August 2, 2006
Woke up this morning to big thunderheads over the Seven Sisters. When I was a boy I thought storms came in straight, but they don’t. They swirl in a circle (and as I have slowly discovered, everything on this planet tries to be round). When I came out for the bike ride at seven, the big clouds had circled north over Sugarloaf and a faint rain could be seen dropping up on the mesa behind Sugarloaf.

Last night Kathy and I drove Tomas back up to Orme Ranch for his last week as a camp counselor and horse wrangler. Left at seven to avoid the traffic. Got gas in Cordes Junction ($2.99 a gallon, $38.42 to fill up). Tomas gave his mother the tour of Orme and we got back on the road at 8:30. Stopped in New River for yogurt ($6 cash) and got back to the house at 9:30.

Today is “Old Coot’s” birthday. Happy birthday from all of us Old West Maniacs. Coot is a major contributor over on our True West Forum. You can check it out right here.

Aces & Eights Anyone?
“On this day in 1876, frontiersman Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Hope all is well.”
—Steve Lodge

And speaking of Deadwood:

“Is there any truth to the rumor that Mel Gibson’s next movie will be about how the
Jew's were behind the attack on Pearl Harbor? I understand it will be called
‘Torah, Torah, Torah’".
—Jim Bolek, The Roofrats

“P.S. Was that last sentence [in yesterday’s post] a Freudian slip?”

No, it was a quasi-Freudian attempt at juvenile humor. But wait, this is the one about Deadwood:

“THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EROTIC LITERATURE sounds like the sort of book that belongs on every schoolboy's shelf.

“As for f*****g, as I mentioned some moons ago, J.E. Lighter (HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG) devotes—that's the only word that fits, devotes—13 pages to the f-word and its many vivid manifestations. (My favorite, an adverbial form, f****ingly.)

“The first printed version of f*****g that he cites is 1890-93, from Farmer &Henley, SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES, who describe the word as ‘common.’ Common in the 1890s means by then it had been in use for some time.

“A great source note—Ezra Pound writing in 1918 to James Joyce: ‘The world is too f*****g with us.’ I get the drift.

“In reference to the authenticity of the dialogue on DEADWOOD, it's rather beside the point, because Milch's use of profanity is a sort of frontier Shakespearean doo-wop. Not meant literally, but pleasing to the ear.”
—Dan Buck

“Never get married while you’re going to college. It’s hard enough to get a start without a prospective employer finding out you’ve already made one mistake.”
—Old Vaquero Saying