and charming demeaner.

Speaking of Paul, he got the page proofs of a Deadwood photo feature we are doing of his images and he really disliked it. Thought we picked the wrong images (my fault) and that we missed some good ones. We’ll work on it when he comes over.

Ordered seven rare photographs from the Arizona Historical Society of Charleston, Arizona taken by Charles Farciot. Going to cost some, but I need them for my new book. Paid for it on my biz account ($185). Damn, I wish I hadn’t tipped that popcorn gal!

“Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.”
—Eric Hoffer