November 8, 2005
Chilly out this morning, probably in the low fifties, although the afternoons are delightful with highs in the high seventies and low eighties. This is the time of year when we get paid back for our nuclear summers. A worthy investment.

Took a brisk bike ride at seven. Peaches and Buddy Boze Hatkiller pranced and ran the whole way. A rust red sunrise over Ratcliff Ridge. Made a mental note to do an entire artshow on that ridge in all its diverse manisfestations. Great name, don't you think? It's the "cliff" next to "ridge" that gives it a certain magic.

Had a staff meeting at 8:30. Shored up the details on the Mike Torres-Gus Walker Last Jam session on November 21st. Going to be a rocking good time in the conference room. I’m bringing my chrome Ludwigs and I’m trying to talk legendary rhythm guitarist (and former, fellow Exit) Charlie Waters into flying over for the gig. We’ll see. He's probably hearing and reading about it for the first time, right here.

Alan Huffines forwarded me Sunday’s Matt Drudge Report which reports Brokeback Mountain is already gearing up for an Oscar run, with plenty of buzz: "There was not a dry eye in the house at the screening at Telluride [Film Festival in Colorado]," says a producer. . . "Watch it come out of the gate at the Golden Globes with super controversy." Also according to Drudge, Wyoming’s Travel and Tourism agency has been getting interest from "other countries" because of advance buzz on the film.

Check it out for yourself at http://www.drudgereport.com

Regarding our reader feedback, I promised one of my partners I would accurately report the cancelled subscriptions and fallout in order to make an honest appraisal of the pros and cons of the cover story. According to Sam, Sheri and Carole, so far we have received 26 negative calls from upset readers, six returned reader survey cards (and counting) from J.C. (his latest, "Are those two fired yet Mr. Bell?") and only two subscription cancellations, although one of them just came back on board (see below):

Carole sent a nice note to Lyn N. who wanted to cancel her subscription after reading the November-December issue. Lyn called this morning and read an excerpt to Carole from an interview with Dorris Kerns Goodwin who has written a book about Lincoln. The author dismissed the assertion that Lincoln was gay. Lyn is 75 and was a journalist and is a nut about history—particularly Texas and the Texas Rangers. Carole said Lyn was very nice and appreciated the letter that we sent—finally admitting she couldn't stay mad at us after receiving such a nice letter.

Thanks Carole!

My own prediction is that the movie will end up falling somewhere between Midnight Cowboy (also an Oscar worthy production but hated by John Wayne himself and, no doubt, many of our subscribers) and HBO’s Deadwood. Old timers will shake their heads, and kids will do the same, the latter wondering how many of us got to as old as we did without falling off the planet.

"If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care."
—Winston Churchill