There are advantages to growing older (yes, really!) but the decrease in memory capacity is not one of them. Now that most of the library visits are over I’m trying to catch up with work, and yesterday picked up a new reference book I hadn’t yet found time to look at. Inside were helpful notes – in my own handwriting.
In between further assaults on the ‘to read’ pile (now nearing three feet high, but possibly I’ve read some of them already) I’ve spent the last few days scowling at the laptop screen, drinking coffee and checking emails every 5 minutes. This is euphemistically known as ‘writing’, something editors like to know is in progress but which doesn’t make for fascinating blog posts. So, feeling the blog had been somewhat neglected of late, I turned to the scribbled list of emergency ideas for Things to Write About.
Third in the list (below ‘treading grapes’ and ‘on being pirated’, which may appear here shortly) was another mystery. What in heaven’s name did ‘Saved by a plastic chicken’ mean?
Ruth Downie 
Miss Downie,
It is most entertaining to read your little blog stories. Do I see a parallel to Ruso in this latest entry? Seems like Ruso has his share of distractions, things going on around him, some things demanding his attention and time while other things he gives in to distractions a little too easily. In the end, he keeps coming back to what only he can do (and he knows he is the only one) and somehow he gets it done even it it takes awhile it falls in to place (mystery or puzzle solved). He just gets it done. When I read your next book, I will know that somehow you got it done despite the too many demands and too many inclinations to do otherwise. Perhaps a little like Ruso.
Phil Hall
Oregon, USA
I really hope so. Can’t help thinking that if Ruso had internet access he’d never get anything done either!