The fact that dogs are not people means you don't have as much response to the particulars.

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.

In my perfect world, we would establish perhaps four national zoos of unimpeachable quality and close the rest of them.

Sometimes, the Internet can feel like a middle-school playground populated by brats in ski masks who name-call and taunt with the fake bravery of the anonymous. But sometimes - thank goodness - it's nicer than real life.

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?

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.

I have worked on PCs and on Macs and, while I have my preferences, I don't find it crippling to work on one rather than the other.