A “Law of Coffee” is:
“As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something that will last until the coffee is cold.”
The saying was called “Owen’s Law for Secretaries” and published in Arthur Bloch’s The Complete Murphy’s Law: A Definitive Collection (1990).
Google Books
The Complete Murphy’s Law:
A Definitive Collection
By Arthur Bloch
Los Angeles, CA: Price Stern Sloan
1990
Pg. 154:
OWEN’S LAW FOR SECRETARIES: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something that will last until the coffee is cold.
7 October 2005, the Manila Times (Manila, Phil.), “Big Deal: Do we really need an antiterrorism law?”:
Law of coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something, which will last until the coffee is cold no matter how hot is your coffee is.
Google Books
The Book of Awesome Humour
By Sunil Bali
Milton Keynes, UK: Performance Publishing
2011
Pg. ?:
The Coffee Law
As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Google Books
The Biggest Joke Book Ever
By Jack Jacoby
Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing
2012
Pg. 708:
Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Thought Catalog
JULY 6, 2015
Wake Up And Smell The 100 All-Time Greatest Quotes About Coffee
Lorenzo Jensen III
(...)
28. As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
—Anonymous
Google Books
How to Study Rhinos
By Bayard H. Brattstrom with Martha A. Brattstrom and Mary E. Shipman
Outskirts Press, Inc. (outskirtspress.com)
2016
Pg. 52:
The Starbucks Law: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing the evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Government creates the crises so it can ‘rescue’ you with the loss of freedom” (4/17)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
This site is edited by Barry Popik. These are the Cookies and Privacy Policies.