Johnny America

 

Four Ad­di­tion­al Letters

by

Dear R,

I don’t like it when you eat canned fish in the of­fice. It stinks the place up for hours and hours. Some­times you re­al­ly draw out your lunch and the can just sits there, stink­ing. Even if you throw it away, the trash can is still on­ly a cou­ple of yards from me. It’s disgusting.

Emi­ly

Dear Pa­tri­cia Van­Lester,

I’m very sor­ry that I was part of the mob which tram­pled you and caused you to have a seizure last month. You see, I re­al­ly want­ed to get my hands on that $29.87 DVD play­er. And I know you can un­der­stand this de­sire, be­cause you did too! You were first in line! Maybe you’d been wait­ing there so long that your re­flex­es were off, or some­thing, be­cause oth­er­wise I’m sure it would’ve been you tram­pling some oth­er poor suck­er. But any­way, at least you got one — I heard the para­medics found you lay­ing on top of it. It would take a pret­ty wi­ley shop­per to get that away from you.

Any­way, I’m feel­ing pret­ty guilty about this, and I’ve spent a lot of time in con­fer­ence with Our Lord, and I want to make amends as best I can. So I’d like to of­fer you these fresh-baked home­made oat­meal cook­ies. I hope they will speed your recovery.

Emi­ly

Dear “Cooks,”

I re­al­ly en­joy your cham­pagne, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Spumante va­ri­ety. Please ac­cept this paint­ing I did as a to­ken of my ap­pre­ci­a­tion. As you’ll see, it’s a shih tzu drink­ing cham­pagne from an el­e­gant glass.

Emi­ly

Dear Pa­tri­cia VanLester,

I re­cent­ly heard you are a pro­fes­sion­al vic­tim. I’m sure you can imag­ine how I felt about this — much less guilty! I read in the pa­per that you have fall­en down at least 15 times in var­i­ous stores in Flori­da. Then I heard that you got a free DVD play­er from some on­line con­cern that felt bad for you. It’s in­ter­est­ing, be­cause I as­sumed Wal­mart would’ve giv­en you the one you fell on top of for free. But maybe Wal­mart was pissed off about the nine oth­er times you’ve been in­jured in one of their stores. I’m not sure you de­serve a DVD play­er at all. And I’m al­most cer­tain that you don’t de­serve those cook­ies I sent you. Please re­mit twen­ty-five dol­lars for the 2 dozen oat­meal cook­ies you have sure­ly con­sumed by now. I think you’ll agree that this is com­pet­i­tive with the go­ing rate.

Emi­ly

Filed under Letters on December 30th, 2003

Care to Share?

Reader Comments

R. wrote:

The “canned fish”, as you say – ha­ha­ha – is GOOD. HEALTHY.
I am watch­ing this “lunch” you are eat­ing as well: the ooz­ing piz­za, this “Big Mic­Mac”, the Free-Toe (now THIS is stink­ing!), the Host­ess sponges – this food is of­fend to me! This is the food for stu­pid peoples!
In France, we have the MOTTO for peo­ple who are com­plain­ing of the French food: Fuck off!

Emily wrote:

The fish is Por­tuguese, not French. I would rather be smelling a days-old Host­ess cake than the same aged can of open fish­es. Please advise.

R. wrote:

Are you incorrect?
R.

Emily wrote:

I am not.

R. wrote:

There will be no more in­sult­ing of fish­es in cans, I suppose?

tj wrote:

fish­es in cans? smells? cakes? i be­lieve that R, the french per­son, missed the whole mean­ing of Emi­ly’s writ­ing a mil­lion miles!
i liked it (not the fish nor the cakes)!and if R would ask me what re­al­ly is in those let­ters, bet­ter not ask, in­stead take a cake or a can of sar­dines — it might just come to you!

Emily wrote:

I do not in­sult fish­es, on­ly the can­ning of fish­es and the re­sult­ing odor. And that, sir, I shall nev­er stop.

R. wrote:

Emi­ly (is this is the true name),
Please do not ex­press half-cocky to me. If you in­sult the fish, or the can of res­i­dence – OR (you are crazy!), this erot­ic odors – there­fore you in­sult my coun­try and my ac­tu­al person.
Do you make the de­c­la­ra­tion of war?
(Tip­toe!)
R.

Emily wrote:

More re­al than yours, “Rey­naud” (who thinks him­self a po­et- ha!), who I hap­pen to know is not re­al­ly French. Per­haps it may shock the world to know that you are, in fact, French-Canadian.
As for de­c­la­ra­tions of war, every­one knows that is not what French-Cana­di­ans do.
Give it up! Climb back in­to your hole, curl up with your many cans of fish, beer bread, and sug­ar pies!
Emily

Anonymous wrote:

Pus­tule! Trollop!
To dis­par­age ma cui­sine is one event (per­haps once for­giv­en), but Cana­da is the most gravest (and ly­ing!) in­sult. There can­not be re­turn from this bungle.
Trem­ble, Bam­bi! You can­not escape.
The can­non has grease, and WAR be­gins now.

Emily wrote:

For­give me if I do not tremble.

aj wrote:

Oh dear, Emi­ly, I see you have an­gered our “french” friend.
If you need back up, please let me know.

R wrote:

To: aj
Is good to be friend­ly. I am know­ing that you can be help­ing this “Emi­ly” with the coif­fure, and the se­lec­tion of the prop­er en­sem­ble for her degra­da­tion in­evitable. I think al­so, at this mo­ment, you are wear­ing the LIP STICK.
Thank you, aj.

R. wrote:

And now:
the start­ing of the easy war with EMILY.
Bil­ly Bob, like Rey­naud, have taste the finest wine. But you, EMILY, are not the Croft.
You are POSEUR.
This I have re­al­ize, and al­so con­fessed to me (there was drink­ing), from one JONCORONA.
Hoopla! Yes, you are know­ing this mean­ing. And now you are hav­ing the CHICKEN SKIN, nest pas?
And next: TOPEKA.
En­core: hoopla!
{In my head, the crowd of peo­ples are cheer­ing, and throw­ing the lit­tle ba­by in the air).
And so:
per­haps EMILY is now at seat, be­fore the cheap lap­top. Her sweet­est friend – the BJ – is brush­ing now the hairs of EMILY, in the tight­est pants. He is wear­ing LIP STICK.
Is EMILY seething?
Yes. She is one GOTH. The GOTH must seethe.
The GOTH is the VAMPIRE, with­out styles or fang. The GOTH is starve for the at­ten­tion; Look here! Look me!
The GOTH can get work on­ly in the left­overs book­store, smelling bad. The GOTH is al­co­hol-lov­ing, first in the morn­ing. The GOTH is the stu­pid one which no-one is liking.
This is EMILY: GOTH.
The Mean­ing of Name:
POSEUR. TOPEKA. GOTH.
Thine en­e­my, you know? Some­one is say­ing this and is true.
To de­feat the one that you have make up­on the WAR, you must know of this one. There­fore, I in­ves­ti­gate the name of EMILY.
I say this: Google, you know? Al­so true.
Two sight have say this of the name of EMILY:
Ri­val.; En­e­my.; Pu­gna­cious, (which, I am sure, is mean­ing UGLY); and Stu­pid.
But I am dis­cov­er one book (in the left­over store, with the stink­ing GOTHS), which is one Bible­book: The True Mean­ing Of Name, by Old­en Polyn­ice (from many Riviera).
He tell the name Tyrrell is mean­ing: to pull.
The name Abra­ham is mean­ing: Fa­ther of many.
Michael is mean­ing: Who is like God? The one which leads the army from Heaven.
REYNAUD is mean­ing: fa­mous power.
EMILY is mean­ing: One who ex­pels in­tes­tine gasses from the mouth. One who is al­ways with spit­tle. The ug­ly one
BJ is mean­ing: Pussy.
Le Synopsis:
EMILY is stupid.
EMILY is drunk­ing SCOTCH from TOPEKA at one TURKEY NEST, a place of stink­ing GOTH.
BJ is in the men bath­room, with giggles.
This WAR has on­ly begun.
Hors d’oeuvres,
R.

R. wrote:

One thing more, EMILY:
BAUHAUS (I yawn).
Tarte Tatin,
R.

Emily wrote:

It seems Rey­naud has quite the crush on me!

Jay wrote:

He speaks of you of­ten and lustfully.

R. wrote:

Crush like the tin can (full of fish), bebe!
Can you of­fer no more war­ring than one GOTH sentences?
You are sur­ren­der­ing, I suppose?
(It will not be easy.)
Toot sweet,
R.

Emily wrote:

I do not feel the need to de­pend on false ver­bosi­ty to de­feat you in a bat­tle of wits. This is a use­less sham per­pe­trat­ed by French-Cana­di­ans and long-wind­ed talk­show hosts (such as one Sal­ly Jesse Raphael or one Mon­tel) which is ul­ti­mate­ly rec­og­nized by all as inferior.

R. wrote:

You have con­fess you are with­out WIT, there­fore I ac­cept your surrender.
Soon will ar­rive a mes­sage in which you are in­struct to send the sur­ren­der mer­chan­dis­es. YOU MUST send all items on list at once! Or fur­ther taunt­ing will occur.
I am sor­ry EMILY, but for you, there are no part­ing gifts.
In victory,
R.

Emily wrote:

Your abil­i­ty to mis­un­der­stand is as­tound­ing. Such is the lot of the fool, I suppose.

R. wrote:

AN ODOR TO EMILY
I am from France.
Bet­ter, obviously.
As­tound yourself.
(A small poem).
Hoopla!

R. wrote:

EMILY,
I am tired of WAR.
Are you?
WAR is un­healthy, no?
Do you like mussels?
I like it with the FRENCH FRY.
Per­haps, some­time, dinner?
Span­ish wine?
(But you must portage the sur­ren­der prizes).
And so,
OK,
Bonne nuit,
R.
(sweet dreams).

Emily wrote:

Rey­naud,
I am in­clined to agree, as I do en­joy mus­sels and french fried pota­to pieces. How­ev­er, I did not re­ceive any list of sur­ren­der prizes so I can­not guar­an­tee to pro­vide them. Al­so you must change the name from “sur­ren­der prizes” to “to­kens of appreciation.”
Emily

R. wrote:

And now: THE LIST OF SURRENDER MERCHANDISE (name unchanged).
EMILY have for­sake this WAR, there­fore she must make the SPOILS.
PRIZES FOR VICTORY (REYNAUD):
 — IPod, mod­ele most recente.
 — Foie Gras, 2 poundwww.dartagnan.com.
 — Con­dom: Lamb, XL, vulcanizedone gross (no EMILY, I am not re­fer to youone GROSS is the number.)
 — Some­thing from Vic­to­ria Se­cret (DO NOT WEAR BEFORE!)
 — The ba­by cat (who will be my beloved friend.). Send FIRST CLASS (put some hole in the box, for airs).
 — One sup­ply for the year of IAM, lamb and avocado.
 — One Pome­gran­ate seedling (healthy!).
 — A win­ter coat­let (LL­Bean).
 — Sub­scribe to Gas­tro­nom­i­ca.
 — Some shiny baublesrhiningstones, no.
 — Colobus Mon­key, liv­ing, small.
 — One small wood­en cab­i­net, with drawers.
 — Wasabi Peas, ten pound.
DELIVER THIS in 10 day to be friendly.
R.

Emily wrote:

Un­ac­cept­able! I have been more than rea­son­able in al­low­ing you to keep your pal­try lit­tle vic­to­ry, but I will not bear your sur­ren­der gifts, nor will I give in to your threats.
Watch for gifts of an­oth­er sort.

R. wrote:

OK Emi­ly.
Tyrant I am not today.
I omit my mon­key, and, in place of pome­gran­ate, I will ac­cept one de­li­cious mango.
You can be sub­sti­tut­ing corn beef (one ki­lo from BEST jood­el­ly) for the condom.
And, you should in­stead write for me one friend­ly POSTCARD from New York City.
{I have been at WHITNEY, you know. She is not there.)
WARNING: Do not omit wasabi pea.
And so,
I am miss­ing now my monkey.
R.

Emily wrote:

Rey­naud,
As I see it is im­por­tant to you that you be paid some trib­ute, here is what I can offer:
ONE (1) pho­to­graph of a spi­der mon­key, clipped from Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic Magazine
TWO (2) pounds Corned Beef
Some Wasabi Peas (1 pkg.)
ONE CAN (12oz) Goya brand Man­go Nectar
ONE post­card with Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty pic­ture, and friend­ly message.
Best,
Emily

R. wrote:

EMILY.
If the corn beef is not so lean, I accept.
And, I hope, when you are writ­ing to me one post­card (the Lib­er­ty stat­ue is good!),you are not putting the “flower” above the “i” – on­ly the “dot”.
I am no more lik­ing the hip­py girl.
In salu­ta­tion of my monkey,
I am,
REYNAUD

Emily wrote:

You do not know me so well, if you think I dot let­ter “i” with any­thing but a dot. I am no hip­pie, nor goth, nor ug­ly, nor poseur. You make as­sump­tions of which you know nothing.
Repent!

R. wrote:

Tru­ly, I am know­ing on­ly some bits of you EMILY, but I am this sus­pect­ing: in this TURKEY NECK, with the SCOTCH (al­so with black hairs, the white­ness of skins and the fash­ion mu­ti­la­tions), I be­lieve – I know! – you are one seet­ing VIXEN (the la­dy foxe).
You run here, you run there – far! – with some hot­ness in your brains, and oth­er places.
But even for you, EMILY who, I am show­ing the great mer­cies, I can­not make this REPENT.
Tru­ly, I be­lieve it is the SIN. It is a brown place, for get catch­ing there the fun­gus. And so, you must some­day get the SHOT.
EMILY, be­ware this re­pent – it is not fash­ion. Bet­ter the frot­tage, no? HEALTHY.
I ask you now more–
AGAIN!–
respectingly:
EMILY, please,
sur­ren­der nice.
Your smil­ings con­queror (de­serv­ing of present),
R.

Emily wrote:

Please quit, you are scar­ing me. You are “ask­ing around,” find­ing out in­for­ma­tion about me!
How glad I am you are 12 of 1 coun­try away, or you prob­a­bly would come find me where ever I might be, at work, in bed, or at a turkey’s nest. And just watch.
Do not stalk! It is creepy.
Your stat­ue of… post­card con­tains no re­turn address.

R. wrote:

I do not “ask around”.
I SEE (It is like KNOWING.)
Have you see one movie EXORCIST?

Emily wrote:

No, you walk around with your fake French ac­cent say­ing “OOh, do you
know this
EMILY?
What is her HAIR
col­or and does she eat SHELLFISH?”

R. wrote:

EMILY,
It is too much. Time has passed with­out reward.
And, as I am now know­ing that you are the CRAZY one (I read your ARTICLE, you see), I am won­der­ing if the VICTORY over the one who is in­sane is tru­ly the victory?
(I am not ask­ing you, EMILY).
And so, for now,
I withdraw.
Is too much, this SCROLLING for the COMMENT.
And no PRESENT.
Cap d’Antibes,
R.

Emily wrote:

What ar­ti­cle?

R. wrote:

(si­lence)

TJ wrote:

awww! now this is re­al­ly get­ting in­ter­est­ing! i hope it won’t fold flat­ly worse. look­ing for­ward to the next sear­ing ex­change! you guys try­ing to drum up sumthin’? well, am a fan!

This was be­gin­ing to flap my flap­per, then I want­ed to flap out loud !!! I FLAP THEREFORE I AM!!

Consider posting a note of comment on this item:

—§—

Previous Post

«

Next Post

»

Join our Irregular Mailing List

For very occasional ramblings, word about new print ephemera, and of course exciting investment opportunities.