Thanks for posting here about JJ, Dan.

JJ was the featured storyteller at last summer's "Stories for a Saturday Evening" concert at the ALA (American Library Association) conference and she had us in stitches. It was in New Orleans, and she started off by saying, "If y'all hadthat blackened shrimp, I hope you didn't pay more than $9.99 for it," and then launched into one of her signature stories about her mother's cooking.

I posted once on the airplane thread that JJ would carry on her travel guitar and, if asked, would say "It's my violin." for some reason, it's OK to carry on a violin but not a travel guitar, because it's a guitar??

I didn't even know JJ had cancer until a couple of months ago. This is rather sudden and quite traumatic in the storytelling community, and we are taking it rather hard.

By the way, Dan Keding will be on at the upcoming summer's "Stories for a Satursay Evening" concert, Saturday, July 8, in Chicago. Consider yourselves invited if you are in the Chicago area. We do not have a location yet.

MA