Mongo
Subtitle: Adventures in Trash
Edition: 1st Us edition
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: June 26, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781582344522
Subjects: Sociology; Social Science; Applied Arts (Specific Aspects); Recreation (Specific Aspects); Antiques / Collectibles; United States; South Africa; Social aspects; General; Social Science / Sociology / General; Botha, Ted; Collectors and collecting
First sentence: It is four o'clock in the morning when the phone rings.
Description: Mongo n. 1 [1970s +] an idiot. 2 [1980s +] (US, New York) any discarded object that is retrieved. 3. [1980s +] (US, New York) a scrap-metal scavenger. (The Cassell Dictionary of Slang) When journalist Ted Botha moved to New York from South Africa, where people constructed homes out of what others considered trash, he decorated his apartment with furniture he found on Manhattan streets. Soon he realized he wasn't the only person finding things of value in the garbage, and he began roaming the streets meeting all kinds of collectors, united by their obsession with mongo-any discarded item that is rescued from the trash.