You Can Do Without Letters
The story about a girl who was very determined to host a radio show. In spite of one unlucky letter.
Mani Gotovac, the eccentric diva of the Croatian theater, the first Croatian female intendant and a famous writer, had one flaw. She could not pronounce the letter "r" since she was a child.
At the beginning of her career, back in the sixties, Mani got a job at Radio Zagreb. She wrote theater reviews. The writers themselves usually read the reviews during the show's running. They did it for an extra fee. But not Mani. Poor Mani, for the life of her, could not pronounce the letter "r". This is why radio show producers refused to allow Mani to read her reviews on her own.
What they didn't know was, that Mani would eventually find a way to do what she wanted. In spite of everyone, she took a plastic tape and taped the letter "r" on her typewriter – a black Continental inherited from her mother.
Every time she touched that damned letter to write it, Mani stopped herself. She then tried to think of another word that didn't contain the letter she hated. During her career on the radio, Mani managed to write dozens of reviews, none of which contained a single word with the letter "r"! Producers, witnessing her determination, therefore had to allow her to read her reviews. And this is the story how Mani, thanks to her persistency, successfully established herself as a theater critic on that very same radio.