All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room - Hardcover

Erma Bombeck

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060177888 ISBN 13: 9780060177881

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1995

Synopsis

Identifying the likenesses between animals in the wild and human beings, a humorous reflection on the ridiculous side of life pokes fun at nutrition, talk shows, childbirth, and more

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Reviews

When syndicated newspaper columnist Bombeck compares gorillas' show-off behavior to the attention-getting ploys of Madonna, Howard Stern, Roseanne and other "professional exhibitionists," one feels she may be onto something. Although many of these 38 lighthearted pieces, which seek out loose parallels between Homo sapiens and the rest of the animal kingdom, don't click, those that do are irreverent, funny and sassy, like her put-down of the men's movement or her survey of sex in the 1990s. There are several awful groaners here, as when the bestselling humorist leaps from the cockroach's eons-old longevity to the "longevity" of Christmas fruitcake. A lot of her animal-based observations on humans' mating and courtship habits, emotional makeup and struggle for survival are superficial. Nevertheless, fans will enjoy Bombeck's wry comments on toilet-training toddlers; men's superiority complex about driving a car; women's dieting and compulsion to hoard things; and how to encourage creative play in children. $300,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Animals and humans are a lot alike. Just ask Erma Bombeck. "Consider the camel. He has yellow teeth, corns, and halitosis. . . . Don't tell me you haven't had a blind date that matches that description." Bombeck continues to make her case in one of her funniest books to date. She uses animal facts to lead off each chapter: a depressed polar bear, she reports, was given a beach ball covered with peanut butter to lick; a smart move, according to Bombeck, since "comfort food has long been a treatment for boredom for the the woman who is home alone. It isn't until her rear end begins to look like a Woodstock parking lot that she realizes licking peanut butter off a beach ball is not the answer to her problems." Erma goes on in this vein, showing how a lion who has been known to mate 86 times in one day deserves a spot on Oprah, and that while the cockroach has the ability to endure for 300 million years, so does a pot of split pea soup or a fruitcake. Bombeck, one of the first female humorists, started writing about the idiosyncrasies of life (especially domestic life) 30 years ago, back when Roseanne still had one personality. Now funny females abound, in print and on screen, but Bombeck proves she's still got what it takes to trade jokes with any of them. Ilene Cooper

Bombeck carries on in the best tradition of Bombeck with her latest collection of short, humorous, piercingly accurate looks at the human condition. This time around, she leads off each essay with an observation of the animal kingdom. For example, Bombeck lets us know about the female African elephant, whose gestation period is 660 days and who nurses her newborns (300 pounds with stretchmarks no less). From there she launches into an account of human pregnancy, covering such areas as frozen embryos. She writes, "It gives new meaning to the question, 'Daddy, where did I come from?'. 'You were thawed in Milwaukee, son.'" Bombeck is a perennial favorite, and there's no reason to think that this won't be in as much demand as her last 11 books.
Carol Spielman Lezak, General Learning Corp., Northbrook, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060177888
• ISBN 13: 9780060177881
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 207