TribBlog: You Want Me to What? Really? [UPDATED]

So, this is day two of trying to get the chairwoman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Rissie Owens, to answer some questions for a story I'm working on. After leaving about a half-dozen messages with her secretary today and yesterday, Owens called me this afternoon to tell me she was in a hearing and too busy to talk with me. But maybe, she said, she'll have some time tomorrow.

A few minutes later, Owens' secretary, Barbara called me. Barbara asked if I would send her some of the specific questions I want to ask Owens so that she can be prepared to talk with me. No problem, that's a pretty routine request, so I asked her for an e-mail address to send the questions to. There isn't one, Barbara said. What?!? "There's really no e-mail to send you my questions?" Nope, she said, you'll have to fax them. Fax?! No e-mail?!? Okay.

Now, I've got to go find a DeLorean so I can fire up the flux capacitor and travel back to 1998 to find a fax machine. 

UPDATE: So, I found a DeLorean, got my flux capacitor revved up to 1.21 jigawatts, found the circa 1998 fax machine and sent my questions to Owens. About noon today, I got a message on my cell phone from a board lawyer. She was looking for my e-mail address so she could e-mail me a response to my questions. What?!? For real?!? Yup. A few minutes later an e-mail shows up in my in-box from the general counsel for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. And the e-mail is CC'd to rissie.owens@tdcj.state.tx.us. Well, I guess that's one mystery about the parole board solved.