March 2, 2006
Meghan, Robert Ray and I are frantically putting the the final touches on the Apache Kid Classic Gunfight. Were there eight or nine prisoners on that ill-fated stage? One source says “nine Indians,” but one of them was Mexican and not an Apache, so is that ten, or was the newspaper lumping the Mexican in with the Apaches? Probably. I’ve got a call into expert Doug Hamilton to confirm this. We want it to be right. I wasn’t happy with the title (“Family Feud Flares Up “Unusual Commotion”), so I had Meghan come in and we started jamming. How about "Outlawed Without A Shot"?” But Meghan thought, correctly, that it misleads the reader, because there were plenty of shots in the original melee, although the Apache Kid didn’t fire any shots and yet was outlawed because of it. Then we played with “Apache Sign Turns Deadly” because the interpretor’s Apache sign triggered the fight (the Apaches saw the sign for “island" and thought they would be sent to Florida where Geronimo was being held, or Alcatraz, where the Apache Kid actually did end up). We kept going, Meghan jotting notes like crazy. We ended up with “Tragic Powwow” which I thinks nails the whole kit and kaboodle in two words. I high-fived Meghan and we went on to nail down the photo credit for Sheriff Glenn Reynolds. We think Gus Walker scanned a photo of the sheriff out of our archives, but we don’t know for sure. Meanwhile, Doug Hamilton alerted me to the fact that there is some contention as to who owns this photo and the owners are allegedly sticklers about usage. This is always a red flag. So I Emailed Gus Walker in Alabama who originally scanned the photo (from somewhere) and hopefully he’ll get back to us before the issue goes out the door this afternoon.

Ooops. He got my Email, and just now phoned Robert Ray and told him that he scanned it out of an old issue of True West which qualifies it as being from the “True West Archives.”

Speaking of Gus Walker, I got this last night:

News From Alabama
“Thought you would like to know, I saw the Travel issue in the Decatur WalMart today. four copies. don’t know how many they get. Also, I’m sittin’ here watching the Encore Westerns when they air a True West Moment, some guy talking about Earp blastin’ Stillwell on the tracks of the Tucson train depot. Tryin’ to place the face, looked familiar.”
—Gus Walker

Well, that’s one of the new True West Moments we filmed last December in Tucson with the steady-cam.

Favorite Onion Headline de Jour
Room Scanned For Something To Sell On eBay

“The book of my enemy has been remaindered and I am pleased.”
—Brian James

Weighing In On The Big, Bad, Blog Debate
“I read and like your blog. That is how I keep up with you all the time.
Don't stop now!!”
—Reggie Selman

“You must keep the blog you sum bitch.”
—Kyle

“Please don't take down the blog. You would lose the input from REAL honest to God maniacs like myself. You really thought Barro's pizza was actually. . .good? But you really create a bond with your readers. Hey do you think the editor of ‘Massive Ass Illustrated’ would ever e-mail me? Hell no!”
—Mike

“Robert the decision to continue the blog is yours. You already know that a great many people get enjoyment from the blog, But when you make the decision you should consider what the journal means to you. Here is the final entry from Samuel Pepys diary. Writing a journal had become very important to him. He felt that ending the journal was "almost to see myself go into my grave". Here are his words: "And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and, therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear....And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave: for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me!”: May 31, 1669. END OF THE DIARY.”
—Cathy Lamb, Sweden

“Please do not stop your blog.”
—Cactus Dan

“I haven't sent out any comments (or opinions, of which I have many) about anything in your blog in a long time, but I check in most every day. I would miss it if you stopped writing it. That said, if you need to be spending the time doing something else, that's fine, too. I still haven't subscribed, but I do go down to the local magazine stand and buy a copy of True West whenever I see a new issue is in. I would subscribe to your blog, though, if you decided to use it for a little extra cash. (grin) Support the arts, right? I'd consider it money well spent. Your blog is consistently interesting—you're a hell of a storyteller. And if that's not an art, I don't know what is.”
—Wendy

Favorite Onion Headline de Jour
Christian Rock Band Gives Up Pyrotechnics For Lent

“It is so comic to hear oneself called old, even at ninety.”
—Old Vaquero Saying