After I posted Graci’s most excellent letter, I received the following reply, which remarkably, is even more charming than the original letter. I hereby declare Graci this blog’s official Irish correspondent. Kind of like CNN’s man on the ground in Lebanon, only not really.
Hi Susan!
All I have to say is:
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I’m in your blog! Not only is my letter your FIRST IRISH LETTER (cue celebration dance), it’s in your blog! Hmm, let me read it again… Excellent sense of humour? Oh, yeeeeeeah. Go me. Susan Juby fans everywhere will be reading my letter! *gets PR person on phone* “Hello? Franco?” (Franco sounds about right for a PR person, doesn’t it?)
[You slay me. Franco? The editor for the Alice TV show is named Franco. I will suggest that he look into opportunities in PR if the editing thing doesn’t work out because you are quite right it’s the perfect name.]
You should have heard me when I saw “Graci from Ireland”:
“OHMYGODMYLETTERISONSUSANJUBYSBLOG!!!!!!!!!” Loudly.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard me…
[I thought I heard something. But I assumed it was the guy in the house above us. He just started a band and they practice a lot. I thought it was a new instrument he was trying out.]
I hope the librarians don’t read your blog… Death by library fines.
[A distinct possibility. The death by library fines part, not the reading my blog part.]
I’d be bankrupt. Oh, well. I’ll just give them a BIG SMILE just in case. Hehehehehehehe. They’ll never suspect a THING. Well, they might, because I always give them A Look when they start in on the: “Did you read a lot” thing. I’ve worked it out, and they’ve asked me that approximately 156 times.
[Ah yes, the Look is an effective tool. As is the big smile. In fact, I might try both of them the next time I get into financial difficulties.]
My cat asks you to send her a picture of the flea scarf. She’s very proud of that.
[Will do as soon as I figure out how to work the new camera on this computer. Look forward to pictures sometime around 2009.]
Anyway, it’s Getting Susan Juby’s Books From The Library: Part 2 They rang me up two weeks after I FINALLY got the freaking book. They’d kept: I’m Alice (Beauty Queen) on hold. I, of course, took it.
…
[Modesty blank. Insert extremely nice compliment here.]
But I’d like to point something out: The. Pogues. Are. Not. English. They are…IRISH! It’s so rare that something cool comes out of Ireland (Bono doesn’t count), that you want to make sure they’re KNOWN as Irish.
[Okay, now I’m going to reveal my ignorance. Isn’t Ireland considered part of the UK? I thought it was because the UK rights for my books cover England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Do you think that you read UK and in your mind inserted the word “England” because Ireland’s relationship with England is something like ours with the U.S.: that of a spirited small dog snarling up at a larger and more powerful brute? The brute might not even be looking at us (in our case, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the brute is not looking at us) but we snarl anyway? Also, since you are now this blog’s official Irish correspondent, why doesn’t Bono count? Is he too famous? Or have you had it with the activism to the point where he’s been kicked out of the club?]
I can’t WAIT to read the next one…
[Thanks!]
Please write more of ’em…
[Will do. The third one is called Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last.]
Your VERY happy #1 Fan,
Graci
[Also known as Official Irish Correspondent for Out There. Should she want the job.]
P.S. It must be my handwriting’s so messy, but it’s “Janey Mack”, not Janey
Mae.
[See, this is exactly why we need an Official Irish correspondent.]