Writer's Block: Water Closets Reconsidered

[electricland]

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thebitterguy is right, that is one of the dumbest Writer's Block questions ever. Strangely, though, I do actually have a couple of lasting impressions, one of each. (I'm not going to talk about what the restroom means to me, though, because I think that ought to be fairly obvious.)

1. My cousin Jen's family -- the side opposite to mine, if that makes sense -- have a cottage near Sudbury. There is no electricity and no plumbing (although there is a propane-powered fridge) and you get to it by boat. Naturally, there is an outhouse on the property, and it is peculiar in that it has no door, so you can sit there and admire the view (it's secluded enough for that to not be totally weird). This also helps mitigate the traditional outhouse stench. It's a fine outhouse.

2. Although I think on the whole I prefer composting toilets.

3. There is a public washroom in the Roman Forum quite near the Cloaca Maxima. I have a couple of photos of this (sadly not on this computer) because I was so struck by the handmaiden of hygiene who was guarding the place; she wore a blue smock and yellow rubber gloves and bore aloft a giant roll of toilet paper. Must get around to posting the rest of my Rome photos.

Comments

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this counts as an outhouse story, but last year, Declan and I started what seems to be becoming a tradition - during the Pride Weekend flyer crawl for Polaris, we posted a flyer on the door of each port-a-potty we saw. We figured we'd give people something to read while they were standing in line. It was done again this year - I think by dx4 and vampire_sedet, who were looking for interesting places to put flyers while dx4's brother and I were doing the hydro poles. :)

[mrs-cake.livejournal.com]

I could actually write a whole book about the old outhouse at my grandparents' place but the first thing that came to my mind just now was, pathetically and tellingly, World of Warcraft. Two months into the gaming addiction a fellow gamer asked me, 'Did you know there are toilets in WoW?' I was all, WHAT. And the he showed me one, next to Hammertoe's Digsite in Badlands. I laughed and laughed. They serve no purpose but I LOVE that they're there. Here's a pic: http://www.worldofwconline.com/gallery/albums/alliance/Outhouse.sized.jpg

Hehe.