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" Oversized houses, like oversized cars, seem to be a particularly American fixation. "
Susan Orlean
Like
Seem
American
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" I don't care that much about rote memorization. An old boyfriend of mine used to get into lacerating arguments with his parents over facts, and I used to watch on in mute astonishment. How could anyone actually argue about something that could be looked up? "
Susan Orlean
Over
Parents
Watch
" Here's a habit I never thought I'd develop: I gravitate to anything online that's marked 'most popular' or 'most e-mailed.' And I hate myself a little bit every time I do. "
Susan Orlean
Time
Thought
Myself
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Trade
Wild
Wild Animals
" 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? "
Susan Orlean
Book
Kind
Purpose
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Early
Finding
New
" There was a time when I kept track of it all; when my mind worked like a giant lint brush being swept over the fuzzy surface of popular culture. But these days, pop culture seems to have gotten fuzzier and fuzzier; notoriety comes and goes in the snap of a finger. "
Susan Orlean
Like
Over
Mind
" Who on earth is going to use 'utilize' in a text message, a whopping seven characters including the always-hard-to-type 'z,' when you can say the exact same thing in three characters? I can't think of a sentence in which 'use' can't replace 'utilize.' "
Susan Orlean
Say
Think
You
" I feel somewhat responsible for the Borders Books bankruptcy. "
Susan Orlean
Feel
Responsible
Books
" I think of myself as something of a connoisseur of procrastination, creative and dogged in my approach to not getting things done. "
Susan Orlean
Think
Procrastination
Myself
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Me
Now
Surprise
" I work at home, in the country, and days will go by when, except for my husband and son and the occasional UPS man, the only sentient creatures that see me are my chickens and turkeys. "
Susan Orlean
Me
Home
Husband
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Weird
Alone
Dress
" I want to let my friend Buster know that I would like to have dinner with him tonight. Does Buster work at home? Then how likely is he to have his cell phone on? Is he one of those people who only turns on his cell when he's in his car? I hate that. "
Susan Orlean
Home
Work
Car
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Remember
Stand Up
Stand
" When I wonder what the future of books will be, I often think about horses. Before automobiles existed, everyone had a horse. Then cars became available, and their convenience, compared to horses, was undeniable. "
Susan Orlean
Everyone
Horse
Wonder
" I don't turn to greeting cards for wisdom and advice, but they are a fine reflection of the general drift of the culture. "
Susan Orlean
Culture
Advice
Wisdom
" Knowledge is a beautiful thing, but there are a few things I wish I didn't know. "
Susan Orlean
Beautiful
Knowledge
I Wish
" In the course of transferring all my CDs to my iPod, I have found myself wandering the musical hallways of my past and reacquainting myself with music I haven't listened to in years. "
Susan Orlean
Myself
Music
Past
" A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder. "
Susan Orlean
Day
Snow
Wonder
" Dogs really are perfect soldiers. They are brave and smart; they can smell through walls, see in the dark, and eat Army rations without complaint. "
Susan Orlean
Pet
Smart
Army
" Unlimited choice is paralyzing. The Internet has made this form of paralysis due to option overload a standard feature of comfortable modern life. "
Susan Orlean
Comfortable
Life
Internet
" The genius of a folk melody or story is not the feeling that it's original but quite the opposite - the feeling that it has existed all along. "
Susan Orlean
Genius
Original
Story
" I was never any good at remembering dates, but now I hardly have to. When the first bulb catalogs get delivered and the hens start laying again, that's all the notice I'll need to know that winter has passed. "
Susan Orlean
Know
Need
Now
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Commercial
Bad
Listen
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
iPad
Same
Day
" Sometimes I'm dazzled by how modern and fabulous we are, and how easy everything can be for us; that's the gilded glow of technology, and I marvel at it all the time. "
Susan Orlean
Easy
Sometimes
Time
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Decisions
Be Happy
Management
" In an interesting inversion of status, the reigning breed in the dog park these days is the really-oddball-unidentifiable-mixed-breed-mutt-found-wandering-the-street or its equivalent. The stranger the mutt the better; the more peculiar the circumstance of it coming into your life, the better. "
Susan Orlean
Life
Park
Interesting
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Car
Company
Experience
" 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. "
Susan Orlean
Me
Always
Never