October 11, 2005
Drove down into the Beast on auto-pilot at six this morning. Same place, same time: 7:30, Clear Channel Radio Headquarters, only this time I landed two doors south of Tim and Willy’s at Beth and Bill’s Radio Show on KEZ (99.9 FM). This time out I really got to rock. They aren’t as restricted as Tim and Willy and Beth let me off the leash and I ran for 35 minutes! Wow! That was fun and I really got in some fun bits, with great laughs. Of course we had some great material. One of the morning crew, Marty Manning used to date Kathy so we had fun with that. Sam said the interview appearance set off the phones and we got several orders and subscriptions from people listening to the show.

Got out of there at 8:15 and drove over to Sky Harbor to transfer a ticket to Thomas Charles, who is flying in from New York City on Friday. We bought the ticket with my credit card but you have to go down in person to transfer the ticket. You can’t buy a ticket for someone else, lest you pull an Atta Boy into the World Trade Center. So I had to wade through the worst airline terminal mess in the country and from the wrong end! I swear, Sky Harbor has the worst signage of any place, airport or not, that I’ve ever been. And I’ve been going there for years and it doesn't get any easier. In fact, the roads are all corkscrewed with really awful, misleading signs. For example, as you come in off the 202 on the east end, the road Ys and the main road says “Return Rental Car” and nothing else, even though it’s the main road past all the terminals. There must have been a thousand skid marks in front of this as no doubt a thousand cars have veered off, afraid they had missed the road to their terminal.

After that mess, I veered downtown and had huevos rancheros at the Matador ($10 cash, includes tip). Got waited on by a male impersonator. Actually a male who must do female impersonating at night. Or, he might just be a flaming Young Republican who impersonates Ann Coulter, what do I know?

Stopped at Dan Harshberger’s and gave him his copies of Blaze Away! and talked about a quarterly we want to do. From there I drove out to the office, getting back here at ten. Had several meetings about circulation, the quarterly and special events. We need to cut more radio spots for Pro Rodeo Radio. The New York Times is poaching one of our ideas. More on that tomorrow.

I’ve got a speech tonight for the Western Art Associates of the Phoenix Art Museum at a house in Paradise Valley. It’s a pre-party for the guys who help put on the annual Cowboy Artists Show, which opens this week. I was interviewed at length yesterday by a Republic reporter on the significance of the show. A woman is picketing the show this year for not having any female artists in the group and it’s being held in the Phoenix Art Museum which is a public facility. Ironically, someone told me the woman who is suing is a writer in a woman’s group that doesn’t allow men. ha. The world is so funny, I can’t top that. God is the big dog comedian, although sometimes his humor is too rough for human ears.

Got a call from Harold Jayne in Drybrook, Gloshire England yesterday. He loves the magazine and wants to buy a True West calendar. I tried to tell him we are planning one, but it won’t be ready until next year, but he kept saying, “Good, send it to me lad.” So I gave up and told him we’d send it.

“Believe that you have it, and you have it.”
—Old Vaquero Saying