Cheap PR

If I put my mind to it I could sell a few more books.

I got so irritated at a Al Roney, a local talk radio host on WGY for going on and on about man caves, the place to where a man can retreat, to gather his three thoughts and be female-free to scratch his ass, belch in peace and hang with his buds.

Geez. Isn’t this a term found in John Gray's book Men are from Mars, Women are for Venus? I haven’t got a copy readily available so I can’t check that, but man cave is hardly a new term or concept. Does the term "den" ring a bell?

A week ago Al talked about this subject and today he spent nearly his entire three-hour show fielding suggestions from the audience for a term that could be used mano a mano (okay that isn’t exactly the correct usage of the term, but Al's search came up with some lame terms such as Man-atorium and I felt compeled to follow suit) in public. Al's dilemma was that if he saw a man buying a mini-size refrigerator how could he ask if the refrigerator was for the man cave, and not get clobbered. I say mind your own business. The mini-refrigerator could be for his daughter’s dorm room.

I wrote Al two emails. My first one suggested the Man Hole. In my second email I wrote...

Al-
Good Lord, you are still talking about it? I have had breakfast, took a shower, read the paper, checked my email, did the crossword, organized my taxes and you are still talking about the man cave. Okay, I analyzed why this irked me so much and have a confession.

I had a boyfriend whose man cave was his 40 foot sailboat. He sailed blue water and made the huge mistake of asking me to sail with him from Hawaii to California. Thirty days trapped in his man space, I tried to create my own space within his man cave. A woman cave inside the man cave. Well, I got off the boat in California, was congratulated by his family for surviving the ordeal and went back to Hawaii. That was the end of the relationship. Still gives me the shivers.

Valerie Perez
PS- I wrote a book about it.
The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin

Al wrote back: That's a great story! Well to hear - not experience. I'm just as surprised to be talking about it as you are.

He mentioned my email on the air. This afternoon I got a book order from one of his listeners. Click on http://www.wgy.com/pages/onair_roney.html if you want to see the whole list, add your own suggestion and vote on a universal, safe name for the man cave.

Well, at least he was not talking politics.