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Sense Of Smell, Of Course, Is Only One Of Those Dog Qualities That Can't Be Replicated Or Improved Upon. I've Been Researching Dogs In Warfare For My Book About 'rin Tin Tin,' And I've Read Many Accounts Of Their Heroics: Carrying Messages Through Battle, Alerting Troops To Enemy Planes, And Even Parachuting Behind Enemy Lines.

-Susan Orlean

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Sense Of Smell, Of

Susan Orlean

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Sense Of Smell, Of Course, Is Only One Of Those Dog Qualities That Can't Be Replicated Or Improved Upon. I've Been Researching Dogs In Warfare For My Book About 'rin Tin Tin,' And I've Read Many Accounts Of Their Heroics: Carrying Messages Through Battle, Alerting Troops To Enemy Planes, And Even Parachuting Behind Enemy Lines.

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Writing About Fashion Forces You To Overcome The Nagging Feeling That Fashion Doesn't "matter", That It's Trivial Or Fleeting. I Just Look At It Anthropologically, Which Is Different From The Way I'd Write About Art.

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I Finally Overcame My Phobia, And Now I Approach Flying With A Sort Of Studied Boredom - A Learned Habit, Thanks To My Learn-to-fly-calmly Training - But Like All Former Flying Phobics, I Retain A Weird And Feverish Fascination With Aviation News, Especially Bad News.

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My Inspiration Is Really Very Simple: I'm Struck By Things That I Want To Know More About. I Really Do React Just As A Curious Person: Who Is This Person? What's The Story Behind This Situation? Why Do People Like This Or Dislike This Thing?

The Old Orchid Hunter Lay Back On His Pillow, His Body Limp... 'you'll Curse The Insects,' He Said At Least, 'and You'll Curse The Natives... The Sun Will Burn You By Day And The Cold Will Shrivel You By Night. You'll Be Racked By Fever And Tormented By A Hundred Discomforts, But You'll Go On. For When A Man Falls In Love With Orchids, He'll Do Anything To Possess The One He Wants. It's Like Chasing A Green-eyed Woman Or Taking Cocaine... It's A Sort Of Madness.

Falling In Love

States Should Pass Laws Making It Illegal To Own Or Trade Wild Animals; The Phony 'educational' Permits That Many Private Owners Have Used To Skirt Those Laws Should Be Eliminated.

There Will Always Be Vain, Obsessive People Who Want To Own Rare And Extraordinary Things Whatever The Cost; There Will Always Be People For Whom Owning Beautiful, Dangerous Animals Brings A Sense Of Power And Magic.

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Why, I Wonder, Should The Popularity Of A News Story Matter To Me? Does It Mean It's A Good Story Or Just A Seductive One?

On The Very Same Day That I Ordered An Ipad 2, I Went Shopping To Buy Myself A Letter Opener. I Like To Cover All My Bases.

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I Am Of Mixed Minds About The Issue Of Privacy. On One Hand, I Understand That Information Is Power, And Power Is, Well, Power, So Keeping Your Private Information To Yourself Is Essential - Especially If You Are A Controversial Figure, A Celebrity, Or A Dissident.

Information Is Power

'brave' Is One Of Those Words That Has Been Bleached Of Most Of Its Meaning These Days, Thanks To Far Too Many Appearances In The Glaring Light Of Ad Slogans And Corporate Public Relations. I Never Thought About Anything As Brave Anymore; It Just Seemed Like A Flabby, Glib Cliche.

I Remember, When I Was A Kid, Watching My Mother Jam Herself Into Her Girdle - A Piece Of Equipment So Rigid It Could Stand Up On Its Own - And I Remember Her Coming Home From Fancy Parties And Racing Upstairs To Extricate Herself From Its Cruel Iron Grip.

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Sense Of Smell, Of Course, Is Only One Of Those Dog Qualities That Can't Be Replicated Or Improved Upon. I've Been Researching Dogs In Warfare For My Book About 'rin Tin Tin,' And I've Read Many Accounts Of Their Heroics: Carrying Messages Through Battle, Alerting Troops To Enemy Planes, And Even Parachuting Behind Enemy Lines.

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Guarantees That

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I Remember Three- And Four-week-long Snow Days, And Drifts So Deep A Small Child, Namely Me, Could Get Lost In Them. No Such Winter Exists In The Record, But That's How Ohio Winters Seemed To Me When I Was Little - Silent, Silver, Endless, And Dreamy.

The First Thing I Think About When I Wake Up Most Mornings Is The Fact That I'm Tired. I Have Been Tired For Decades. I Am Tired In The Morning And I Am Tired While Becalmed In The Slough Of The Afternoon, And I Am Tired In The Evening, Except Right When I Try To Go To Sleep.

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I Wonder What Book Signings Will Be Like When Most Of The Books We Read Are Electronic. Will Authors Sign Something Else? A Flyer, Perhaps? A Special Kind Of Card Devised For The Purpose?

Unlimited Choice Is Paralyzing. The Internet Has Made This Form Of Paralysis Due To Option Overload A Standard Feature Of Comfortable Modern Life.

My Ace In The Hole As A Human Being Used To Be My Capacity For Remembering Birthdays. I Worked At It. Whenever I Made A New Friend, I Made A Point Of Finding Out His Or Her Birthday Early On, And I Would Record It In My Filofax Calendar.

Winter In The Country Is Very White. There Is Black Grit On All The Shoulders Of The Roads And On The Big Mounds From The Plows, And All The Cars Are Filthy, But The Fields Are Dazzling And Untouched And Pristine.

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Beginnings And Ends

When My Son Was Born, And After A Day Of Lying-in I Was Told That I Could Leave The Hospital And Take Him Home, I Burst Into Tears. It Wasn't The Emotion Of The Moment: It Was Shock And Horror.

Borders Had Lousy Management And Made Bad Corporate Decisions, So Its Fate Is Less Like A Terrible Accident Than A Slow-motion Slide Into A Ditch, But It's Hard To Be Happy About A Bookseller's Demise.

Buying A Car Used To Be An Experience So Soul-scorching, So Confidence-splattering, So Existentially Rattling That An Entire Car Company Was Based On The Promise That You Wouldn't Have To Come In Contact With It.

When I Was A Kid, Phone Calls Were A Premium Commodity; Only The Very Coolest Kids Had A Phone Line Of Their Own, And Long-distance Phone Calls Were Made After Eleven, When The Rates Went Down, Unless You Were Flamboyant With Your Spending. Then Phone Calls Became As Cheap As Dirt And As Constant As Rain, And I Was On The Phone All The Time.

An Ordinary Life Examined Closely Reveals Itself To Be Exquisite And Complicated And Exceptional, Somehow Managing To Be Both Heroic And Plain.

I Don't Turn To Greeting Cards For Wisdom And Advice, But They Are A Fine Reflection Of The General Drift Of The Culture.

I Think The Real Reason Is That Life Has No Meaning. I Mean, No Obvious Meaning. You Wake Up, You Go To Work, You Do Stuff. I Think Everybody's Always Looking For Something A Little Unusual That Can Preoccupy Them And Help Pass The Time.

I Might Have Missed My Calling As An Editor. In The Spring, The Sight Of My Empty Garden Beds Gives Me The Horticultural Equivalent Of Writers' Block: So Much Space! So Many Plants To Choose Among, And Yet None Of Them Seem Quite Right!

I Went To A Football School, Which Meant That I Went To A University That Served Up Education And Was Simultaneously Operating A Sports Franchise.

I Once Had A Boyfriend Who Couldn't Write Unless He Was Wearing A Necktie And A Dress Shirt, Which I Thought Was Really Weird, Because This Was A Long Time Ago, And No One I Knew Ever Wore Dress Shirts, Let Alone Neckties; It Was Like He Was A Grown-up Reenacter Or Something.

You Have To Appreciate The Spiritual Component Of Having An Opportunity To Do Something As Wondrous As Writing. You Should Be Practical And Smart And You Should Have A Good Agent And You Should Work Really, Really Hard. But You Should Also Be Filled With Awe And Gratitude About This Amazing Way To Be In The World.

I'm Much More Willing To Buy A Novel Electronically By Someone I Don't Know. Because If Halfway Through I Think, I Don't Really Like This, I Can Just Stop. I Can't Throw Books Out, Even If I Think They're Crummy. I Feel Like I've Got To Give It To The Library. I've Got To Loan It To Somebody, Or I Keep It On My Shelf. It's Like A Plant.

I Think Of Myself As Something Of A Connoisseur Of Procrastination, Creative And Dogged In My Approach To Not Getting Things Done.

Procrastination

I've Used Twitter Now And Again To Try To Figure Something Out; It's An Amazing Resource. But I Think You Have To Use It Judiciously: It's A Self-selected Group, So It's Important Not To Start Thinking Of It As The Whole World.

I Had Never Considered Using A Hashtag Anywhere Other Than On Twitter, But Now I'm Inspired. Text Messages Have Always Seemed A Little Flat To Me, So The Murmuring Greek Chorus Of A Hashtag Might Be A Perfect Way To Liven Them Up And Give Them A Bit Of Dimension.

There's A Marvelous Sense Of Mastery That Comes With Writing A Sentence That Sounds Exactly As You Want It To.

I Love Writing Traditional Magazine Pieces, And Especially Their Breadth Of Reporting And The Deliberateness Of The Writing.

I Love Convincing A Reader That An Unusual Or Seemingly Ordinary Subject Is Worth His Or Her Time - It's Part Of The Fun For Me As A Writer.

Orchid Hunting Is A Mortal Occupation.

I Want A Chainsaw Very Badly, Because I Think Cutting Down A Tree Would Be Unbelievably Satisfying. I Have Asked For A Chainsaw For My Birthday, But I Think I'll Probably Be Given Jewelry Instead.

Most Fourth Graders Can't Say Why Abraham Lincoln Is An Important Historical Figure? Wow. This Is Far More Distressing Than If The News Had Been That Fourth Graders Were Bad At Reciting Multiplication Tables, Because You Can, In Fact, Google That.

They Will Be Given As Gifts; Books That Are Especially Pretty Or Visual Will Be Bought As Hard Copies; Books That Are Collectible Will Continue To Be Collected; People With Lots Of Bookshelves Will Keep Stocking Them; And Anyone Who Likes To Make Notes In Books Will Keep Buying Books With Margins To Fill.

A Snow Day Literally And Figuratively Falls From The Sky, Unbidden, And Seems Like A Thing Of Wonder.

I've Always Been Afraid Of Video Games - Not Afraid That I Wouldn't Like Them, But That I Would Like Them Too Much, And That After Mere Seconds In Front Of Any Particularly Bright And Absorbing Game, I Would Abandon All Ambition, Turn Into A Mouth-breathing Zombie, And Develop A Wide, Sofa-shaped Rear End.

I Think Part Of A Hero Construct Is Overcoming Loss, Or Being Abandoned, Or Having To Make Your Own Way In The World.

I Love Japanese Design And Fabrics. I Also Love People Who Make Clothes For Mass Consumption But Do It Well And Cleverly.

I Approach Stories As A Private Educational Enterprise: I Want To Learn About Something. I Teach Myself Through Research, Reporting, And Thinking, And Then, When I Feel Like I Know The Story, I Tell It To Readers.

The One Thing I've Discovered About Social Media Is That People Love Answering Questions. In Fact, It Sometimes Feels Like At Any Given Moment, Millions Of People Are Online Who Have Been Waiting For Exactly The Question You Fire Off.

Now We're E-mailing And Tweeting And Texting So Much, A Phone Call Comes As A Fresh Surprise. I Get Text Messages On My Cell Phone All Day Long, And It Warbles To Alert Me That Someone Has Sent Me A Message On Facebook Or A Reply Or Direct Message On Twitter, But It Rarely Ever Rings.

Sometimes I Think I've Figured Out Some Order In The Universe, But Then I Find Myself In Florida

I Rarely Listen To Commercial Radio, And When I Do, I'm Shocked By How Many Ads There Are, And How Annoying They Are, And How Bad The Radio Station Usually Is.

I Remember Thinking That A Girdle Was Barbaric, And That Never In A Million Years Would I Treat Myself Like A Sleeping Bag Being Shoved Into A Stuff Sack. Never! Instead, I Would Run Marathons And Work Out And Be In Perfect Shape And Reject The Tyranny Of The Girdle Forever.

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