January 5, 2010
In the current issue of True West I talk about my early obsession with finding a Range Rider style fringe pullover shirt. Here is a photo of Jock Mahoney as The Range Rider with a young tike who ironically wears a fringe jacket:

See, this is what upset me. I was nine and The Range Rider was just the coolest character ever and I really, really wanted a pullover like Mr. Rider's, but all of the stores I went into (from Iowa to Arizona), they only had jackets (with a zipper!). I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I'm still upset about this, all these years later. Here's someone who wants to help:

A Bonified Range Rider Pullover
“Tell Bob Boze Bell that I read Best of the West and he might find the fringed tunic he is looking for under rivercrossinginc.com I'm not connected with them in anyway...I was looking for women's western wear but at this site I noticed the leather tunics he mentioned in the recent True West - they are pricey but look authentic. P.S. Love the mag!”
—Rosel Wesley

While I may still have time to get a fringe pullover, some goals I've had to let go of, like meeting Norman Rockwell and John Wayne. Someone who did get to meet the Duke is this young man:

That, my friends, is Brian Downes who spent 35 years with the Chicago Tribune before taking on the job as head guy at the John Wayne Birthplace in Winterset, Iowa. Brian got to meet Wayne at his home in 1977. A lucky, lucky guy.

Meanwhile, last night I watched a Netflix flick Sunshine Cleaning. It was quirky, but in terms of story telling I really enjoyed it. Sent this email to the Top Secret Writer today:

Paul,
I sense that sometimes, perhaps, my movie diet upsets your stomach. With that in mind, I just saw Sunshine Cleaning last night. It was filmed in Albuquerque and I kept expecting to see your house (that's a joke, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt clean houses of biohazard materials). Anyway, in the ending wrap-up, or, what the French call the Day-Nue-Muaw, they wrap up four separate plot points without an ounce of dialogue. 1.) The screw-up sister (Blunt) gets to take her road trip: we see her in the car driving across the desert. Cut to an overhead of a world map drawn on a playground, with kids running across it on recess. Cut to a pretty, young blond girl (who looks like Tracy Lee) on a swing, smiling at someone. 2.) It's the nerdy bastard child of Amy Adam's character and he's watching the girl on the swing thru WWII binoculars that the messed-up grandfather (Alan Arkin) bought him, 3.) the kid rolls up his sleeve to show a fake, rub on tattoo that says "Lil' Bastard" a gift from Blunt's character earlier at a birthday party. 4.) Cut to Amy and Alan in Hasmat suits starting to clean a house. He blanches at the smell she says something about the kind of detergent they'll need and in they go. All of this while the song "Spirit In The Sky" comes up on the soundtrack and carries us into the credits.

Some young kid named Meghan wrote this script and it is pretty damn amazing. We need multiple wrap-ups like this for Mickey Free. So far, we have two (the watch and the New Day line). Don't you think?
—BBB

Went for a walk with Peaches last night just before dark. Beautiful sunset. Not sure she enjoyed it as much as I did.

“Nobody’s going to tell me that my dog doesn’t love me. That’s crazy talk.”
—Carrie Underwood, in Esquire