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penmanship in prison
Sunday, April 7 2002
This evening Lin and her boyfriend Mark came over to watch Six Feet Under. As usual for such informal social gatherings, Gretchen whipped up some noshes, but I had to abstain from them. They were some sort of pecan clusters, and there's nothing worse than pecans when you have a distractingly painful mouth sore.
Being a former surfer dude from California, Mark brought pot as well as beer and we smoked it out on the back porch. It was the first time I'd smoked pot since January, and it made television an entirely different sort of experience. We watched a few random shows before Six Feet Under came under, and Mark declare Malcolm in the Middle unwatchably "crazy."
Later we were joined by Eulalia and she was telling us about her job as an ombudsman at some governmental institution where prisoners mistakenly send their handwritten letters. Though she can't do anything about their grievances, she has taken a keen interest in their penmanship, which is often beautiful and nuanced. The normal penmanship of a prisoner features character having lavish looping crests and flattened, perfectly-aligned bottoms. "Do they study penmanship in prison?" someone asked. "I'm sure they do, what else do they have to do?" replied another. "If they offer penmanship, you can be that they take it," Mark declared confidently.
Similarly, Eulalia was intrigued by the handwritten letter from our psycho neighbor Jane. It didn't manifest great penmanship, but you can get a clear view of the insanity in those sharply-bent lines and maniacal backwards slants.
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