"—We Also Walk Dogs"

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"—We Also Walk Dogs" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. One of his Future History stories, it was first published in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1941 as by Anson MacDonald) and collected in The Green Hills of Earth (and subsequently The Past Through Tomorrow).

[edit] Plot summary

A company that provides various personal services such as shopping for you or walking your dogs or supplying a host for a party, is asked to do the impossible: enable an interplanetary conference to be held on Earth, whose strong gravity is inhospitable to the native races of other planets in the solar system.

Much of the action of the story is not, as one might expect, about the science or engineering of creating an antigravity device, but about how to persuade the world’s leading physicist to undertake the job. It turns out he’s fond of a museum piece, The Flower of Forgetfulness, to a casual glance simply a small china teacup.

[edit] Language

Though not in wide usage, the term is also used as a catchphrase among techies to describe a willingness to take on any job, large or small, prestigious or menial.

v • d • e Robert A. Heinlein's Future History
Collections	The Past Through Tomorrow, Orphans of the Sky, Expanded Universe
Short Stories	Life-Line, "Let There Be Light", The Roads Must Roll, Blowups Happen, The Man Who Sold the Moon, Delilah and the Space Rigger, Space Jockey, Requiem, The Long Watch, Gentlemen, Be Seated!, The Black Pits of Luna, "It's Great to Be Back!", "—We Also Walk Dogs", Searchlight, Ordeal in Space, The Green Hills of Earth, Logic of Empire, The Menace from Earth, "If This Goes On—", Coventry, Misfit, Universe, Common Sense
Novels	Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, To Sail Beyond the Sunset