We felt bad for Susan Orlean, the professional chronicler of whimsies, after she lost her chicken Laroche in upstate New York and then was nearly ravaged by a bear. Now come two more animal encounters, and we're losing sympathy.

Orlean seems positively obsessed with critters. She brings this business on herself, really. Today the New Yorker writer was stung by "a huge jerk of a wasp," supposedly while drinking Diet Coke, all innocent like. Wasps suck, as a people, she says, and in this we must agree with her.

A few days back, Orlean got all dressed up for a picture shoot with donkeys. She posted several photos to her Twitter stream, including one of the poor photographer being eaten alive by the beasts. It would seem Orlean is cursed, and contagious.

She could use this to her advantage; our working theory is that Orlean is using her Twitter stream to angle for an Animal Planet show.