Reader question:
What does this sentence – Now, these are not events that will create crowds at water coolers – mean? Particularly, "water coolers"?
My comments:
That sentence means "these events" will not draw much interest from people. Water coolers stand for gossip.
How come? Well, the water coolers are the place where office workers come to fetch cold water during office hours. Here colleagues meet and what do they do? They chatter. They say hey, how are you doing, haven't seen you for awhile and stuff like that. And of course they talk about the weather, promotions, bosses and their secretaries... That's how water coolers come to stand for gossip at the workplace.
Next time you hear water cooler (or watercooler, water-cooler) gossip, you know it's just chatter at the water coolers. It is American English – in China, especially in big organizations in the old days, more often we see water heaters instead, or boilers, 锅炉房, 水房that is.
No water heaters or boilers though when you speak English, only water coolers. Here are examples:
1. BOOK VALUE; Learning to CelebrateWater-Cooler Gossip
Laurence Prusak and Don Cohen, two lifelong students of business learning, are champions of the chance encounter. They believe that people in business learn most effectively (and most often) from their colleagues, typically in unplanned exchanges that are as likely to occur on a staircase as in a conference room.
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