My Parachute Is Beige: The Cubicle Dweller's Guide to Getting by »

Ken Brown, one of the leading collectors of vintage postcards in the world, produces reprinted postcards, gift wrap, rubber stamps, and more. He’s also produced short videos for MTV and Sesame Street, and wrote Notes From the Nervous Breakdown Lane. Ken Brown lives in New York City. Visit his website at hoopla.org/KenBrown/index.html.

Anyone who’s ever dreamed of a life inside a cubicle, or experienced it firsthand, will flock to this tongue-in-cheek manual. Ken Brown pairs wonderfully retro images of 1950s office workers with mock-advice that would make the producers of The Office and Office Space proud as punch. The paradoxical juxtaposition, in the vein of Anne Taintor, includes a smiling secretary who reveals that headphones plus voicemail equals a leisurely afternoon disguised as work.

From the opening image—a businessman sitting in a crib—My Parachute Is Beige appeals to our Jon Stewart-honed cynicism, taking office life to a new level of pathos as it encourages cubicle dwellers to stay firmly “inside the box.” Use the broken copy machine as an excuse to kill time, resist the urge to go beyond, and make as many verbal agreements as possible—here are tips for employees satisfied with the most basic of job skills: collecting a paycheck every other week and stealthily keeping the status quo. Presented with the informed humor of today’s twenty-somethings (and their thirty-something wannabes), My Parachute Is Beige is parody of the most amusing kind.