Black Hats, Fancy Boots

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Lousy Westerns

“It was making me ill, reading one lousy Western after another. So I wrote a parody in a fit of rage, showed it to the story editor, and he said: ‘This is good, you want to make a novel out of this.’ I crossed out the title, wrote ‘Chapter One,’ and went from there.” 

—E.L. Doctorow (1931-2015), novelist (Ragtime, 1975, Billy Bathgate, 1989), wrote his first book, “Welcome to Hard Times” (1960), after a job reading scripts for a movie company. NPR obit


• Editorial Comment: I’ve gotta write me some more lousy Westerns. “The gunslinger’s steely eyes glinted like obsidian in the slanting afternoon sun. ‘I hope your boots will fit me,’ the black-hatted man said. Dust swirled around those size 16 armadillo boots as the black-eyed, black-hatted, black-socked man whirled . . . .”


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Sea & Sky




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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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