Recent Correspondence

December 29, 1999

Hello,it's me. I am in receipt of the card you wrote a letter on, which arrived here on 12/28, so I wanted to write this tonight while my mail was caught up for the most part. It's 8:05pm, and my television is tuned to WUFT, which is the PBS affiliate in Gainesville, FL. Their sister radio affiliate, Classic 89FM is simulcasting the Metropolitan Opera presentation of Le Nozze Di Figaro. The MET's acclaimed 1998 production of the Mozart masterpiece charts upstairs-downstairs romantic complexities at a ramshacke villa in 18th Century Seville. The star-studded cast includes bass-baritone Bryn Terfel as Figaro, a valet engaged to maidservant Susanna (mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli). Their master, the philandering Count Almaviva )baritone Dwayne Croft), has his eye on Susanna, but his wife, the Countess )soprano Renee Fleming), is on to him, as is the crafty Figaro.

Their revenge takes the form of a lovesick pageboy (mezzo Susanne Mentzer) in drag. Jonathon Miller directed; and James Levine conducts. It last for 3hrs., 10mins, so I'll be listening to my personal stereophonic over my Realistic Pro 60 headphones. Anytime I can listen to a simulcast on my personal stereo I take advantage of the opportunity to do so. Very soothing to my nerves when I listen to opera.

Okay, now let me get back to your brief letter that was on the handmade Xmas greeting that you sent. Did you do the artwork yourself? Nice touch, Elias.

I see that you were to be taking a long roadtrip to DC on your vacation, and then you planned to come down to Orlando and see Disneyworld for New Year's day? Sounds like a fun agenda, Elias. As for whether the so-called Y2K bug will get us out of prison, I doubt it. I'm sure they've made prisons a VERY high priority as far as Y2K compliance goes. I doubt there will be as much turmoil as predicted, but we'll soon see...

Well, Florida's governor Jeb Bush has called for a special legislative session between Jan. 5-7 on changing the method of execution over to lethal injection. He's hoping to dissuade the U.S. Supreme Court from its planned review of Florida's electric chair, by introducing an alternative method of execution to condemned inmates. They plan on hearing oral arguments in Feb. 2000 but once lethal is inacted, the argument becomes a moot issue.

When there was a similar constitutional challenge to the gas chamber in Calif., they made lethal injection an alternative, and it caused the nation's high court to drop its review altogether. So, governor Jeb Bush has been advised to use that same strategy. Once Florida does away with the barbaric electric chair, the remaining 3 states that also have it as their only means of execution, will probably fall in line. Those states are: Nebraska, Georgia, and Alabama.

Once the legal wrinkles DO get ironed out, and Florida enacts lethal injectionas its method, Florda will be a REAL killing machine, just as Texas is now. There are too many delays in using the electric chair as its only method of execution, so Florida's lawmakers are finally willing to stop embracing the chair. They should have done away with "old sparky" years ago since there have been a few "botched" electrocutions over the past ten years. The most recent was in July 1999, when Allen Davis bled from his noce and mouth during his electrocution. ALL further electrocutions have been on hold, pending a challenge to the constitutionality of the electric chair by the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, by the next time that I do receive a letter from you, the legislative session will have made into law lethal injection. I'll keep you posted, okay? I'll be watching the newspapers and listening for any word of it on the radio, etc.

I have not been receiving any correspondence from people who've visited the website, so I was curious about how it was doing. Hopefully you've got my "snail mail" address on the webpage, so that interested poeple can reach me? If not, please do so? Let them know that I'd appreciate financial support via money-orders, and that I can also receive a book of .33-cent stamps in with a letter when they do write, okay?

On that note let me wrap this up here so that I can be sure that it goes out in tomorrow's mail. Be well my friend, and I do hope all IS as well as can be expected.

Peace Be Yours.

Sincerely Yours,

Anton