April 4, 2006
I went home for lunch yesterday and forced myself to kick out a sepia wash (actually a gouache) of Wyatt Earp Punts at The O.K. Corral. It’s not perfect, and in fact is a knockoff of L.C. Lyendecker (I stole the pose and the football pants from him). A decent likeness of Earp, although Kathy came home, saw me perusing it, and said, “Nice picture of you kicking the football.”

A Sobering Response I Get From Time to Time
“I just started [an old west business] last year and I'm busy going broke. I got a link to your website [from a friend] and I read your True West Business Time Line for the first time about a year ago. I want you to know that you are pretty much my sole inspiration for keeping my business going now. Knowing how much debt you were in vis a' vis how much I am in now, and knowing that you were able to work your way out of it and eventually turn a profit gives me hope. Every couple of months I re-read your time line and then find the inspiration to keep plugging away. Thanks for taking the time to chronicle your story.”
—Name withheld by request

I Emailed the guy back and told him it takes courage and a little bit of luck to survive in our biz (actually any biz!). I also whipped out the biggest lessons I've learned from this endeavor and I’ll share those at a later time.

“Were the same type weapons used in the spaghetti movies that were used in Hollywood Westerns? There is definitely a different sound when weapons were fired. Could it have been a different amount of gunpowder charges used?”
—Pete Moore, Columbus, Georgia

Great question, Pete. We'll probably use this one in an upcoming True West Moment. The short answer is this: Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) used Winchester sound effects to portray pistol fire and cannon explosions to simulate the rifle fire! He definitely upped the ante, no?

Favorite Onion Headline de Jour
Old, Resigned Woman to Watch The Young And The Restless

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
—Eric Hoffer