Explaining an In-Joke

I just finished reading Bonjour Laziness: Jumping Off the Corporate Ladder by Corinne Maier, which was a big bestseller in France but hasn't made much of a splash here (possibly because Scott Adams has been saying all of the same things, in more entertaining and American ways, for the past decade and we're all starting to get tired of him).

I'm not going to give it a serious once-over treatment; it's too slight for that, and I don't feel like it anyway. But I did want some mysterious Pantheon editor-person to know that I got her in-joke on p.61, and I found it very amusing.

The passage reads:

If he's lucky, he can restrict his mobility to changes in skyscrapers or transfers from one floor to another: you can begin your career on the twenty-first floor of 201 East Fiftieth Street, then get sent over to the fourth floor of 299 Park Avenue, before being transferred to the twenty-first floor of 1745 Broadway, then move back to headquarters at 1540 Broadway, before taking your well-earned retirement. Mobility is tiring!

Since I don't know who the person is, I can't say if this is anyone's specific career path, but I do know that those are all locations that Random House (parent company of Pantheon, the publisher of this book) has had offices in the last decade. I suspect that this traces the offices of the American editor of this book, whoever he or she is (though I thought Random all went from 1540 Broadway to 1745 Broadway, not the reverse).

And I have just explained an in-joke, making whoever is reading this slightly more glamorous, exciting, and in-touch with the wonderful world of publishing.