Mother Dear reads JMPE

The mother read through her copy of ''Just Married, Please Excuse''.

She had read it before, of course, but this was the edited version and she found it quite different.

After telling me it was 'Very nice', she proceeded to say, almost bursting with glee - ''I found a mistake in it!''.

I was completely aghast and horrified - so much so that I completely ignored the fact that she seemed so happy about her discovery. After examining her find, I murmured in agreement that it was something that could be easily corrected in the next print run - I was satisfied that it was such a tiny detail that it wasn't anything that a normal functioning member of society in his right mind would ever notice.

My mother, who was leafing lazily through last portion of the book then gasped ''You shouldn't have written that about Vijay''.

I looked over the page she was gazing at in surprise ''That's the acknowledgments section - I've only written nice things there!''.

She glared at me ''THIS? Is nice?''

I read the last line of the section ''...Honey, you're a lot of things, but above all you're a riot...What's wrong with that?''

My mother looked mollified but also a bit embarrassed as she muttered ''Oh...I didn't have my glasses...I thought it was 'Honey, you're a lot of things, but above all, you're an idiot'...That's okay, then''.

Thank you, Mother.

Also, just to let you know -my next book, YOU're proofreading. With your glasses on.