February 16, 2010
Went home for lunch and whipped out a sweet little gouache of Dr. Whitlock being riddled by the bullets from 75 guns:



This is the Classic Gunfight that took place at Fort Stanton, New Mexico in November of 1862 between Surgeon John Whitlock and Captain Paddy Graydon. As soon as Whitlock got the better of Graydon, 75 of his fellow soldiers opened up and riddled Whitlock with 103 bullets.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but of the hundreds of gunfights we have covered in True West, I can't think of another fight with more ridiculous odds. Can you?

76 against 1.

And, I must add, this is the fight Frederick Nolan spent an entire day helping us with (you can Google Fred on this blog and find the post where he took this fight and spun out the three different versions, backed up by page and verse. I'm still amazed.)

Coming back into the office, the gas pedal on my Ford Ranger stuck, in traffic. Fortunately, because of all the news reports on Toyota's problems, I had sort of walked myself through what I would do in that situation and I quickly put in the clutch, pulled off the road, with the engine revving 10,000 rpms and shut off the ignition and pulled into an empty parking space at the Little Red Truck Consignment Store on E. Cave Creek Road. Walked up to the office, called Eric from 24-Hour-Car-Care, scanned the above art and posted this blog.

Priorities.

Lynda just paged me, as I typed "Priorities" (2:21 P.M.) and said, "Eric is here to fix your Toyota. I mean your Ford."

Eric took my keys, came back in five minutes and smiled. He shook his head sadly and told me to hold out my hand. He placed a half of a rotted lemon or orange (totally brown and dried) in my hand. According to Eric it had slipped down between the plenum chamber and the throttle return spring, jamming the accelerator wide open. Yes, it was pack rats, trying to build a home in my engine.

Charge? $5.

"Have you driven a Ford like a Toyota lately?"
—Suggested Slogan From A Loyal Lifetime Ford Owner