January 11, 2007
Chilly and cold out this morning. Wore a ski cap on my bike ride. Ran into J.D. coming back from town in his truck. He rolled down his window and said, "Why the ski cap?" And I said, "'Cause I'm joining a gang." And he drove on home.

I had a speech last night at the Desert Land Trust. Forgot about it. They called at 7:10 and asked me if I was coming and I said, "Of course. I'll be right there." Got dressed, sped down to the Episcopal Church just north of the Carefree Highway, walked in during the business meeting, Jackie Davis (former mayor of Cave Creek) introduced me, and I gave my speech on "The O.K. Corral, motorcycles and the Desert Land Trust." Mentioned the TV show 26 Men and Cudia City, the movie town where it was filmed and several people came up to me after the speech and said they remembered the place and, like me, visited it as kids.

Last weekend Lew and Tera Jones, legenary Creekers who owned and operated Tera's Mineshaft Restuarant, where we broadcast "The Jones & Boze Radio Show" in 1998 and 99 came to our house for dinner. I showed them two episodes of 26 Men and we laughed and laughed at the bad acting and the many local locations they used. It really is a time capsule travelogue on Arizona in 1957-58. I'm thinking of sampling some of those images and showing what the remote locations look like today. If I do, I'll post some of them here. That would make a great giggle for anyone who remembers Arizona in those days.

Talked with the Top Secret Writer yesterday about honing in the final dialogue for the ten-page-prototype on The Top Secret Project. He is so much better than I am at writing it's not even funny. Me, I'm not quite at the level of a "First-Time Novelist" and we know what they're like:

Onion Headline de Jour
First-Time Novelist Constantly Asking Wife What It's Like To Be A Woman

"I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job."
—Darwin Smith, CEO of Kimberly-Clark, quoted in the book "Good to Great," reflecting on his exceptional performance