Over There

I've been blogging quite a bit over on my Forbes blog. Visit me there, won't you?

I wrote this post after watching the new Warren Buffet documentary. If you like documentaries that don't challenge, question, or push their subjects, this is a doc for you.

I also wrote about the Super Bowl ads. Mostly, I thought they sucked. I like the Audi one. I think that's about it. The political ones were heavy-handed or censored. The funny ones were made unfunny by ad exec teams. Mr. Clean was just creepy.

I had fun doing this interview with an "intimacy coach." Here's something great she shared:

Are your clients nerds, average guys, businessmen?

In my two years of being established as an intimacy coach, I've met Ivy Leaguers who say -- more or less -- that their whole lives have run according to script except their romantic lives. They want to know what it takes to win a woman, if not for an outstanding resume and decently good looks. I've had worried, married people reach out to me, asking if there's hope for a hot sex life with their spouse after children enter the picture, and I've had the average couple in their fifties ask me if there's a chance at restoring passion post-menopause. I've met startup entrepreneurs who were afraid to communicate their wants and needs to a partner they perceived as uptight and conservative. I've met fifty-year-old virgins, highly creative people who couldn't write a dating profile to save their life, and fetishists of all ages who feel ostracized and misunderstood.

What She Found at the Smithsonian

Was a famous war hero pigeon male, as many believed, or female, as an autopsy purported to have proved? If you've been following along this week, you've joined me on my journey to figure out if Cher Ami, who saved the lives of nearly 200 American soldiers during the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a cock or a hen.

Wikipedia claimed Cher Ami was a she. But the Smithsonian website claimed Cher Ami was a he. So which one was it?

To found out if the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, billed the taxidermied Cher Ami on permanent view in "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War" as male or female, I hired a young DC-based journalist, Laura Wagner, who writes for Slate and NPR, to go to the museum. (You can read about how I found Laura and review our exchange here.)

Laura headed down to the museum the same day I hired her.

A few hours after I enlisted her, she filed her report -- via DM on Twitter.

She wrote:

"You were right. The plaque identifies Cher Ami as a male"

She included photographic proof.

Photo credit: Laura Wagner

Photo credit: Laura Wagner

Photo credit: Laura Wagner

The museum label read:

Cher Ami, one of 600 carrier pigeons deployed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Palm for his heroic service.

His heroic service. But what if Cher Ami was really a she? If that was the case, she had stood behind that glass for years, as adults and children had admired the war hero pigeon ... who was really a girl.

Next week, I'll share what I learned from the Army about the curious case of Cher Ami.

The Smithsonian and the Case of the War Hero Pigeon

via GIPHY

If you've been following along this week, you know the story of Cher Ami. World War I. Carrier pigeon. Saves the lives of nearly 200 American soldiers. Returns to America a decorated war hero. Dies months later due to battlefield injuries. Autopsy reveals ... this cock is a hen?

According to the famous bird's Wikipedia entry, Cher Ami is still widely believed to be a male, but is really a female. To this day, the Smithsonian insists Cher Ami is a cock. Which one is it? I wondered. The Smithsonian's website posits Cher Ami is a boy. And Cher Ami, taxidermied, is on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. So you'd think they'd know, right?

I needed someone to go to the museum and see if the plaque where Cher Ami stands claims the bird is a male. Because if Cher Ami is really a female, not a male, I wanted to tell the Smithsonian that, and I wanted to tell them to set the record straight. I mean, wouldn't you?

But I wasn't in DC. And I wasn't sure who I knew in DC would want to go to the museum and find out. I figured maybe a young journalist would want to do something like that, if I paid her. And I knew Slate was in DC. So I googled: "Slate intern LinkedIn." And Laura Wagner was the first name to pop up in the results. You can read her work for Slate here and her work for NPR here. I located Laura on Twitter, followed her, and asked her to follow me, so I could DM her.

Here's what I wrote:

Hey Laura. I'm a freelance journalist based in FL. Recently I got interested in the story of Cher Ami, a war pigeon who turned out to be a girl http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_425415 …. I'm interested to know if the permanent exhibit where Cher Ami's stuffed body is on view at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in DC misidentifies her as a boy: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_425415 …. Any interest in making $100 going down there and taking a look for me, maybe snapping a few pics? I assume it misidentifies her but wanted to confirm. I thought maybe since journalist + DC, you might be interested. Thanks!

Here's what she wrote:

Hey Susannah, cool story! I'm in. I'm leaving for New York early tomorrow morning but I'm free this afternoon so I'll go down and look at the exhibit later today. Just curious, did someone give you my name or?

I wrote:

Terrific! Thanks so much. No one gave me your name, but I thought if perhaps I googled Slate intern linkedin, I might find someone who'd be interested. You were the first result. She should be in "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War" exhibit, and I'm curious to know: if she's on view and if there's some sort of written text that identifies her by gender. If you can snap a few pics of her and any text you find, that'd be great. I'll also add the cost of admission.

And she wrote:

Ah good ol' linkedin! Ok, sounds good. I'll be in touch when I'm back

I responded with this GIF.

Now all I had to do was wait.

Come back tomorrow, and I'll tell you what Laura found at the museum.

The Mysterious Gender of Cher Ami

I've been writing here about my fascination with Cher Ami, a famous carrier pigeon who saved the lives of nearly 200 men during World War II. What's clear is that Cher Ami was a war hero. What's not clear is whether Cher Ami was a boy or a girl.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

Sex and color

Originally registered as a Black Check cock, Cher Ami was a Blue check, and she was discovered after death upon taxidermy procedure to be a hen. She is still erroneously represented as a cock bird at the National Museum of American History and by many other educational and military history information sources.

Apparently, Cher Ami, who, despite having been "shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, covered in blood and with a leg hanging only by a tendon," delivered a message that saved the lives of American soldiers, was not male, as everyone had thought, but female. 

Online, I found that, indeed, as Wikipedia notes, the Smithsonian, where a taxidermied Cher Ami stands in a glass case on permanent display in the National Museum of American History's "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War" exhibit (as pictured here), an organization that prides itself on its expertise in American history and therefore getting it right, refers to Cher Ami as "he" on its website.

"Cher Ami" was a registered Black Check Cock carrier pigeon, one of 600 birds owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I.

He delivered 12 important messages within the American sector at Verdun, France. On his last mission, "Cher Ami," shot through the breast by enemy fire, managed to return to his loft. A message capsule was found dangling from the ligaments of one of his legs that also had been shattered by enemy fire. The message he carried was from Major Whittlesey's "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Infantry Division that had been isolated from other American forces. Just a few hours after the message was received, 194 survivors of the battalion were safe behind American lines.

"Cher Ami" was awarded the French "Croix de Guerre" with Palm for his heroic service between the forts of Verdun. He died in 1919 as a result of his battle wounds. "Cher Ami" was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931 and received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers in recognition of his extraordinary service during World War I.

But, I wondered, did the exhibit itself name Cher Ami as male or female?

Tomorrow, I'll share what I learned when I hired an emissary to go to the Museum and find out.

The Hero Pigeon

Yesterday, I started writing about a hero war pigeon and whether or not said pigeon is a male (cock) or female (hen). Here's more of that story.

I wish I could remember how I came across the story of Cher Ami, but I can't. I can tell you where I was. I was on Martha's Vineyard. Edgartown, to be exact. I'd been picked to do a writing residency there. This was last September. It sounded terrific, but something wasn't right. I was working on a novel; maybe that was it. Or maybe it was the tiny desk with the tiny uncomfortable chair wedged into the small space between the bed and the window that faced Main Street. Or maybe it was the preppy WASPs attending weddings down the road and the gross elitism crawling the streets and the general feeling that if you weren't from old money you were nobody. Or maybe it was the novel. I'd reached an impasse, and I wasn't sure where to go, and I was stuck on an island that I'd gotten on a terrifyingly small plane to reach with nothing else to do.

Either way, at some point, I was wandering around the internet, and I found Cher Ami. Some of you probably know who Cher Ami is. Some of you don't. Cher Ami was a famous carrier pigeon who saved the Lost Battalion during the Battle of Argonne in 1918. Several hundred soldiers were trapped behind enemy lines. They were being hunted by Germans and under friendly fire. The men launched a series of carrier pigeons, in hopes of delivering the coordinates that could save their lives. The first pigeon was shot down. The second pigeon was shot down. Then Cher Ami took flight. The message Cher Ami carried read:

"WE ARE ALONG THE ROAD PARALELL 276.4. OUR AR ILLERY IS DROPPING A BARRAGE DIRECTLY ON US. FOR HEAVENS SAKE STOP IT."

The Germans took aim at Cheri Ami and shot down the bird. Somehow, despite having been shot in the chest and a leg nearly blown off completely, the pigeon was able to get airborne again, reach division headquarters, deliver the message, and save nearly 200 men.

Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal and returned home a war hero. Sadly, the bird died less than a year later, due to injuries suffered during battle.

After Cher Ami's death, an autopsy was performed. Which raised an interesting question that continues to be debated to this day:

Was Cher Ami a boy or a girl?

I'll be continuing this series tomorrow and talking about what I've found out in my investigation thus far.

Does It Matter If a War Hero Is a Boy or a Girl?

This question has become of interest to me as of late. I'll post more about it tomorrow. Stay tuned.

TGIF

Instagram photo by Susannah Breslin * Jan 27, 2017 at 7:52pm UTC

See this Instagram photo by @susannahbreslin * 11 likes

Brainwashing for Good

Make sure to read Sarah Stillman's latest in the New Yorker: "Can Behavioral Science Help in Flint?" It's the story of the water trouble in Flint, the quiet problem of helping people make change that will help themselves, and the stark division between race and state.

"Social science—or, more accurately, in some cases, pseudoscience—has a fraught history when it comes to communities of color. Eugenics; phrenology; the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. It’s easy to grasp why, especially in many disenfranchised neighborhoods, the sudden appearance of two cheerful behavioral scientists doling out help 'for the good of the American people' (a phrase of which Shankar is fond) might be met with suspicion. Such wariness hovered over a morning meeting that Shankar and Tucker-Ray had on their second day, at the Genesee County health department."

Stillman is always a great read. She was my mentor at THREAD at Yale in 2015 and won a Genius grant last year.

A Firearm Coloring Book for Kids of All Ages

Over on my Forbes blog, I interviewed a young woman who's created a firearm coloring book.

How did you come up with the idea of doing a firearm coloring book?

The firearm coloring book has been something that I've wanted to do for nearly two years. I created something that I wanted to exist: a high-detail, visually-correct firearm coloring book. Conveniently enough, other people wanted it to exist, as well, so I've received an incredible amount of support.

[Forbes]

Madness

"In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom." -- JG Ballard pic.twitter.com/4DpGH8tvLn

— Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) January 24, 2017

Here's the latest installment of my anti-Trump Twitter protest in which I pair images of President Orange with literary quotes and quotes from famous dictators.

Big Brother Is Watching You

I came across this amazing cover for Kafka's The Trial recently. Gorgeous!

"Don't concern yourself about anybody. Just do what you think is right." -- The Trial

You can read about this design by Peter Mendelsund here, and there's a New Yorker interview with him here.

Mr. Behavioral Sink

Amazing video featuring John B. Calhoun's rodent universes!

"The conclusions drawn from this experiment were that when all available space is taken and all social roles filled, competition and the stresses experienced by the individuals will result in a total breakdown in complex social behaviors, ultimately resulting in the demise of the population." -- Wikipedia

It's like a primer for our Trumpian times ...

At the Beach

"THAT crazed girl improvising her music. Her poetry, dancing upon the shore, Her soul in division from itself Climbing, falling She knew not where, Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship, Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing Heroically lost, heroically found. No matter what disaster occurred She stood in desperate music wound, Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph Where the bales and the baskets lay No common intelligible sound But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea" -- W.B. Yeats

See this Instagram photo by @susannahbreslin * 24 likes

Gone Solitary

There's a really amazing story in the New Yorker about how Albert Woodfox survived solitary confinement:

"Woodfox often woke up gasping. He felt that the walls of the cell were squeezing him to death, a sensation that he began to experience the day after his mother’s funeral, in 1994. He had planned to go to the burial—prisoners at Angola are permitted to attend the funerals of immediate family—but at the last minute his request was denied. For three years, he slept sitting up, because he felt less panicked when he was vertical. 'It takes so much out of you just to try to make these walls, you know, go back to the normal place they belong,' he told a psychologist. 'Someday I’m not going to be able to deal with it. I’m not going to be able to pull those walls apart.'" --

Relatedly, if you haven't read Shane Bauer's expose of life as a prison guard, do.

Follow Me on Twitter (for Fun)

Sunday is funday pic.twitter.com/n6p271GesB

— Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) January 15, 2017

Buy Me Now

It's never not a great time to get your own copy of THE TUMOR.

It's a short story I self-published.

It's full of: gore, horror, and fun!

Why You Should Volunteer If You're a Freelancer

I started volunteering at Planned Parenthood about nine months ago. My role is to escort clients into the clinic on days when they're doing abortion procedures. I ended up volunteering because I was driving by the clinic and saw the protestors out front. It made me upset. I thought instead of being upset, it would be more productive if I did something, so now I volunteer.

I'm a freelance journalist, and the volunteering has been a great thing for me. You should try it.

It gives you a routine. One thing about freelancing is that, most of the time, every day is different. This is good for originality, but it's less good for establishing a set routine. The volunteering I do is a set routine. It requires a minimal time commitment from me, and it rarely deviates from it.

It's good to give freely. In some ways, freelancing is like choosing a career path that requires you to constantly negotiate your worth. You're negotiating for fees, extracting payment, building up your brand so you can demand a higher rate. Volunteering is simple: You give and expect nothing material in return. You get other things: self-esteem, empathy, humility.

It needs you now. I don't know what you might do to volunteer, but I'd suggest picking something that resonates with you emotionally. Right now, Planned Parenthood and women's reproductive rights are under attack by a giant Cheetos snack who has hijacked the Oval Office. This is a great time for you to make yourself of use before Stalinism takes over the United States of America.

Bored? Give yourself a literary shock and buy THE TUMOR, a "masterpiece of short fiction" by Susannah Breslin.

How to Write a Book Proposal, Ranked

I spent some time recently rewriting a book proposal for a narrative nonfiction book. Some parts were easy. Some parts were hard. Here are my thoughts on the easiest parts and the hardest parts, ranked.

Image via HuffPo

The Overview. This is the part of the proposal where you deliver the elevator pitch of what the book is. IMO, you can do this in one of two ways--although, of course, you could also think of yourself as blending the two. Either you can talk directly to the reader--which I think is a more masculine approach--or you can perform the act of being a writer on a stage--which I think is a more feminine approach. I actually did each one for two different-but-related iterations of this proposal. I ended up going with the former. Frankly, I think the former states its value and the latter asks the reader to state its value. In negotiating, the former is referred to as "anchoring." I found the more masculine way of doing it to be easier, but that's just me. Difficulty level: Medium. Rank: 7.

The About the Author. This is my favorite part of the proposal to do and for me the easiest. I think it's easy if you have a platform, but I suppose if you don't, it would suck. After I do this part--which I've done as anywhere from one to three pages; this time it was two pages--I tend to feel more positive about myself, like, look at all I've done! I guess if you don't have much of a platform, you could feel like you were trying to knit a sweater out of dental floss. Sucks for you. Difficulty level: Easy. Rank: 1.

The Marketing Plan. Man, are there a ton of ways to do this one. At one point, like, a year ago, I paid a young freelance editor to talk me about a different proposal for an hour, and she sent me another proposal that had sold. That author knew what was up; he'd worked in the industry. He had bullet points, and it was a plan. It wasn't some writer nattering on about things they may or may not do or may or may or not know how to do. I've worked in PR and gotten paid to make stuff go viral online, so I know how to do this stuff, and I ended up going with something pretty basic. I think, based on a lot of what I read, you want to make it clear that you get this is a hustle, and that you're a writer who can hustle, so I tried to convey that. Difficulty level: Medium-easy. Rank: 3.

The Comparative Analysis. This proposal has the best comps section I've written for any proposal. It has five books on it, and I read every one of them closely, and I thought about how mine was similar and how mine was different. In a way, my book doesn't have a lot of comps, but I think my analysis did a good job of positioning it in the market. Having access to that database that tells you what the real book sales numbers are would've been nice. Difficulty level: Medium. Rank: 4.

The Timeline. I wasn't planning on doing a timeline for this book, but along the way I saw another proposal that had sold, and that person had included a family tree, and I think that got me the idea of a timeline. Did you know there's a timeline-maker thing in word? True story. I LOVED DOING THE TIMELINE. It was SO MUCH FUN. I think I originally thought it would have like 15 things on it, but it ended up having 30. I loved that it looked really professionally laid out, and that it enabled me to combine visuals and text, and that it looks like art. If you get stuck on your proposal, make a timeline. It will make you see things clearer. Difficulty level: Medium. Rank: 2.

The Outline. I wrote another book proposal last year for a different book, and the outline for it was so easy. This time around, the outline was very challenging. It ended up being quite long, and it required me to interweave multiple stories. It was intellectually, emotionally, and structurally challenging. I think it asked me to go against how I operate, which is intuitively, and pushed me to think in a linear fashion, which I don't. I did not enjoy this experience. But I think it came out strong. There's so much interesting stuff in it. And some great writing. My hope is that it serves as an invaluable road map as I move forward. Difficulty level: Nigh impossible. Rank: 8.

The Sample Chapter. Compared to the outline, this is easy-breezy. Finally, you get to do what you do best: write! This is scenes and dialogues and humor and sly winks and action. In fact, I'd argue it's everything that a book proposal isn't. In a way, it's child's play. And that's nice. Difficulty level: Medium. Rank: 6.

Oh, and ... There's the title, the title page, and the epigraph. These things changed over time, but in the end I decided to go with the most high-impact choice that was the most simple. Difficulty level: Not bad. Rank: 5.

Bored? Get a shock when you buy THE TUMOR, a "masterpiece of short fiction" by Susannah Breslin.

#2016bestnine

#2016bestnine

See this Instagram photo by @susannahbreslin * 42 likes

Here's my #2016bestnine on Instagram. (You can follow me here.) Apparently, people like dramatic landscapes, dramatic nature shots, Pokemon jokes, notepads, politics, selfies, and girls hugging trees.

Bored? Get a shock when you buy THE TUMOR, a "masterpiece of short fiction" by Susannah Breslin.

When the Writer Wanders

🌊☀️☁️

See this Instagram photo by @susannahbreslin * 16 likes

In the last few years, I've undertaken some trips that revolve around writing. An investigative journalism conference in New Orleans. A storytelling conference at Yale. A month-long writing residency at the Carey Institute for Global Good. And another residency on Martha's Vineyard. There were pluses and minuses for all of them, but here are a few reflective thoughts.

Just go. I spent a fair amount of time trying to talk myself out of all these adventures. Because that's what they are: adventures. Here's what writers do too much of: think, talk themselves out of things, and sit at a desk. Whenever you're doing pretty much anything that isn't what you usually do but is in service of you, you're doing the right thing. You will concern yourself with real concerns: money, time, guilt, etc. But there are ways to manage all of these things. Once you start executing your plan, and, better yet, once you find yourself there, you will sense on some level, hopefully, that you're doing the right thing. Why it's the right thing may not be clear right away.

You take the bad. There were things I deeply didn't like at some point during these adventures. The investigative journalism conference was: not freelancer-friendly, overpopulated by FOIA nerds bragging about their data-driven discoveries, attended by a certain number of on-air news personalities including women wearing sleeveless dresses in primary colors. I felt like a dateless dipshit at the prom for much of the time. But it meant I got to spend several days doing nothing but thinking of myself as an investigative journalist. I learned a lot: about how to do those FOIAs, about how to win a Pulitzer, about how to be who I am.

You take the good. My favorite experience was the residency at the Carey Institute. It was in this amazing rural area in upstate New York, and the trees were aflame with autumn. We were the first group in the program, and it had this air of bristling excitement. I was woefully underproductive on the page--or so it seemed at the time. But that was the start of the journey that's taken me to the place I am today. And that? It feels like a good place to be.

Like weird things? Buy a digital copy of THE TUMOR, a "masterpiece of short fiction" by Susannah Breslin.