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Slim Randles' Home Country
'Fem-cho' nixes local cookbook sales
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[NOV. 25, 2006]
Sarah McKinley has a real problem this time of year.
Sarah owns and runs Read Me Now bookstore (and is the only one
there). Since this is the only bookstore for about 30 miles, you'd
figure its success would be a slam-dunk, but it doesn't work this
time of year. |
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"During the holidays," she says, "most bookstores make a bundle from
women buying cookbooks." But that isn't so here.
"I believe it's a 'fem-cho' thing," Sarah says. "You know... the
women's version of macho," she explains. We won't find that
particular word in any dictionary, she said, but if we'd care to
look, she'd be glad to sell us one.
"Fem-cho is the art of being just a bit more woman than the next
girl," Sarah says. "You know how it is when a woman's pregnant,
right? Every old biddie in town has to tell this poor woman horror
stories of when she was giving birth, about a hundred years ago.
"'Women have it easy today,' they say. 'Why, when I was having my
children, it was like being torn apart by a bulldozer wrapped in
barbed wire!'"
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Sarah says this starts a pain auction that carries on until the
poor pregnant woman wishes she'd never even considered having
children. Each woman who tosses chips into the conversation ups the
ante on pain and misery just enough to keep the conversation heading
for the total destruction of all female parts.
"It's that way with my cookbooks here, too," Sarah says. "We have
these new low-carb cookbooks and everything -- and you can't tell me
there aren't plenty of us who could stand to lose a few pounds --
but they won't buy them. I don't care if they're the worst cook in
the county. If they are seen buying a cookbook, it's an admission of
defeat, a very real confession that she isn't as much woman as the
other cooks in the area."
Sarah grinned. "And let's face it, there are some cooks around
here who could use some new recipes!"
[Slim Randles]
Brought to you by "Raven's Prey," a thriller
of the far North. Available at
www.slimrandles.com.
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