Life in LA
Rabbits, Malibu Canyon, and a dress made of books. Follow me on Instagram for more of my photographs.
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Filtering by Tag: ANIMALS
Sunset Boulevard at Night
Walking down Sunset Boulevard at night. Follow me on Instagram for more photos from my life in L.A.
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#mood
Spirit Animal
I have two of these, one white and one grey. They both have red eyes. One sits on my desk, and the other sits near my phone. Sometimes their tails catch my eye. For some, rats conjure up the idea of pestilence. To me, they’re a sort of familiar.
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The Horse
As seen in Burbank. A shot from my Instagram. Taken with my iPhone 11 Pro Max.
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Photojournalist Barbie
Did you know Mattel makes a photojournalist Barbie? You can buy her on Amazon for $12.
She comes with a lion cub, a camera, and a National Geographic. She’s dressed for the “field wearing brown pants, tan boots and a top detailed with a vest, insignia and pocket for a realistic touch.”
She has over 300 reviews and five stars. But there’s one catch. From the reviews: “Only thing that kept it from a 5-star review was that I expected the legs to bend but they do not. Straight arms straight legs.”
Must be hard to take those shots without bending your arms and legs, Barbie.
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10 Things
My latest Valleywood newsletter is hot off the presses, featuring “10 Things.” Those things include a handbag made out of a blowup doll, a cock that had a spiritual experience, and the adult industry’s hot mess approach to the coronavirus pandemic. Oh, and there’s a writing tip, too, from someone who’s been doing it long enough to know (me). Subscribe!
An excerpt:
4. This morning, I saw the famous wild parrots of Burbank. In total, I spotted maybe a dozen in two different areas. They are brilliant green and noisy as hell. They made me feel like anything was possible if I could figure out how to fly.
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5 Years Ago
Five years ago, I attended a storytelling conference at Yale University; visited the “China: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and stayed at The Algonquin Hotel, where I met Matlida, the cat who worked the front desk. I miss those adventures. Hopefully there’ll be more someday soon.
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#mood
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Be Your Puppy
0 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Be your puppy 🐶"
Had a great time walking around West Hollywood today and visiting a very cool store that I’ll be writing about soon. This dog training hood retails for $425. Perfect for the canine-minded fetishist in your life.
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Sexing a Pigeon
Awhile back, I wrote that I’d be sharing the latest developments that I have regarding my investigation into the sexing of a war hero pigeon named Cher Ami who may be a hen or a cock. This issue is important for several reasons, including that the bird is identified as a cock at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where the bird is stuffed and on display. If the plaque that identifies the bird as a male is incorrect, it matters, given how many people visit there every year: 4.3M visitors in 2018, apparently. In any case, here’s an email I got from a reader and fellow Person Interested in Cher Ami—I hereby christen us: PICAs—who came across my posts: Dr. Marianne M. Gilchrist. Also, I’m excited to report I’ve gotten a very interesting lead from the National Archives. So, more to come. Thank you, Dr. Gilchrist! You can find the full thread of my Cher Ami posts here.
___
Email subject header: Cher Ami the Pigeon
Date: November 17, 2018
Hi, Susannah!
Having recently discovered Cher Ami's story, and your blog thread on her, and being very fond of pigeons, I just thought I'd add an observation on gender:
While it's difficult to be sure, given that the bird is stuffed, and taxidermists can change an animal's shape, my suspicion is she's a hen. Cock pigeons are chunkier and tend to have a thicker neck, with thicker feathers that they can puff out as a ruff in courtship dances. Cher Ami's neck is more slender. Cocks also have bigger ceres (the white 'nose') above their beaks.
I found these images online that demonstrate sex dimorphism in pigeons. Cher Ami looks to me more like a girl pidgie.
best wishes,
Marianne
___
[My reply on January 17, 2019]
Thanks, Marianne, and apologies for the delayed response. Would you mind if I posted your email on my blog? I could use your name or not.
___
[Dr. Gilchrist’s reply on January 18, 2019]
Hi!
Yes! I've also read that she was discovered to be a hen when she was stuffed.
I wonder if the stresses of war had stopped her laying eggs? She was an adult bird.
best,
Marianne
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Pigeon Shutdown
Image via Adriana Sassoon
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be posting some updates to my investigation into the gender of a famous war hero pigeon named Cher Ami who’s stuffed and on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In the meantime, I’ll share this automatic response I got when I replied at an email sent awhile back from an archives specialist at the National Archives at College Park who saw my tweets about Cher Ami on Twitter. In my email to him, I asked if I could share the research he’d sent me, but I got this in response instead:
“The National Archives and Records Administration is closed to normal operations due to a lack of appropriations. I will be out of the office until I am authorized to return and will respond to your inquiry at that time. Thank you.”
Basically, the only thing standing between you and learning more about Cher Ami is Donald Trump.
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About That Pigeon
Some time back, I got interested in trying to figure out if a war hero pigeon that’s stuffed at the Smithsonian is a cock or a hen. In the interim, I’ve gotten various emails from various people, from a bird expert to a pigeon fancier to a fan, and I’ll be updating this blog with that information in the coming days and weeks.
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Ratioed
Buy "The Tumor" — my short story that’s been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."
The House
27 Likes, 4 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "🐍"
There's a house in the San Fernando Valley that's not far from where I live, and the owner has filled the foliage growing in the section of dirt between the sidewalk and the curb with a collection of curious things. There are inspirational signs, small gnomes, a happy Buddha. I don't know who owns the house or what the purpose of this collection is. Suffice to say, the snake that's hanging in the tree is striking.
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Just Say No
Hello Susannah Breslin,
Thank you for considering [redacted] as a place for your work. Having read and discussed your piece "[redacted]," our readers regrettably do not feel this submission is right for [redacted] at this time.
Image via "The History of 'Epic Fail'"
I want to wish you the best of luck on placing this elsewhere. Please submit your work to us in the future, we'd like to see more from you. We never consider past submissions in our judgement.
I would also like to state the immense amount of submissions we receive. To get to the number of pieces we ultimately publish, we must read hundreds of submissions. Of these, we often find 100 or so are very, very well done. We would be proud to take any of these and publish them, yet even here, we must whittle this number to less than 40%. Please, never take rejection personally, at this level it becomes very subjective.
Thank you for your time and readership.
In solidarity,
[redacted]
[redacted]
Whale Shark
1 Likes, 1 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: ""The capture of a female in July 1996 that was pregnant with 300 pups indicated whale sharks are..."
I got into whale sharks late last year when I was working on developing an unscripted series. Whale sharks are amazing. I'd like to go swimming with one.
The Bird
56 Likes, 3 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: ""You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the..."
Amazing!
Love these images of octopi.
The Rabbit
17 Likes, 3 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Dead rabbit 🐰"