While I’m in the throes of doing laundry so I can be up in five hours with all the other chickens and get to the airport (and consent to another pat down because the X-ray machine says I have metal under my arm), E. B. White provides today’s post.
Mr. White responds to the ASPCA, which has accused him of “harboring” an unlicensed dog.
Thanks to Letters of Note for sending Mr. White’s missive into my e-mail in-box this morning. And thanks to the ASPCA for accusing Mr. White and thus eliciting this lovely piece of American literature.
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/02/she-doesnt-answer-phone.html
If Mr. White’s letter pleases, proceed to Mark Twain’s letters to the Hartford Gas Company. One of the letters is quite brief and appears in an editor’s note just below Mr. Twain’s signature (S. L. Clemens).
http://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/mark-twains-letters-1886-1900/ebook-page-03.asp
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To all who have visited and commented while I’ve been otherwise occupied, many thanks. No matter what it looks like, you are not being ignored.
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Image of E. B. White Cornell University senior photograph. Uploaded by w:user:cornell2010. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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- Mark Twain’s letter to the next burglar (holykaw.alltop.com)
M. K. Waller 
And yet people laugh at my tendency to respond to an irritating situation by threatening to write a ‘strongly worded letter’.
Seems like my habit puts me into some pretty esteemed company!
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My head is filled with strongly worded letters. Perhaps we should stop threatening and start putting them on paper. If it works for the big guys…
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Kathy,
I am ignorant. what do all of these posts mean? Do I have to understand background? I don’ t understand what blogs are about. What is their purpose? Feedback? What? Though I do have Verizon Wireless, it is still slow to get on Facebook and this site.
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I think a blog is for whatever you want to do with it. Memoir, how-to, rant, op-ed, poetry, journaling, building bridges, sharing information and expertise, conversing with the world, being discovered, talking to yourself, creating a portfolio, satisfying the compulsion to write, writing and publishing on your own terms. Posting pictures of your dogs and cats. (Kate Shrewsday in the UK has a dog that looks just like my Tramp.) Agents like potential clients to have a presence on the web. Mine is mostly for shooting off my mouth, frequently about cats. I like to string sentences together, and the blog screen creates the illusion of an audience in a way paper can’t, at least for me. It keeps me fluent. And I’ve met some good writers and delightful people since I’ve been reading and writing online.
I don’t understand why you don’t have a better connection out there. When the toll road goes through, that will probably change. Along with everything else.
Thanks for visiting and commenting and not giving me a grade.
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Welcome, EB White!
Hope the pat down, though unavoidable, was bearable. Safe travels!
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Travels over. No pat down this time, but I was told not to wear my t-shirt with the little sparkly things to the airport again because the X-ray machine doesn’t like it. My husband’s right shoulder got a pat. We have no idea what that was about.
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This was hilarious. Great idea and thanks to EB.
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I’m glad you liked it. EB and I thank you for reading and commenting.
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Love that line “he was some put out”. I feel that way sometimes 🙂
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Thank you, thank you for E.B. White’s letter. I love it that the dog doesn’t answer the phone. But Fred (his name is Fred) did.
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Do you know, Kathy, I read this to Phil when you first posted, we laughed like drains, and then I forgot to leave a thanks back here for linking to it. Thank you. It was absolutely wonderful.
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