The Ha Ha Handbook Meets Mad Magazine

 September 3, 2026

   As promised, here is the back story on the incredible image of Teddy and the boat thieves:

A BBB enhanced illustration of the capture

   In the spring of 1886, rancher Theodore Roosevelt discovered that three thieves had stolen his only boat from his Elkhorn ranch and escaped downriver. Taking along two of his cowboys, Roosevelt tracked them for three days down an ice-clogged river and eventually captured them at gunpoint. “We took them absolutely by surprise,” Teddy remembered in his 1888 book, "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail".

   Roosevelt kept watch over the captives while his cowboys chopped firewood. At some point one of his cowboys took two pictures of Teddy guarding the thieves.

“I kept guard over the three prisoners, who were huddled into a sullen group some twenty yards off, just the right distance for the buckshot in the double-barrel.”

The original photos are in the Harvard College Library Theodore Roosevelt Collection

More AI Angst

   Let me be clear about our AI usage: yes, David Wright used AI to insert the Hawken (correct rifle) into Mariano Medina's hands. Is it any different than tracing the photo of the gun on a tracing of the actual photo and then painting the whole thing together. It is not, but it sure is quicker. And, that is the name of the game we are currently playing. In True West magazine we play the newsstand game but we always tell you what is real and what isn't. It's that simple.

   But enough about AI manipulation. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of how cool it was in the au natural old days. . .

Guns Out Sedello!

   Yes, that would be Jeanne Sedello who once dated Ned Warren's son and who also had the best laugh on Morning Drive (KSLX).

   Found this in my rejection pile and gave it another go.

Daily Whip Out:

"We Rode Into The Land of The Chigones"

   And, here's another project I want to pursue.

The Ha Ha Handbook

   I have long wanted to gift my grandkids a playful guide to life. Something akin to the Boy Scouts Manual crossed with Mad magazine. Of course, the bottom line is that it needs to make them laugh, but perhaps it just might have a deeper meaning which might make a difference in their lives. Here is the demo I am aiming at.

Bunkhouse Cousins with Uno

Retiring Minds Want to Know

   Got this update from a fellow author who is retiring from his gig at the Arizona Republic:

"I do mean it when I say nothing will really change. I am retiring from writing and hiking only so I can spend more time writing and hiking."

—Roger Naylor 

   And, I have to say I agree with Jerry Olinski on what is happening with the current AI manipulation of old photos: "I hated when they came out with the enhancement programs but with AI we will never have a real picture. Historical pictures will really be a thing of the past."

—Jerry Olinski Sr.

   And, speaking of enhancement programs and machines. . .

“If we have built towering cities, we have raised even higher the cloud of megadeath. If people are as grass before God, they are as nothing before their machines.”

—Wendell Berry