My only experience was once in hospital. For the life of me, tho, it would
seem easier just to make hospital beds with a hole and plumbing. I do know
a bit about outhouses. I remember particularly one with a door permanently
ajar and a horse that liked to stretch its head inside and nuzzle one's
lap. I was a wee lad at the time, pre-castration fantasy, but I didn't
fancy the second circumcision I imagined.

When we think of the third world it's always good to remember how recently
in most places our own countries were similar.

Mark


At 02:00 PM 5/20/2005, you wrote:
>I do NOT (honest!) have a 'thing' about these vessels; but to answer your
>question, Mark, from living family memory -- yes, this was something else
>couples shared. In fact, as a child I was instructed in the hygienic
>techniques of emptying, with slop-pail and disinfectant. One quite took it
>for granted, and it was much more civilised in the middle of the night and
>the weather than heading out to a two-seater earth-closet. We had no
>plumbing of any description, other than a single cold tap, until I was eight
>or nine. Hence I could read Anne of Green Gables without realising it was
>set in the nineteenth century rather than rural Wiltshire in 1950. I only
>twigged when the series reached the Great War.
>
>There now, I'm sure you were all panting to know that!
>
>best joanna
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 6:38 PM
>Subject: Re: Brahms
>
>
>>Funny you should mention chamber pots, as I was thinking about them
>>earlier
>>today. Apparently there was a degree of intimacy between bedmates in those
>>days that we no longer share, tho nobody, in a serious vein at least
>>(Robin: I assume that there's something in the Scottish Chaucerians),
>>writes about those particular moans and grunts. "My beloved's farts are
>>like a dove's and smell of gardens." "Lo, he farteth like a young roe,
>>leaping upon the mauntains."
>>
>>Question: did couples share the same chamber pot?
>>
>>Any Annales (anal) historians in the crowd?
>>
>>Another lost performance, went with my first marriage (if you divorce a
>>musician be sure to be there when the music's divided): Horszowski
>>(spelling?) doing the Diabellis.
>>
>>Mark
>>
>>
>>At 01:00 PM 5/20/2005, you wrote:
>>>Have you heard the story about Brahms's beard? That famous identifying
>>>growth came comparatively late for those days, when he was pushing thirty,
>>>and so baby-faced that he was refused entry to the casino in Baden-Baden
>>>on
>>>the grounds that he wasn't old enough. So he grew the beard so as to look
>>>his actual age, and wrote to a friend, 'Prepare your wife for a truly
>>>terrible one, for I fear that nothing which has been suppressed for so
>>>long
>>>can be beautiful.'
>>>
>>>Roger and I spent our honeymoon in Baden-Baden, and I at least was
>>>delighted
>>>to find a house where Brahms used to stay and compose during the summers,
>>>turned into a museum. His desk and pens, his coffee-machine, his bed, with
>>>a
>>>little cupboard beside it which I opened to find -- yes, his chamber-pot.
>>>
>>>best joanna
>>>
>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>From: "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 5:26 PM
>>>Subject: Re: Brahms
>>>
>>>
>>>>And, hey Halvard, if he really said that, he's my kind of person...
>>>>
>>>>Doug
>>>>On 20-May-05, at 9:44 AM, Halvard Johnson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>How amazing to find this Brahms-fest going on this morning!
>>>>>I must admit I blow hot and cold on Brahms, but am currently
>>>>>in a warmish phase, especially with regard to the viola quintets.
>>>>>
>>>>>Hal "If there is anyone here I have not
>>>>> offended, I apologize."
>>>>> --Johannes Brahms
>>>>Douglas Barbour
>>>>11655 - 72 Avenue NW
>>>>Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
>>>>(780) 436 3320
>>>>
>>>>Words cling to other words
>>>>As we have seen, although even these are
>>>>Migratory and the forgotten shows through as correction.
>>>>This noun has been defunct for centuries.
>>>>
>>>> Ann Lauterbach