Zozobra Burns And Wyatt Earp Loons Loom

 September 2, 2023

   This just in from New Mexico. . .

The 99th Burning of Zozobra

   I just got word from Buckeye Blake that they burned Old Man Gloom in Santa Fe last night. An estimated crowd of 50,000 showed up at Fort Marcy Park to watch the 99th burning of Zozobra. It was the artist Will Shuster who created the original 50-foot tall burning man idea in 1924. Shuster claimed that Zozobra embodies all the gloom that builds up every year from all our ill will, bad habits and misdeeds and we need to burn them off and cleanse ourselves. So be it.

   I'd like to propose the burning of Old Man Historic Ignorance, perhaps starting with this subject.

Wyatt Earp Loons Loom!

   I was having a pleasant phone chat with one of our contributing editors this morning when he went off on a rant about the new issue of True West (Tombstone at 30) and the excessive, as he saw it, coverage of Wyatt Earp and the O.K. Corral. This particular contributing editor, who we will call Professor Mutton, to protect his privacy, described many of the those quoted as "Wyatt Earp Loons," who he went on to describe as "quirky individuals."

Just one of 27 covers on, well, you know.

I asked Professor Mutton if he knew Odie Faulk who got into a historical pissing match with John Gilchriese back in the day, over our cover boy. And, of course, Professor Mutton met Odie and virtually all of the Wyatt Earp Loons about to be mentioned, below. Here is a news clipping which Mark Lee Gardner dug up, about the never-ending O.K. history squabble from way back in the previous century.

John Gilchriese vs. Odie Faulk

And, here's another similar squabble

Louis L'Amour vs. Peter Lyon

"It’s a reminder that these squabbles about Old West history have been going on forever: Gilchriese vs. Faulk, Boyer vs. Barra, Stiles vs. Yeatman, and James Mills vs.— the World. And once we’re gone, no one is going to care that much, if at all. Juicy stuff, though!"

—Mark Lee Gardner

Yin And Yang at The O.K. Corral

   So, as the potshots fly and the yin is replaced by the yang, and the "truth" from one era gets clobbered by a different "truth" in another era, is there anything positive that can be gleaned from all this?

"Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths."

—Yuval Harrari