Someone Paid $1.8 Billion For A Company People Call "Hufty Mufty"
We learned yesterday that Houghton Mifflin, the textbook publisher that also has a backlist of greats like Emerson and Thoreau, agreed to a nearly $1.8 billion buyout by Riverdeep Inc., a smaller firm whose complementary strength is in educational software. "They could have bought YouTube for that kind of . . . zzzzzzzz," we thought to ourself. Seriously, bo-ring. And then today, venerable litblogger Maud Newton shared this gem with us, courtesy of a fired Houghton Mifflin employee:
Even though the company dropped me like a creepy date when [expurgated], I feel a certain loss every time I see Hufty Mufty, Old Mother Mifflin, get passed around like some pimp's tired goods.
Oh my god, we love it! Do other publishing houses have nicknames like this? Well, besides Grove Faglantic, we mean. Do let us know/make some up!
