FROM THE EDITOR

Some years ago, I had the good fortune of studying with the author Susan Orlean, who then was best known for her nonfiction book The Orchid Thief. She was very funny and very smart, and she gave me a piece of writing advice, succinctly summed up in two words, that inspires me every day:
Who knew?
Orlean’s favorite source of writing ideas was mall-town newspapers. She’d page past the front page, past the international news and opinion to the tiny local gems hidden deep inside. It was in a Florida fish wrapper, for instance, that she found the
short paragraph detailing the sentencing of a man arrested for poaching orchids out of the Okefenokee Swamp. Who knew anyone would do that? she wondered. Who knew it was even a crime? And she packed her bags for Florida, to research what would become The Orchid Thief.
Who knew?
Those two words have served me well, especially as I sit down with our staff to plan each issue of Coulee Region Women. Who knew, for example, that women in our area volunteered as fire fighters? Or that a small, quiet woman in Houston, Minn., ran away from her Belgian home at 16 to spy on Nazi forces? Who knew that the unassuming woman next door was behind a beloved local charity, or had changed the lives of countless students, or had survived breast cancer, or had done any other number of everyday, amazing things?
Who knew?
We at Coulee Region Women—now celebrating our 10th year of asking “Who knew?”—indulged ourselves with that question in our “Curiosities” issue. Here, we
sought to uncover obscure tidbits about our ommunity that might pique your curiosity, and—who knows?—perhaps inspire some more investigation and delight. We found, for example, a young woman mortician who blows away the stereotype, women who make a living from home parties and an easy way to improve your health while having a good time.
We expose La Crosse’s longtime love affair with chocolate, offer a peek into the painstakingly restored Mons Anderson house and invite you to lounge on the 10 best beaches we’ve found.
Mostly, we sought to line up a fun, celebratory issue with which to thank you for 10 years—of readership, of community, of feedback and ideas. It’s you who keep us on our toes, excited about the next planning meeting and the wonderful women we’ll feature. It’s you who feed our ever-growing database of ideas; it’s you who stun and amaze us; it’s you who make us feel so very lucky to have the jobs we do.
We’re looking forward to a great year of sharing even more of your stories and ideas on themes like food, shopping and traveling locally—wonderful opportunities for you, our readers, to recommend women to feature in all the communities throughout the Coulee Region. And to thank you once more for your readership and insights, we’re even planning our first-ever “Reader’s Issue,” filled exclusively with the stories you suggest to us. Look for more details in upcoming issues of Coulee Region Women.
Ultimately, it’s you who put the “women” in Coulee Region Women, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you for your energy, for your comments, for giving us a reason to create this magazine. Who knew how wonderful it could be to serve you?
Who knew?