The Crapper

When I first started the What's happenin'? contributions in February, you were informed of being enlightened on some weird, bizarre celebrations on a particular day as it approached. As was then and throughout the year, the decision was yours on how to celebrate if that is indeed your forte. Oh, my, we have been surprised at some crazy things being celebrated. Stated then and still true today, if something exists, I do believe you or I shall find a day during which it is celebrated. The upcoming celebration is no exception!

November 19...believe it or not...is...

World Toilet Day

Yes, this day is for real! There IS a World Toilet Day and actually exists for a good cause. That is why it is designated as a 'world' day recognized by the United Nations as a global event...to educate and inform everyone on the importance of good sanitation practices, provide statistics on areas of poor sewage, and facilitate changes toward proper transformation for improvement.

According to the World Toilet Organization, “Over a billion of the 6 billion people in the world - one in three people across the globe - are served by sewerage systems but much of this sewerage is discharged into rivers, lakes and the sea with little or no treatment.”

An old privy or outhouse
(Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

There was a time when only bushes offered some sense of privacy for 'personal business'. Heaven forbid what people did during the winter when there were NO leaves on the bushes! During the early Roman Empire, rows of 'holes' allowed places for people to sit and 'drop their waste' into water troughs where it was washed into the river. Through the years different modes were provided with one most prevalent being the outhouse. Holes were dug in the ground and when full, one simply moved the 'house' to a different location.

The modern 'flush' toilet carries with it some stories of its own, especially about the name, not toilet but two of the 101 Names for the Toilet! Crapper and John. There are persons who actually existed who were associated with the toilet as we know it today. 

Analysis: Thomas Crapper (1836-1910) did exist, and was a plumber, and is, in fact, credited with improving the functionality of the early flush toilet (or "water closet," as it was then called), but he did not, contrary to popular belief, invent the pseudo-eponymous bathroom appliance from scratch.
      Credit for that goes to 16th-century author Sir John Harington, who not only came up with the idea but installed an early working prototype in the palace of Queen Elizabeth I, his godmother. The first patent for a flushing water closet was issued to Alexander Cummings in 1775, sixty years before Thomas Crapper was born...
     ...Though he made his name as a sanitary engineer to bluebloods, Crapper himself was lowborn and never knighted, so it's a mystery why storytellers consistently award him the title "Sir."

Compounding the error, he is sometimes referred to as "Sir John Crapper."
Source: Myth Busted

 Crapper's Crapper

Next on the Calendar...Peanut Butter...but not alone!