March 20, 2007
Still chilly in the mornings, but the long-sleeved days are over for this year.

Mark Boardman reports on Tombstone:

Tombstone's newly elected mayor, Tom Wright, died on March 16 of a stroke. Most of the folks who post on the boards seem to feel that he was headed in the correct direction in preserving and honoring the town's history and heritage. Seems to be a real loss.

Just two days later, the long-time editor of the Epitaph, Dean Prichard, passed away at the age of 80. He'd stepped down from the job last year after a nasty fall.

And speaking of Tombstone, it was on this date in 1882 that Tucson turned on its gas lights for the first time, spelling out "gas company" illuminated in jets of gas over the utility's office. Residents were so proud and excited that they shot guns off all over town, thus hiding Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday's 21 gun salute to a prone Frank Stilwell, lying on the railroad tracks not 200 yards from the celebrating. Here's my painting of that gassy event:



Onion Headline de Jour
Bush Vows To Eliminate U.S. Dependence On Oil By 4920


Deadlines Out My Patootie
With the trip to New York (a month ago today) and my mother's funeral I'm behind the eightball on a variety of deadlines, including Classic Gunfights, Volume III and The Top Secret Project. Not to mention my regular deadlines on each issue and several other projects, which I won't go into now, but trust me, they are legion. Somehow I hope the healthy aspect of career stress wards off Alzheimer's, but that's probably just another example of me being twelve emotionally.

"The great thing about being older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been."
—Madeleine L'Engle