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This is one of my favourite Doris Day songs and she sung it beautifully. This is also an appropriate title for today’s tread. Who’s the fool? I’m one of them ,cause I should have asked more questions when it was still the time to ask them, and I should run away from hot potatoe topics, cause one is liable to get burnt.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about Mary Anne Barothy’s book that I endorsed in my last blog. For 2 weeks now the Doris Day websites have been buzzing with heated debate about this book. I haven’t participated in the debate since the whole topic makes me heart sick. It makes me sad and upset that many people, myself included , had some doubts that Doris approved this book yet nobody asked the right questions when it was still potentially possible to discourage Mary Anne from writing this book.

We all know what a private person Doris Day is, yet no one said anything until the horse was out of the barn and then it was too late.

To her credit Mary Anne has, for many months posted on the forums. said that she was Doris’ private secretary and that she intended to write about her experiences as Doris’ secretary. She was whole heartedly accepted and encouraged in her endeavours.

Maybe Mary Anne was testing the waters at the forums. But, we all aided and abetted her, and should take some responsibility for this book coming out.
I should commend the Webmasters, Bryan and Stephen, for masterfully dealing with this controversy, being fair to all parties concerned, being true to the purpose of the Forums, respecting Doris’ dignity and at the same time not allowing the Forums to disintegrate into an acrimonious free for all.

I have spoken to Mary Anne in the past and I have communicated with her by e-mail. She was always full of love and respect for Doris Day , whose private secretary she was. Under what circumstance they parted I don’t know.  but they haven’t communicated for over 30 years. Maybe this is Mary Anne’s Valentine to Doris, maybe it is her way to explain certain things. I don’t know. I can’t judge something I haven’t read.

I hope this book will be as respectful and loving as I have been lead to believe. I hope it will not delve into themes that are personal and painful to Doris. She has suffered enough, and I ,as a fan, don’t need to know such things. She has revealed what she wanted us to know in her autobiography.

I will remove the contact adress for ordering the book, but not my blog. I wrote what I wrote when I wrote it, and ,as such, it remains a historic document.