And The Winner Of The Autographed Copy of Rin Tin Tin: The Life And The Legend Is...!

It's that time again...time to call on the mystical powers of Random.org and their spooky Random Sequence Generator to choose the one lucky winner of Susan Orlean's best-selling book,  Rin Tin Tin: The Life And The Legend. Sit tight!

We plugged in the numbers 1-4 because there were four comments/entrants and here's what came up:

Random Sequence Generator

Here is your sequence:

3
2
1
4

Timestamp: 2013-01-13 22:43:42 UTC

The third comment is from Khyra' Khorner! let's all put our paws together in a round of applause for Khyra and her Mom!

Note to Kyhra's Mom: Please send us you mailing address at your earliest convenience and will mail out your book pronto: jdemarti@columbus.rr.com  Thanks to all who entered!

And please don't forget that we've got another book giveaway going on right now. Enter to win a copy of Dogs of Courage: The Heroism and Heart of Working Dogs Around the World right here: www.boccibeefs.com/2013/01/dogs-of-courage-review-and-giveaway.html

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Rin Tin Tin, The Life And The Legend: Review And Giveaway!

We're delighted to share our thoughts on Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin: The Life And The Legend with you, and to offer an opportunity to win an autographed paperback copy of this marvelous book. See how to enter to win at the end of this post.

Earlier in the fall, Parental Unit spent a fascinating evening at the Thurber House here in Columbus, Ohio, where Susan Orlean held a reading and discussion about her New York Times bestselling book. After the reading, Parental Unit had two books signed by the author (both provided courtesy of the publisher), one for her and one for a lucky Bocci's Beefs reader. Parental Unit is a longtime fan of Ms. Orlean-she's read her pieces in the New Yorker for nearly two decades and loves (and taught in several of her writing classes) The Orchid Thief, one of Orlean's most popular books. It was made into the movie Adaptation and the magical Meryl Streep played the journalist, Orlean!

Since we're all dog lovers here, we already know how fascinating a book about a dog can be...but this story is about so much more than "Rinty" and his movie and television career. It's about the relationship between a special dog and the man, Lee Duncan, who believed in him unconditionally, set in the vast sweep of nearly 100 years of our history-from the battlefields of W.W. I through the present day. As one reviewer said, " Calling Rin Tin Tin the story of a dog is like calling Moby-Dick the story of a whale."

Orlean is known for her detailed research and in Rin Tin Tin, she shows off her skills: She spent 10 years researching and writing the book, sifting through rooms of Lee Duncan's papers, conducting countless interviews and even visiting the battlefield in France where Rinty was born and the graveyard where he's buried. As Orlean said during her Thurber House talk, she took "a crash course in 20th century history, movies and Hollywood...and wrestled it into a story."

And a deep and fascinating story it is... Did you know that in the 1920's when Rinty cemented his stature as a Hollywood icon, there were 80 other German Shepherd Dogs making silent films? But it was Rinty who made 27 silent films exclusively for Warner Brothers, and was known as "The Mortgage Lifter" because he brought in so much money. Our bottom line is this: We loved every minute of reading this book and encourage you to immerse yourselves in the enduring legacy of Rin Tin Tin. And if you want to read more about Susan Orlean, check out her website here: www.susanorlean.com.

Now on to the giveaway of one autographed copy of Rin Tin Tin: The Life And The Legend!

This giveaway will run from today, Saturday December 29, through Saturday January 12, 2013 at 8:00 pm EST, so you and all of your friends have plenty of time to enter! The one winner will be chosen by computerized random drawing and announced on the evening of January 12.

Here are the requirements to enter: No anonymous comments, please!

1. Sign up for our e-mail blasts and newsletters-see very top of left sidebar for the sign-up form.

2. Give this giveaway a shout-out on your Twitter or Facebook page by using the buttons below this post-easy!

  3. Comment on this post and indicate in your ONE comment that you'd like to enter this giveaway.

Note: if you choose to enter, please promptly check back to see if you won and if you're the lucky one, please send us your home address ASAP

                                        Good Luck!

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The Future Of Pet Shelter Design...Is Now!

Artist rendering of the soon-to-open South LA Animal Shelter

We loved this article in the LA Times that describes South LA's planned new animal shelter, because it describes in great detail the architect's thought process and reasoning behind the building's unusual features-unusual that is for an animal shelter. The nine million dollar shelter, which was scheduled to open in July, then early fall and now mid-January 2013, was designed with both the animals and the people who would be "shopping" for them in mind. The architect, Rania Alomar, has extensive experience in both retail design and various animal facilities and "through her design, Alomar is, essentially, marketing the animals." "You have to change your viewpoint and look at things from the dog's point of view...you have to enter their world," she says.

We think this innovative design is remarkable, and we'll check back to see if the way a place looks and feels to both it's temporary inhabitants and to the "shopping" public, really does make a difference in a shelter's euthanasia rates. In the meantime, let us know what your local shelter looks like-anything like this one? And do you know its euthanasia rate?

P.S. Stay tuned for a new giveaway coming in the next few days: an autographed copy of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by one of our favorite writers, Susan Orlean. Parental Unit absolutely loves this book!

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Writing Books About Dogs: Two Of The Best Authors Tell All!

Illustration by Kate Bingaman-Burt, courtesy of The New York Times

We so enjoyed this interview, published in today's New York Times, between two of our favorite authors, Susan Orlean, a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Rin Tin Tin, and Julie Klam a prolific and wildly funny author of two books about her life with dogs-don't miss reading You Had Me At Woof . It's a fabulous glimpse into the lives of two women who are not only superb writers, but dog lovers, too-so their interviewing each other is a fabulous "double feature" for us.

We're also excited that Parental Unit will get to hear Susan Orlean read from and discuss her work in a few weeks. Columbus, Ohio is home to The Thurber House, a glorious restored home and homage to  another prolific author and cartoonist, James Thurber, who spent many years of his writing career  in Columbus.

And maybe, just maybe, Bocci's Beefs will be able to do a giveaway of Rin Tin Tin! Although Parental Unit has not read it yet, she's been longing to, and she hopes the publisher will agree to a review and giveaway combo. We'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this article as much as we did...

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The German Shepherd Dog: A Soldier's Best Friend

We loved this slide show in the New York Times that briefly documents the history of the German shepherd dog in military regiments around the world. And from World War II (when they were named the Army's official mascot), through Afghanistan, this amazing breed has partnered with American soldiers in their various global operations, particularly in explosive device detection units.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo News

But has this gorgeous breed "had its day", as the writer, Susan Orlean, hypothesized is Sunday's New York TImes? If you've read the plethora of articles lately on the paradox of breeding in general and "bad breeding" in particular in the various dog magazines, you understand the impact (both good and bad) of breeding for certain physical and emotional traits on something pretty important: the dogs themselves.

The German shepherd today. Photo courtesy of Yahoo News

As Orlean discusses in her recent opinion piece in the Times, the breeds popularity is waning, and that may be a good thing for the breed: when there is less demand for any particular breed, less puppies by both legitimate breeders and unscrupulous breeders are produced, which in turn helps to maintain the original breed standards, rather than dilute those standards in a "ramped up production" of the dogs to meet over-zealous demands.

Now, we're not criticizing legitimate breeders or those who own purebred dogs. As we're fond of saying, some of our best friends are purebreds, and we think breeds and their history are inextricably woven into the world's history, which to our way of thinking, makes their preservation imperative.

But what about the many opinions out there that an outsized demand for a particular breed works to destroy the breed? Let us know what you're thinking about this very important issue!

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The Resurrection of Rin Tin Tin Part II

We're excited to bring you this segment from yesterday's CBS Sunday Morning about one of America's (and our) favorite canine heroes, Rin Tin Tin. The segment features writer Susan Orlean discussing her 10 years of researching Rin Tin Tin and his owner, Lee Duncan, that resulted in her just published book: Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.  As she stated in this interview, she "thinks he's a wonderful symbol of something innocently heroic." And we couldn't agree more. We bet you tear up when you watch this footage from Rinty's silent films and see how his progeny carry on his legacy today. They are all gorgeous dogs, but the "original" orphaned pup from France was really something special.

By the way, we previously mentioned Orlean and her new book in an earlier post that you can read right here if you missed it. www.boccibeefs.com/2011/09/resurection-of-rin-tin-tin.html. What's amazing to us is how a great writer and her in-depth research can bring a silent film star to life, and somehow show his enormous value to our world today.  

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The Resurrection of Rin Tin Tin

One of our favorite writers, Susan Orlean, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of The Orchid Thief, has just come out with a new book about that wonder dog of yore, Rin Tin Tin. What we love about Orlean, in addition to her gorgeous prose, is her almost magical ability to see a full blown story in the smallest of incidents, the most innocent and innocuous of everyday events. And true to the creative nonfiction genre, she sets the scene with her in-depth reporting and research, and takes the reader with her. And so it is with her latest book: Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.", a biography of that heroic German shepherd.

Although we haven't read the book yet, we did read an excerpt that appeared in a recent New Yorker, that whetted our appetite for more. Read that article here: archives.newyorker.com/?i=2011-08-29#folio=034, along with the accompanying video.

What we find so fascinating is that our culture, past and present, can't seem to get enough of these super-hero canines (don't forget Lassie, Benjie, et.al) that we love to love and admire. And often their back stories, along with the humans in their lives, are equally as fascinating. Rin Tin Tin was found as an abandoned puppy on a WWI French battlefield by an American soldier who was an orphan himself. How's that for an opener?

You might also enjoy reading this interview of Susan Orlean in yesterday's New York Times that reveals even more about the RinTin Tin back story that Orlean found so fascinating.

Here's to our canine hero's, both real and Hollywood! We'd love to hear your thoughts...

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