They aren’t all bad, but a random contact like that… I wouldn’t blame you a bit for not responding, and wouldn’t feel guilty about it, either.

Why take a chance that maybe he’s actually reformed or was innocent all along?  I’d make sure he was a multiple felon and *then* give him my name.  What fun is potential physical abuse if it’s only pretend? And when we find your headless body in a gutter, we can all say, “Wow, she was so lucky to have found her soul mate!”

Seriously though, doesn’t the paper have some sort of protection for its writers?  Can’t Tara just send the guy back a form letter with his unopened envelope saying that they don’t accept mail from prisons directed at specific writers?  Or maybe you can find some Prison Singles program to hook him up with and send him the details in a plain brown wrapper.  It’s all just too “Cape Fear” for me.

Glad he’s not published,
Dix

in the words of will smith, “oh HELL no”. you don’t need to feel guilty about someone else’s trip. If the guy was just some totally RANDOM guy that you had never met before, and the letter made you feel equally creepy, but he wasn’t in prison, how would you respond? Nah dude, he’s there for a reason and really, you’ve got enoough drama with the bio fam to conciously add more!

We don’t have any kind of form letter or even protocol for handling these types of letters. We generally toss ‘em in the trash, kinda like spam. Because of my personal friendship with the Broad, as well as my general curiosity, I felt she should know she received it. I was not, however, expecting her to feel any guilt over not responding to Mr. Jail Spammer, so my apologies for that.

Hey now, easy everyone: Of COURSE Tara was going to share that letter with me; it’s from PRISON, for God’s sake, and therefore rife with great comedic value. And I’m not soooooo conflicted that I’d actually consider writing him; with my luck? He’s an axe murder. It’s more like, “Damn, I feel for you, Dude, but ...”

The thing is, convicts usually write the women reporters, thinking they’re going to get all gooey and soft like I just did. I mean if it works, right?

Wow, you’re so lucky to have found your soulmate!

Dix