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| 16 October 1992 |
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| Cheryl B. Horton Criminal District Court, Sec. "A" 2700 Tulane Avenue New Orleans, LA 70118 |
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| Re: Current Events |
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| Dear Cheri: |
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| SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE |
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| Still invigorated by the liveliness of Al and Dan's show of the other night, I was surprised and, at first, let down by the agreed format of the second presidential debate. Amazingly, it was the format Clinton used during the primaries, when he had to pay top dollar for it. I hope Bush got something for allowing Clinton to appear at his best in the most comfortable setting for him. |
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| An observation: Do you think, to come up with Carol Simpson, ABC conducted a contest seeking Ohfat Windfree wannabees?
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| Some highlights: |
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| 1. When a very articulate, attractive woman implored the candidates to quit slinging mud and address the issues, Bush piped up, "I'll address it. Character is important. Demonstrating on foreign soil doesn't demonstrate character." |
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| 2. Perot repeated for the 112,254th through the 112,678th time that he "belongs to the American people." If that is so, he's part mine, and I demand that he get an ear job and give me ten million dollars no later than next Thursday. |
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| 3. On term limitations in Congress: Bush said he was for it since he was limited to two terms as president. Wishful thinking. Clinton said he was against it because it would give inordinate power to unelected staffers and life-time Washington insiders who would stay put as those elected would come and go. Sounds logical. Perot said, "You own me. If you elect me, I'll go to Washington for one term only, without pay." If I own him, I want my ten million, pronto. |
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| 4. Bush said, "I went to a church in Lomax, a black church." Almost every church I've seen, if it was painted, has been white, and if stone or brick, has been grey or red or blonde. I've never seen a black church. I think it would be a sight. Where is Lomax, anyway? |
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| 5. On health care: Clinton effectively pointed out that a bipartisan commission approved his plan over Bush's. Bush again blamed the fact that for a two day hospital stay a patient is charged for three $16.00 plastic bedpans and eight $5.00 aspirins on the tassel-loafered malpractice attorneys. Perot said, "Let's fix it." |
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| 6. Perot kept complaining about politicians becoming lobbyists and earning $30,000 a month. If his moolah is invested at just 4 percent (and you can bet it is), he makes $10,000,000 per month. That's right, ten million dollars a month. And if he can limbo in within that budget, he will die with more than $3,000,000,000.00 in pocket (or his children's pockets, or my pocket if I really own him). |
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| 7. On foreign affairs: Bush took credit for everything. Then he said, "I believe in what the Statue of Liberty symbolizes. In fact, right this very minute we're sending . . . (I thought -- `Haitian refugees back where they came from?') . . . aid to Somalia." |
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| Perot said, "Let's fix it. I'm tired of slow dancing. See, let's fix it." |
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| When it was Clinton's turn, Ohfat II gave him the invite of the century. Said Ohfat II, "President Bush talked about his stopping Hussein from sitting atop 3/5's of the world's oil with nuclear weapons, and I know that you and Senator Gore have taken issue with the President on the Iraq thing, what say you now?" |
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| Clinton, to his credit and my amazement, said, "I rather answer that lady's question." (As you may recall, I predicted that Clinton would be all over Bush on the Iran-Contra issue and Bush's apparent softening of his former stance on the size of the "loop" -- tune in for debate number three). |
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| 8. At one point, Perot said, "I'd happily sell shoes or cut grass or make sausage to feed my family." Well hell, screw the ten million, I'll take a billion. |
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| 9. On their closing: Bush said, "Three ways to do it. Just gotta stay the course. Not gonna get into it with you. Hope for a chance to stand another watch. Teach me about syntax. Not important. Making sentences with no subjects." |
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| Perot said, "If you want it fixed, I'm your man. If you want more slow dancing, I'm not your man. If you can't pay the bill, you're dead in the water. Watch me on NBC tomorrow at 10:30 Eastern. Let's fix it." |
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| Clinton said, "I suggested this format, and I think it was productive because it got the people involved directly in the process and allowed us to try to address issues." |
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| If the Bush camp has a hammer to drop, they're running out of time. |
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| THE LIVING ARTS |
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| On a recent evening, for the very first time, I saw opera. Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo, it was. I've liked opera since my friend, Adie, played some of it within my earshot from a CD he got as a present. Snips of it from movies and T.V. have always interested me. |
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| Seeing it fleshed it out. Costumes and sets and moving humans added to the delight of the sound of it. Massive, dark sets and elegant, elaborate dress will be lingering impressions. The acting was there -- conveyed with manner and posture and intonation. But it was really about music and voice and singing. That part was really something. |
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| I am nevertheless distressed and somewhat perplexed by what I saw. It is the content, the story, which has me troubled. I enjoyed it, but in aspects it was weird and confounding. |
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| This is what I mean: About 450 years ago this fellow named Don Carlo, whose father just happened to be numero uno in Spain and half the rest of the known world, was overly enamored of a French princess, Elisabeth de Valois. In fact, she was promised to him -- betrothed as they said. However, things being what they were in the 1500s, and Elisabeth evidently being something of a babe, Don Carlo's dad, King Philip II, claimed the French foxette for himself. See? Weird stuff. |
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| As might be expected, Elisabeth was heartbroken by her plight, and Don Carlo was downright pissed off. Well, Don Charlie's best buddy, Rodrigo, tried hard to console him. Rodrigo was the Marquis of Posa, and everybody kept calling him Posa. I may be silly, but "Posa" sounds a little swish-swish to me -- if you know what I mean. Anyhow, Charlie and Posa were hugging each other all over the stage and pledging their eternal devotion to each other. Yes, weirdness. (By the way, no pun was intended when I said Posa tried hard to console Charlie). |
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| The Inquisition was raging, and as a result, things were tough in Flanders. This supposedly concerned Posa and he kept trying to get Charlie to adopt Flanders as a cause and travel there to help the place. (I suspect he was just trying to get out of town with Charlie for the weekend). |
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| Then everything went downhill. One very nice lady, the Countess of Aremberg, was banished for leaving the Queen unattended. You see, Philip was no fool and knew better than to leave Elisabeth unwatched with his son around, brimming with hormones. |
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| Another rather bitchy woman, Princess Eboli, was walking around veiled and Charlie thought it was his stepmom. Naturally, he blabbed about how much aching for her he was doing. It turned out that Eboli loved Charlie and, hearing about the aching and yearning, thought it was for her and peeled away her mask. This shocked hell out of the poor Prince. Charlie's reaction somehow let on that he really loved his stepmom, and Eboli started boiling -- a woman scorned, "a wounded lioness" as she put it. |
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| By and by, Charlie was jailed for confronting his dad regarding Posa's cause celebre, the heretical protestant Flemish. Eboli stirred things up by giving the Queen's jewelry box to Phil -- in it was Charlie's portrait. Phil got angry as a wasp and made his wife faint. Eboli broke down and confessed to Elisabeth that she, Eboli, gave the gem box to Phil and that she was once his lover. Bingo. She was banished. |
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| Things worsened. While visiting Charlie in the hoosegow, Posa again revealed his steadfast devotion to the Prince, and offered to give up his life for Charlie. Bingo. Posa was shot by an unseen agent of the Inquisition. Then King Phil entered and asked if Charlie was interested in letting bygones be bygones. Suddenly the Grand Inquisitor and his henchmen arrived to arrest Don Carlo, but the ghost of his grandfather, King Charlie the Five, appeared and spirited away his gandson. The curtain fell, bravissimos flew. |
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| All of this was sung -- sometimes in a pitch quite high and sometimes quite low -- in Italian, of which I speak not a single word. There were, however, subtitles of the sort that were made famous by Mitch and his singalongs -- not below the action as in Swedish and French films -- but above the stage, four stories over the arias. It's not hard to see why opera, this wonder, has endured these centuries. Love and its loss and the frustration born of oppression of any sort are not weird. I was wrong. It is a timeless story stilted only by its setting and the passage of four hundred years. |
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| More Later, |
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| David J. L'Hoste |
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| DJL/djl |
| cc: Bernard A. Horton Russell B. Ramsey Denise F. L'Hoste Paul D. Cordes |