I've heard of the one minute manager, but never, until now, of the one minute bowel mover. But he – perhaps I should say "she" – is here, though not, by his own admission, here to stay.
If you are one of those people who were brought up in a house with a cloakroom copiously supplied with old copies of Horse and Hound and The Lady on the throne-side table, or if you are like the academician atLagado , who discovered, through lengthy and painstaking experiment, that "men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent, as when they are at stool", then I don’t suppose next weekend’s talk at Bookazine, Prince’s Building, is for you.
Haven Books – they of the gushing and rather embarrassingly for a publisher occasionally ungrammatical email promos – are organising a two-hour plug to help reduce their stockpile of books by Andreas Rosboch and Sarah Brennan. The latter is the author of what Haven describe as a "popular humour book", Dummies for Mummies (a pretty accurate assessment of the typical expat mum – I’m beginning to warm to this Brennan woman), a book that is "chock-full of truth from the front line and perfect for that once-a-day minute when you're alone in the bathroom".
Well, I think that rather depends on what they put in the refreshments that will be served at the event. Leave the bran out of the muffins and you may find the queues for the Ladies stretching all the way round to Oliver’s.
If you are one of those people who were brought up in a house with a cloakroom copiously supplied with old copies of Horse and Hound and The Lady on the throne-side table, or if you are like the academician at
Well, I think that rather depends on what they put in the refreshments that will be served at the event. Leave the bran out of the muffins and you may find the queues for the Ladies stretching all the way round to Oliver’s.
9 comments:
'Bathroom' .... not toilet. Could mean one minute spent in the shower. Bit of a stretch, but you know how busy these expat moms are!
You've given me very unpleasant visions of places that may get missed, Nonnie.
Just got another email from Haven for another talk tomorrow by Mr. Rosboch, which includes an ad disguised as a testimonial from the fellow who runs AsiaXpat: "Hiring & Managing Domestic Help is an excellent complementary resource for expats who use AsiaXPAT to hire a domestic helper".
Taking a look at the cover of "Dummies for Mummies" at the Haven Books site, if the anorexic insanity depicted in the cover illustration is any indication of what is inside (books, covers, judging, etc.) then the one minute in the bathroom could be anything from snorting coke to vomiting up lunch.
I realize that what appeals to one market may be a complete mystery to another but the cover simply screams "Don't pick me up" to the potential buyer, at least in the U.S.
I think it was the alone part that only lasts a minute, not the time spent in the loo.
oooh, oooh! Word verification: toser. It's what you get when you cross a tosser with a loser.
Hasn't the modern mum heard of locks?
Let's forgive them by saying that in their enthusiasm to show what multitaskers Hong Kong expat women are, they forgot that 90% of their target readership would have domestic helpers. Mind you, given the fact that they were holding the event to flog a book about amahs, that's perhaps being too kind.
Haven Books re-covered my novel with a trite photo without consulting me first, then put a not very flattering quote by a person unknown outside Hong Kong on the cover AND managed to include a grammatical error in the quote. So not very enchanted with that particular publisher.
More on toilets at Haven Books' website:
'Christina Chan is a young writer who likes to write most of her stuff while on the toilet.'
http://www.havenbooksonline.com/our_authors/a-d
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