Ms Fintastic & The Tombstone Dickhead

 December 13, 2023

   Our editor, Stuart Rosebrook, drove out this afternoon in a U-Haul van and destroyed my driveway. That is only partially true—actually, it's not true at all—but that is how I will always remember it.

   The backstory is we needed to work in person on a few projects and this whole siloed-up BS was really getting us down. We all work remotely, in our own silo, and we try to meet up and work on Slack (a graphics version of Zoom), but it's just not the same as working together in the same room like when we had our own office.

   So Stuart rented a U-Haul to come down from Prescott Valley where he lives and pick up some furniture from Dan The Man (Yes, that Dan The Man), and then Stuart came north to Cave Creek and that is when he destroyed my driveway.

   Meanwhile, there's this dickhead from down by Tombstone who has been sniping at True West on Facebook, screaming online that we are promoting bad history and "lies." Another guy, who I thought was our friend created a "Boycott True West" website, which was really irritating. But then, the original guy really stepped in it.

   When good work is done, everything else is forgiven.

Daily Whip Out: "Ms. Fintastic!"

(by Dan The Man!)

 Stuart and I worked on a variety of pressing projects, but the one that redeemed everything was the Ms. Fintastic catalogue girl concept, above, which really tied the room together.

  This morning, Ernesto and his crew laid a culvert on the north end of our circular driveway, then covered it in rocks and used cement to bind it all together.

Ernesto and crew laying a culvert

on the north end of our circular driveway

  They got done about two and he told me to not let anyone use the driveway until tomorrow so the cement could set. I went into the studio to make a sign that says, "Use the other driveway" and that's when Stuart showed up in the U-Haul and drove over the wet cement. "Thanks a lot you bastard for ruining my driveway!" is how I greeted Stuart when I went out and saw what he had done. Turns out, the heavy U-Haul didn't really mess up anything and we had a good laugh about how he "almost" ruined my driveway.

   Meanwhile, the Tombstone dickhead went after Marshall Trimble and that was the final straw for Stuart and he said, "I don't care if he snipes at me or the magazine but I will not tolerate anyone who goes after Marshall. I want him banned." And, so we banned the goober. After a fabulous day working with Stuart in the studio, I called Marshall to tell him what had happened and this is what he told me:

"True West is the best thing that ever happened to me."

—Marshall Trimble, 85, describing how working on the magazine has kept him alive and happy for the past 23 years