One of the nice perks about living in Cave Creek is walking outside in the morning and seeing this:
Christa Barro Barrels By On HorsebackAnd one of the perks of living close to Scottsdale is being able to go down to gallery row in Scottsdale and talk to guys like Abe Hays who is still digging up little painting treasures like this Maynard Dixon he picked up recently:
Abe Hays And His Latest Find
And one of the perks of being a cartoonist is to whip out little scratchboards of border bandidos by poaching old photographs of the Mexican Revolution in the True West archives:
Badges?! We Don't Need No Stinking Badges!
Another one of the perks of being a cartoonist is getting the opportunity to illustrate Charles Barkley's big, beautiful butt boxing out a defensive player (this was 20 years ago this year when they almost won the championship):
Charles' Big Beautiful Butt
One of the perks of publishing a magazine is meeting cool collectors like Diane Potter who has an amazing collection of Route 66 and Arizona postcards:
And one of the perks of being married to Kathy Sue Radina is. . .
For some damn reason she still likes me. Oh, and an early Happy Birthday to you, girlfriend.
And lastly, one of the perks of knowing Humor Masters is this: I was cleaning out the garage this morning when I ran across an Arizona Republic report from 1993 that said, "Wonderful Russ was hosting a Channel 8 pledge break a couple of weeks ago. Instead of the usual polite PBS appeals for cash, Wonderful, longtime Valley zane master and occasional KSLX morning show contributor, did it this way: "I'm hearing a silence this is irritating to me, and I'm seriously thinking, I'm not saying I will do it, but I'm seriously thinking of starting to take these people who are answering the phones, and choking them one by one until you phone in with your pledges."
"It's just good business."
—Russ Shaw, Jr.
