January 9, 2006
I got a call today from Michael Blake, the author of Dances With Wolves. He is working on several new books and we talked about his love of history and True West (he bought a copy of our Special Custer Battlefield Edition at the Little Bighorn Battlefield Museum several years ago and has been a fan ever since). He pitched several ideas on possible articles and we talked about other subject matter. An interesting guy. Enjoyed talking with him.

Our office copies of the March issue with the Why Is This Man Forgotten? cover came in from Banta late this morning. Everyone was jumping with joy about the issue. Some problems with cross-overs, because of the perfect binding, but Robert Ray is all over it: we need to expand our gutters a tad. Not a big problem, but I like it that people care about the small stuff. There’s a lot of pride about the mag and as an owner that makes me feel good. Meanwhile sales continues to pound it out. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Several years ago we took the whole staff out to Rawhide for dinner because we topped $23,000 in sales. Today, both Sue Lambert and Joel Klasky are above $43,000. Each of them! And they’re not done yet.

Daniel Harshberger PDF’d up a very refined cover design for our travel issue. I had asked for a more coffee table look and I got it. Now we’ve got to score the original photo which is at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley. I filled out all the paperwork and faxed it to them. Going to cost a couple hundred bucks but it’s a very cool photo.

Immediate Smart Alecky Response On Johnny Loco Story Idea:
“Is this also the explanation why when we asked some girl if she'd like to have sex, the reply was always ‘Are you Loco?’"
—Fred Nolan, Chalfont St. Giles, England

Daily Onion Headline de Jour
Laugh Track Easily Amused

News From The Front Lines:
“My husband and I have been watching the Encore Westerns Channel for about a year now. He gets to watch the movies he saw when he was a child at the Saturday matinees, and I've been learning about cowboy heroes I'd never known before. The first tv western hero I remember is Roy Rogers. We enjoy your True West Moment on the Westerns Channel. Over the holidays, my hubby went online and subscribed to your magazine. Way to go, Pardner!”
—Jane Beman

We’ve got a new poll up: Which Colt Dragoon Model do you prefer? Go vote!
• First Model?
• Second Model?
• Third Model?

I finished my April editorial and wrote too long, so had to cut something and ended up axing this paragraph:
Growing up on Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona and travelling to the family farm in Iowa every summer afforded me great memories of legendary Route 66 towns like Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona. In fact I stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona during the 1957 Northern Arizona Little league Championship Tournament. Plus, one summer, along about 1961, my dad took a cutoff and we stopped in Meade, Kansas, home of the Dalton’s hideout. Ironically I’m returning to Meade this summer as the Grand Marshal at their annual Dalton Days festivities this June 2-4.

End of Ax

Which Reminds Me of Another Onion Headline I love:
African-American Neighborhood Terrorized by Ask Murderer

“Men are afraid to rock the boat in which they hope to drift safely through life’s currents, when, actually, the boat is stuck on a sandbar. They would be better off to rock the boat and try to shake it loose.”
—Thomas Szasz