Phone Message Transcript: Jan. 2, 1997
[appearing on Anne's fan phone line]

"Happy New Year, everybody. It's 1997, January 1st, and forget my message of last night, because our big ad about the open house on January 5th did not appear in the Times-Picayune today, it's going to appear tomorrow, January 2nd. And let me reiterate very quickly for those of you in New Orleans who might want to come, and those who are visiting and those who are heading here, that we will have an open house from 10:00 to 4:00 on January 5th, and it will be at three residences: 1314 Napoleon Avenue, which is St. Joseph's, I'm sorry, what a slip, St. Elizabeth's Orphabnage. The second residence is 2524 St. Charles, on the corner of Third, and the third house is 1239 First Street, on the corner of Chestnut. We'll be receiving people for viewing the houses from 11:00 to 4:00, and the pace will move as the crowd permits. Maybe nobody will show up and it'll be a very leisurely pace. Maybe a very leisurely pace as a matter of fact if no one shows up. But in any event you're all welcome to come and see these houses. They were all, these buildings were all built in the 1860's to 1880's. They all have interesting archaeological, or architectural features and I'd love to share them with you.

Well, it's early morning, and I can tell by the rate of mistakes I'm making that I had better get off this phone, but let me tell you first how much I love you and thank you Shirley for your poem and thank you Michael for calling and thank you Gary and thank so many of you all over the country that call all the time with cheerful messges.

I saw the movie SLEEPERS last night. That's what I was doing at midnight, was watching SLEEPERS and I thought it was a very interesting movie. I'd love to heard your opinion, if you want to leave me a one minute message and you've seen SLEEPERS, I'd love to know what you thought. I thought it was fascinating and a deeply religious movie because it was about complexity. It was really about fine distinctions of conscience, but I'd love to hear your response.

Okay, I'm going to cut it out now and go wake up and go read KING LEAR and OTHELLO and do my exercises and all that. And Happy New Year again and please look for our ad in the Times-Picayune tomorrow, announcing the open houses on January 5th, and we would love to see you. Remember there is no charge, no commerical connection, nothing of any kind. The houses are simply open for receiving people to view the houses and the doll collection at St. Elizabeth's and the restored Chapel at St. Elizabeth's and other such things. God love you and keep you and may '97 be a great year for us all. Take care. Bye-bye."