June 28, 2010
Just got off the phone with Hugh O'Brian. He's 85 and still as feisty as ever. Wants me to send him a list of shows he should attend. Also, a friend of mine is writing Hugh's biography and is pitching on us doing excerpts in True West.

Ever sit around and wonder what Ed Mell's art studio in Phoenix looks like? You know, the one I spent six years sharing with him? Well, wonder no more. Here is a sneak peek.

On Poker, The Cowboy Game
"Our national card game still combines Puritan values—self control, diligence, the steady accumulation of savings insured by the F.D.I.C.—with what might be called the open-market cowboy's desire to get very rich very quickly. . .Yet whenver the big-bet cowboy folds a weak hand, he submits to his puritan side."
—James McManus, in Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker