How Billy Collins and Dan Rather Really Feel About Dogs

We, the shop dogs of Parnassus Books, have been doing some research. All the shop people are talking about two visitors coming to Nashville soon, and we wanted to know what all the excitement was about. So we decided to look into it: who are “Billy Collins” and “Dan Rather”?

As it turns out, Billy Collins was the Poet Laureate of the United States and is the author of 12 collections of poetry, including his most recent, The Rain in Portugal. In 2016 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which we totally understand because Lewis the shop dog recently got a Good Behavior Certificate from puppy training class. (Same difference.) We can’t wait to see him when he visits on October 26 and to chat with him regarding his very good thoughts about how dogs’ minds work:

We’re also excited to see Dan Rather, especially now that we know he’s an award-winning journalist who has been covering the news since the 1960s. He has recently followed up his broadcast career with a new gig as a social media commentator on current events via his organization News & Guts. (Guts! We saw guts once when Opie caught a possum.) More importantly, we found out we have some work to do, because Dan Rather is a little nervous around dogs.

On behalf of dogs, we’d like to apologize to Dan Rather. We want you to know we like newspapers; we love delivery people; and we look forward to greeting you in a non-scary way when you visit on November 14. to talk about your new book, What Unites Us.

We’ll greet you warmly, too, whoever you are.

So we agree with the shop people: Billy Collins and Dan Rather are going to be great guests, no matter how they feel about dogs. (Get the full details and tickets — while they last — on the Salon@615 site!) Come see them, won’t you?

– The Shop Dogs

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