Cartoon Volume Skewers Old Boy’s Club

An older man is reclining on the living room sofa while his wife, surrounded by mop, vacuum cleaner and trash bag, waxes the floor. Says she: “I thought you said when you retired we’d do everything together!”

A man and woman on a car trip pass by a sign announcing “Lands end three miles”: “OK, Herb,” the woman says, “now stop the car and ask for directions or I’ll shoot!”

Three businessmen are sitting around a conference table. Says one: “That’s 78 male managers and four female managers. If we promote Mary, do you think we’ll upset the balance?”

The message is clear to Judy Johnson of Laguna Niguel: “The good old boy’s club is alive and well in our society” and, lest we forget, her new cartoon book is a not so subtle reminder.

“Women: A Guide to the Good Old Boy’s Club,” (Griffin Publishing; $7.95) is a 96-page volume dedicated to what Johnson calls “the Decade of the Woman.”

The book, she says, is aimed at two audiences.

“It’s for women just to recognize what our problems are and, second, for men to see some of the things they do that maybe they’re not aware of,” said Johnson. “I think humor is a nice way maybe of opening dialogue, breaking down gender barriers. I also think that one cartoon sometimes covers what three chapters in a book might.”

Johnson, a corporate sales representative, said that although she paints in her spare time, she had never drawn cartoons before.

“I really started doing these cartoons simply as a way of perhaps getting rid of my frustrations with dealing with the good old boy’s club, but they kind of just kept coming and someone said you should put these in a book,” she said.

Johnson, who once worked in Texas politics, said her cartoon book is the result of “years of experience--political and corporate--with the good old boy’s club. I think the whole thing of the good old boy’s club is that men don’t want to give up power.

“To me, what (former Texas Rep.) Barbara Jordan said at the Democratic Convention summed up everything I feel: ‘The country can ill afford to continue to function using less than half its human resources, brain power and kinetic energy.’ And she was referring to our women.”

Although her book is just beginning to reach bookstores, Johnson said the early response from women has been positive.

“Most of the women that are aware of equal pay for equal work, sexual harassment (and other women’s issues) are very interested in this book,” she said, adding that it also “has sold to a few men to give as presents to women they know.”

Although drawing her cartoons brought up some “sad remembrances” of her own dealings with the “good old boy’s club,” Johnson said she had “a lot of fun” doing the book.

Her personal favorite cartoon is her take-off on the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme: “Jack and Jill started down the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, but Jill started a new business, took up race car driving and became President.”

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Total Quality. Newport Beach corporate consultant and lecturer Leslie L. Kossoff has written a book on how companies can implement the business strategy of Total Quality--the pursuit of continuous improvement throughout a company by assessing and utilizing knowledge and experience of managers and employees at all levels.

“Closing the Gap: The Handbook for Total Quality Implementation” (LLK Associates; $12.95) is designed to provide a practical, hands-on approach to implementing the Total Quality philosophy throughout an organization.

Kossoff is the owner of LLK Associates, an international consulting firm specializing in corporate quality and productivity improvement; and she is the founder and director of the Institute for Quality and Productivity Improvement at Cal State Long Beach Extension Services.

The book is available at bookstores or by writing to LLK Associates, 3857 Birch St., Suite 705, Newport Beach, 92660.

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Social Security. Costa Mesa retirement consultant Tonya Nieman has written a guidebook designed to explain retirement and Medicare programs in easy-to-understand language.

“Retire Right: Social Security Made Simple,” contains reference charts, examples, step-by-step filing instructions and concise lists for what Medicare does and does not cover. Nieman, who worked for the Social Security Administration for 11 years, owns her own firm, Sixty-Two Retirement Consulting, and writes a monthly column “About Social Security and Medicare” for Senior Life.

To purchase the guide or obtain more information, call Nieman at (714) 662-5696.

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Children’s Directory. Copies of the fourth annual Orange County Children’s Directory--a magazine that lists agencies and businesses that provide products, services and assistance for children--are still available. For more information, call (714) 496-2068.

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Book Signings. David Handler (“The Boy Who Never Grew Up”) will sign from noon to 2 p.m. today at Mystery Ink, 332 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. . . . Meg O’Brien (“The Keeper”) and Liza Pennywitt (“The Drummer Was the First to Die”) will sign at 2 p.m. Saturday at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange. Also at Book Carnival: Ross Thomas (“Voodoo, LTD.”) and David Handler will sign at 1 p.m. Sunday. . . . Bill Gordon (“The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book”) will sign from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Upchurch-Brown Booksellers, 384 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. . . . Christine Gustafson (“Ladies and Gentlemen: Women Sharing With Women About the Art of Relating to Men”) will sign from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Martha’s Bookstore, 308 1/2 Marine Ave., Balboa Island. . . . David Viscott (“Emotionally Free”) will sign from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at B. Dalton Booksellers in Fashion Island Newport Beach. . . . Clifford D. Cooper (“The Runt Pig Principle: A Fundamental Approach to Solving Problems and Creating Value”) will sign and read from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Carrol Beek Center, 109 Agate Ave., Balboa Island.

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Book Sales. A three-day used book sale begins at 1 p.m. Friday at the Fullerton Main Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave. . . . A book sale will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday on the second floor of the Humanities Building at Cypress College, 9200 Valley View St.

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Poetry Readings. Laguna Hills poet Virginia Smith will read from “Future Tense,” her fourth collection of poems, at 8 p.m. Friday at the Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St.. . . Orange County mystery writer and poet Noreen Ayres will read and sign her new poetry book “Sorting Out Darkness” from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at Courtyard Books, 14961 Holt Ave., Tustin. . . . Poet Joe Williams will read and musician Amie Bovee will play at the Factory Readings meeting at 8 p.m. Monday at Casa Palma Restaurant, 122 E. 17th St., Santa Ana.

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Writing Class. “The Art of Creative Writing,” an eight-week class taught by writer Barbara DeMarco, will begin Monday at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, 14321 Yale Ave. Cost: $70. To pre-register and for more information, call DeMarco at (714) 760-8086.