Tell Me Another now includes 210 stories and has logged more than 65,000 page views from 147 different countries. I’ve been writing and posting the stories in a random order as they occur to me, and you can read them in that order in Contents to Date, but I thought I’d make a new table of contents with the stories listed in a loosely chronological order, starting with stories told to me of times before my birth and some of my earliest memories.
53. Sucking Lemons and Quoting Shaw (G)
36. My Grandmother
70. Party Pieces (G)
33. A Nice Bit of Spanish (G)
111. Strawberry-Picking Camp (G)
94. My Uncrowned Queens (G)
133. So Many Things Have Disappeared (G)
148. Avoiding the Plague (G)
149. Get Me to the Church on Time (G)
20. The Bay of Biscay and the Gully Gully Man (G)
26. Dolls I Have Loved (and Lost) (G)
207. The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò (G)
75. The Long Journey (G)
43. From a Railway Carriage (G)
18. Songlines
44. Greece in the 60s: Expats and Other Animals (G)
96. Learning to Swim (G)
34. His Master’s Voice (G)
104. Untangling (G)
120. I once was lost (and wish I still were) (G)
138. Learning How (Not) to See (G)
81. St. Catherine’s and Miss Tutte (G)
134. Darshan, or You Never Can Tell (G)
107. Kalo Paska (G)
59. Childhood Scars
62. Regulation Underwear (G)
25. British TV, Fall of ‘63 (G)
109 Hindi Lessons (G)
7. The Comic Shed (G)
112. Хоттабыч in India (G)
190. Hobson-Jobson (G)
113. Riding Like the Wind (G)
12. Following the Elephant Spoor
146. Life on the Low Wire (G)
28. Pre-dawn Adventures (G)
147. Hollyhocks and Hornworms (G)
16. Tree Elf
63. Secrecy and Velvet Bugs (G)
187. Emil and the Detectives (G)
188. Finn Family Moonmintroll (G)
49. Making Sense of the Movies (G)
35. The Nation (G)
160. Dogfight (G)
167. Diary-keeping (G)
46. My Ink-Smudged Youth (G)
48. Jaggery Coconut, Nectar of the Gods (G)
143. Waste Not, Want Not (G)
68. Frittered!
24. Hidden Places (G)
52. Himalaya (G)
38. Study Halls and Cinchona (G)
206. Xenophobia (G)
60. Cod-Liver Oil and Malt (G)
27. Rumpelstiltskin (G)
54. Flash
119. Top of the Pops, 1968-69 (G)
67. Fiasco on the 715 (G)
47. The Paper Round (G)
168. The Fast-Wind Backwards (G)
125. My Autograph Book (G)
83. A Clear, Cold New England Day
84. Feasting or Fasting? (G)
4. The Tree House (G)
162. “Heuch, Heuch!” (and other family lingo) (G)
92. Cookbooks, Immigrants, and Improvisation (G)
141. The Yogi of Beals Street (G)
181. The Silver Hairpin (G)
40. send my roots rain (G)
179. And he laughing said to me (G)
137. A Victorian Frame of Mind (G)
31. Gas-Station Shirts (G)
89. Make Love, Not Clockwork Devil-Doggery (G)
88. Sisters, Pick Up Your Sisters (G)
163. Servants, or Cleaning My Own D*** House! (G)
57. Toughening Up
3. The Horn Player in the Cupboard (G)
164. Pheasants and Apple Chutney (G)
5. Idolizing Princess Anne (G)
41. Eating for Four (G)
155. Saving my Bacon (G)
39. Two at a Time (G)
110. The Party (G)
1. Letting Go of the Clutch (G)
142. Route 66 (G)
23. Brackish Water and Cherry Soda (G)
144. The Blab-Off (G)
151. Correspondences and Convergence (“Chicks Can’t Dig!”) (G)
157. The Day Mick Jagger Called (G)
72. Learnin’ the Blues (G)
135. Doris Lessing and Me (G)
14. Everett the Ice Man (G)
150. The Phenomenon (G)
159. Ordinary People (G)
22. Mushrooming and Berry-Picking (G)
114. Food for People , Not for Profit (G)
29. Incident at the Donner Pass (G)
116. Medicinal Herbs (G)
200. Roots, Rock, Reggae (G)
37. Grandpa Victor and the Story of the Tomatoes
128. The Kurta Joke G)
170. Sighting in New Mexico (G)
30. Land of Enchantment (G)
102. No Nuclear News (G)
61. Burma-Shave Signs (G)
192. Jam Today (G)
82. What’s Your Bag? (G)
127. Going Up the Country (G)
69. Wonders in the Woods (G)
10. Ghosts of New Boston (G)
108. Climb Over the Wall! (G)
21. The Highlanders (G)
165. What’s in a Name? (G)
152. No Swaddling, Please! (G)
77. The Tea Tasting (G)
86. Bottled Sunshine (G)
13. Paradise Lost
65. Curb Your Enthusiasm: A Bedtime Story (G)
208. Zee, Zed, Go to Bed (G)
177. The Sugar Snow (G)
186. Drive-ins (G)
180. The Magic of Found Objects (G)
197. O, Oh, and the Wonderful O (G)
176. The Haircut (G)
185. Common Sense (G)
50. Learning How to Fold (G)
42. The Times Tables (G)
91. Tunneling (G)
191. The Iliad at Bedtime (G)
201. Screaming Women (G)
161. Watching the River Flow (G)
199. Quest (G)
19. Lively Up Yourself (G)
85. St. Nicholas’ Day (G)
100. My American Epiphany
174. Con Men, Card Sharks, and Playing a Different Game (G)
139. Sealed with a Kiss (G)
118. Racist Bracist (G)
15. Humans—What a Bummer! (G)
80. Who Are You? (G)
64. Concert Collage (G)
140 Music Alone Shall Live (G)
145. Just a little is enough. (G)
117. Personal Space, Indian-Style (G)
76. Say it Again (G)
87. Thanda Thanda Pani or, You Never Miss Your Water… (G)
79. Baths, Bathing, and Hot Water Bottles (G)
194. London, My London (G)
189. Goodness Gracious Me! (G)
103. Holi, Water Play, Rites of Spring (G)
98. Oral Culture (so to speak) (G)
58. Southbound
90. “Almost a Dude” (G)
73. Trouble (G)
51. Getting Out of Silver City (G)
93. Snowed In (G)
97. Sick in Bed (G)
129. Good Morning, Rainy Day (G)
132. My Muddle (G)
130. Orwellian Jingles (G)
203. Ultra (G)
105. My Garden of Forking Paths (G)
205. Weeping Willow (G)
126. Word Choice: Does it Matter? (G)
74. Three Towers, Three Coincidences
101. The Japan Syndrome (G)
122. The Land of the Free—Really? (G)
124. A Meditation on Money (G)
136. The Shame of Self-Censorship (G)
56. International Arrivals (G)
123. That Funny Accent (G)
115. An Immigrant’s Reflections on Independence Day (G)
66. The Mango Room (G)
131. Across the Miles (G)
198. The Post Office (G)
153. Piecing It All Together (G)
156. Just Empty your Mind
175. Make It So! (G)
154. Saraswati and Sari-wearing (G)
121. The Taste of Home (G)
106. Slow: Salamander Crossing (G)
209. Retreat (G)
202. Tennessee Stud (G)
78. October Rains (G)
166. In the Bleak Midwinter (G)
169. At the Gates of Dawn (G)
171. Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron (G)
172. Balancing My Three Halves (G)
173. Multi-Timing (G)
178. Talkin’ ’bout My Generation (G)
182. Hot Cross Buns (G)
204. Victory V’s (G)
183. Autoantonyms (G)
184. Brevity (G)
193. Kindling (G)
195. Marathon (G)
196. Never No More (G)
210. The Potters’ Tale (G)
Hi Josna! I get a little lost on your blog, and am reading randomly in it, but I wanted to tell you that one of your posts inspired a dream! The one about air conditioning and the differences in perceptions of personal space in Indians and Americans. It has stayed with me, and last night I had a dream about sharing a bed with a seemingly endless pile of people! Your blog inspires me and I so appreciate you checking in on mine.
Thanks so much for commenting, Allie, and for your encouraging words; I am finding your blog very moving and I am enjoying getting to know your voice(s). I hope that was a dream and not a nightmare! Especially in this hot weather, I can see you wake up in a pool of sweat. x J
No, we have air conditioning! It was just crowded and bewildering!
You should certainly be proud of the impressive list of stories which have enlightened and delighted so many people, Jojo!
I am proud of you and wonder if you have thought of putting it all in a book as a collection of stories and call it “Tell me another”. I remember when I discovered that Nikhil had asked you the same question that Jennie always asked me when they were both little, to tell them another story – particularly about life at Mount Hermon. You took it from there and now have a whole collection of wonderful tales which I, for one, would treasure in book form.
Marianne – One of your first fans!
You’re always so encouraging, Marianne. You are my ideal reader! I am thinking of whether/how I might pull together Tell Me Another as a collection of stories in some strange new category. I’d like to find an illustrator who could help me tie it all together with little pen-and-ink drawings for every few stories and the beginning of each section. Of course I want someone wonderful, like the late Edward Ardizzone—see “I Once Was Lost (and I wish I Still Were).”
Thank you, dear friend!