April 20, 2005
I heard over the weekend that the History Channel is producing 13 new shows in a series to be called The Shooters. Evidently it will feature Old West gunfighters and their most famous gunfights. If this sounds familiar it's because we pitched this show idea to them almost two years ago as Classic Gunfights. I was warned they might rip us off, and so they have. The excuse I heard was, "all those gunfights are in the public domain," and while that is true, it seems silly that they wouldn't want the advantage of getting it right (you know they will muck it up and get it about half right).

A new, bonified photograph of Jack Ketterling, alias Jack Johnson (one of Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Ride riders) has turned up in one of the oddest places. We will run the photo in an upcoming issue.

Thanks to my homeopathy doctor I'm taking a ton of "natural" supplements, Vitamin E, enzymes galore, literally 45 to 50 pills and various powders a day! As to the ultimate benefits of all this ingestion, the mysterious Doc Scoggin says, in the-glass-is-half-full medical tradition, "You will create some expensive urine."

This just in:
"I want to discuss your latest poll. I find this an interesting subject. I read awhile back how the 'gangster era' was actually a fairly crime free time, except for the gangsters. The per capita crime wasn't what we would expect since a great deal was amongst themselves and innocent folks were left alone.

"A friend who is a History Prof and I have had this discussion regarding the Old West. There is really not enough hard factual data from the 19th century to compare with today. There is data but not to the extent we have existing now. Also, in the study do we consider the Indian Wars or take them separately as war? This would alter an outcome. War is usually taken in a different context. At any rate, I guess I will have to vote that today is more violent. Although if you believe Deadwood, they spoke just as filthy back then. As an aside, the reason I could not get into Deadwood is the language. I feel like if you don't have much writing talent just throw in a lot of profanity and that is a good cover."
—Hugh Howard, SASS# 49890, Maniac# 9

Speaking of Deadwood, Scott Hubly came by on Sunday to pick up his framed Deadwood poster. Scott won it from a drawing we had at Festival of the West.

One of the plot points on this season of Deadwood that I don't really care for, is the assumption that mining magnate George Hearst was corrupt. I'm not a Hearst expert, but I think it's safe to say that in popular culture whenever you need a villain, a rich capitalist is an easy target. And by the way, have you noticed that the actor who portrays Hearst's evil advanceman, Mr. Wolcott, is the same actor who portrayed Jack McCall (the killer of Wild Bill) last season?

Regarding yesterday's self-flagilation session:
"Sounds like you're human and an artist. Yeah, it's a damn tough combination of curses to bear, but you seem to be doing fine with it."
—Will Shetterly

I heard from Joaquin Jackson this morning and I felt like a little kid talking to a living legend. He is going to participate in a new in-house campaign we are running on Passion for the True West. The retired Texas Ranger is a big fan of the magazine.

"The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well."
—Joe Ancis