January 3, 2006
Today is the first day for Robert McElroy at True West magazine. He originally came to our offices two years ago and took me to lunch and asked me what he would need to do in order for me to hire him. I told the ex-marine (22 years, intelligence) to go to a graphic design school and learn layout. He graduated from the Art Institute of Phoenix on a Friday two weeks ago and came out with his portfolio the next Monday. I gave him a spec assignment to do a map and he came back three days later with five maps done in different styles. Talk about taking an opportunity and running with it. Mighty impressive.

One of our staffers got married over the Christmas holidays. Mark Boardman got hitched to Ms. Patty, December 28th in the Elston Presbyterian Church outside Lafayette, Indiana. Everyone at True West has been predicting this since the two lovebirds went to Vegas last month and it finally came true. Congrats you Hoosier Hummingbirds.

Hey, Old West cooking enthusiasts, we need your contribution for a feature we’re working on for the magazine. We need great chili (and chile) recipes, along with your recipes for biscuits and mouth-watering, authentic stew (the more regional the better). Send them to me at bozebell@aol.com. Thanks.

News From the Front Lines
Michael Collins of Rossville, GA called to subscribe. He has been buying on
newsstand and said he really enjoys TW. He subscribes to C&I, WW and others
as well. He is a SASS member and really likes that TW mixes old and new and
likes the articles on clothing.
—Carole Glenn

Life is full of ironies—the movie you spoke of this week in your journal FINALLY makes it to DVD in a big way. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BT96DC/103-4719229-0323824?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130

It makes it to a store near you on January 10. I received the first volume of "The Rifleman" collection on DVD for Christmas. The show was my favorite when a kid—one year for Christmas I even received a toy Rifleman's rifle!! You may already know this, but Sam Peckinpah had a lot to do with the Rifleman series. He wrote many of the first screenplays. Yep, it's true, his name is up there in the credits.
—Bob Reece, Maniac #21

Onion Headline de Jour
Voice Recognition Software Yelled at

We had a design meeting at 3:30 to talk about developing a specific color palette for the magazine and our covers. Good feedback and ideas. Robert Ray is leading this charge. We're also looking at all undeveloped territories we can find.

"The greatest undeveloped territory in the world lies under your hat."
—Harvey Mackay