To anyone who has said that 2016 can’t get any worse, may I respectfully say
SHUT UP!
Category Archives: Shit happens
I’d Like To Buy The World A …
You’ve been asking for more poop from me. Be careful what you wish for.
Because today is World Toilet Day!
This morning, I was inspired as shit by my friend Judy when she alerted me to the arrival of World Toilet Day (which I’d somehow forgotten?!?) and to Mr. Toilet himself. And to this article.
Mr. Toilet is my hero. Seriously.
Mr. Toilet was not born with that name. Nope, Mr. Toilet is actually a rich, big-hearted man named Jack Sim who wants to do good in the world with the shitload of money he made in construction. So, being flush with cash, Jack was inspired when he read a statement by his country’s (Singapore) then prime minister:
He said we should measure our graciousness according to the cleanliness of our public toilets.
As a travel lover, let me tell you that nothing, and I do mean nothing, says “welcome” like a clean, accessible toilet. (As a Crohn’s patient, however, I stay home a lot.)
As I said last year on this auspicious occasion,
The point of World Toilet Day is actually pretty important. People without access to hygienic facilities risk illness, many women are preyed upon and attacked as they seek out a place to go. Diseases are transmitted, including infections, cholera, well, here’s a picture.
The “F-diagram” (feces, fingers, flies, fields, fluids, food), showing pathways of fecal-oral disease transmission. The vertical blue lines show barriers: toilets, safe water, hygiene and handwashing.
Source Wikipedia
Mr. Toilet founded the World Toilet Organization (WTO) in 2001. As Judy’s article says:
It’s a nonprofit coalition of leaders from more than 40 countries who try to come up with innovative solutions to tackle the world’s sanitation and water problems.
Together these loo lovers started the World Toilet College and SaniShop, initiatives that train entrepreneurs not only to make household toilets but also to maintain them and market them in the developing world. More than 4,000 people have been trained since 2005; the WTO says that up to 10,000 toilets were assembled in 2010 alone.
But it’s the way Mr. Toilet wants to go about increasing toilets that hit me where I live.
So first you have to make owning a toilet not just rational but aspirational. You have to make a toilet come with bragging rights, like a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Aspiration is important, as you can see even rich people have really nice toilets — they go for the highest level all the time. So this is the same as the poor people. They aspire to own products that have bragging rights, like a cellphone or television. The psychology is exactly the same.
He wants to first make owning and using a toilet funny, then sexy, and then normal. He wants to remove the taboo on poo. He wants people to laugh about, talk about and sing about toilets.
Here. I’ll help.
Who knew that World Toilet Day would lead me to find the theme song for my life.
Filed under ; Don't Make Me Feel Perky Tonigh, A Little Restraint, Perhaps, Chronic Disease, Cool people, Crohn's Disease, Extra Cash, Family, Farts, Flatulence, Gas, Good Deed Doers, Good Works, Holidays, Huh?, Humiliation, Humor, keys to success, laughter, Mom would die of embarrassment, No More Bushes, Nobody's gonna excavate my poop. I hope., Not something you hear about every day, Oh shit, Plagarizing myself, Pooders, Poop, Saving the World, Seriously funny, Shit happens, Taking Care of Each Other, Toilets, Useful thing to do with poop, WTF?
My Challenge — Make Me Eat Crow
Last Wednesday as I drove to work heartbroken over Trump’s victory, John Lennon’s song Imagine came on the radio.
It didn’t improve my mood any. Because I was already imagining plenty.
Earlier today while waiting for a doctor’s appointment, I read a blog from my hometown that posted the Democratic Town Committee’s commitment to not permit bullying, acts of hate or discrimination in town.
Expecting to see universal support for this stance, I was shocked to see the first commenters take a stand, not exactly against, the DTC, but pooh-poohing the need for such a stand.
Naturally, I commented that those commenters obviously hadn’t been paying attention during the campaign. The result was a fairly brief round and round with the commenter, named Dan. As it turned out, Dan was a troll; his comments were removed from the blog along with several damn good ones of mine, I will add.
But he made me think.
When George W. Bush was elected, I worried. I didn’t think he had the brain capacity to be president, and didn’t think he could handle the job. Obviously, I didn’t predict 9/11 or the Iraq war, but I did see in him a bully and a person too easily goaded. I was right. His policies led us into a stupid, unnecessary war. His economic policies led us into a severe, catastrophic economic crisis that only the end of his presidency and Obama’s election prevented from becoming a full-blown economic Depression.
I also thought that Dick Cheney would be a good, calming, fatherly influence. My bad. And his, actually.
With Trump, I am afraid on a deeper level. I’ve expressed those fears many times, so I’ll just say that nothing he has said since his election, and nothing he has done since his election, and nobody he has appointed/is considering appointing has allayed any of my fears. He is an ignorant, hate-filled bully with small fingers who will have access to the nuclear codes in two months.
But you know what? This is where this morning’s troll comes in.
I would love to be wrong.
I would love for each and every Trump voter to work towards proving me that I was crazy to worry.
- Prevent bullying/hate crimes/discrimination. Step in at your own risk when necessary. If you say Trump will not increase these things, show me I’m wrong in thinking he will.
- Protect social programs. Write to Congress. Let them know that programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are programs Americans have relied upon for decades. Show me that I’m wrong in thinking that these programs will all be gutted to my and the middle and lower class populations’ detriment.
- Protest against any new military actions. If there’s time, that is. If Trump acts in a huff, then, you have my permission to bend over and kiss your own ass goodbye.
- Pay attention. Be knowledgeable about current events. Remember who is doing what.
- Assess the economic impacts by something other than your own tax returns. What is happening in the housing market, the jobs market. Have their been improvements in infrastructure;
- Evaluate the importance of the industries that are succeeding in Trump’s America. Did Trump deliver his promises to restore the coal industry. Manufacturing?
- Remember your history. If you believe, as my troll does, that comparisons of Trump’s America to Hitler’s Germany, watch what they do and prevent them from repeating history. (That’s why we study history, isn’t it?)
- Show me that the Federal judges appointed at all levels are interested in justice and not in advocating from the bench a la Scalia. Make sure they protect the rights of the folks who can’t stand up for themselves.
- Vary your news sources — none of them provide the full story or an unbiased story
- Consider the other side’s position — and I will try to do the same
The list of things that concern me, of course, goes on and on.
Make it so that in 4 years, I will look back at the fears I (and so many others) had about Donald Trump’s election and laugh at myself for my foolish fears.
Make me eat crow
I will gladly eat crow. If there are any left given Trump’s plan to gut all sorts of environmental programs and the climate change pact.
Photo Credit: https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1127/1009248999_385551a5f6.jpg. But you know I got it from Google Images.
The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
Winston Churchill, statesman and prime minister
Filed under A Little Restraint, Perhaps, Adult Traumas, All The News You Need, All We Are Saying Is Give Peace A Chance, Bat-shit crazy, Beating that Dead Horse, Cancer on Society, Clusterfuck, Curses!, Disgustology, Do GOP Voters Actually THINK?, Donald Trump, Elections Matter, Global Warming, Good Deed Doers, GOP, History, How the Hell Did We GET HERE?, Huh?, Humor, Insighting violence, Kakistocracy, Planned Parenthood, Political Corruption, Politics, Pro-Birth, Saving the World, Shit happens, Shit Your Pants Scary, Size Matters, Taking Care of Each Other, Washington, What a Maroon, What must folks in other countries be thinking?, WTF?
How to Find A Lost Civilization
It may surprise you to know, but once I dreamed of being an archeologist. It’s true! That was before the Indiana Jones movies, too. It was before I knew I was destined to become a great actress. Oh, and before bowel disease.
Once I developed bowel disease, my dreams changed. Tromping around the desert searching for a toilet and artifacts (in that order) didn’t seem like a great career path. And until today, well, I believed I was right. But I just realized I was wrong. (I was right that I would be wandering the desert looking for a place to poop, though. So I wasn’t completely wrong.)
You see, today’s Washington Post reports that Clifford Coulthard, while looking for a place to go, stumbled onto an absolutely amazing discovery:
“Nature called, and Cliff walked up this creek bed into this gorge and found this amazing spring surrounded by rock art,” archaeologist Giles Hamm told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “A man getting out of the car to go to the toilet led to the discovery of one of the most important sites in Australian prehistory.”
Profile view of Warratyi Rock Shelter elevated above local stream catchment. (Giles Hamm) as printed in the Washington Post article linked to earlier.
as a friend of mine once said, “Civilization all comes down to where you put your poop.”
Think of the discoveries I could have made over the nearly 45 years I’ve been pooping too much!
Shit!
FiftyFourandAHalf 
