[lit-ideas] 'P' is for ...

  • From: cblists@xxxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:04:40 +0200


On 26-Apr-10, at 11:23 PM, David Ritchie wrote:

I knew that urine was used by tanners, but its use as a mordant, and in steel-making, and in the making of indigo was news to me, as were all the health claims made world wide by people who advise ingesting it.

The last on this list has been known to me since the appearance in German bookstores in the 1990's of various editions of the (best- selling - over 1 million copies sold) book _Ein ganz besonderer saft: Urin_.

There is an entry for 'urine therapy' in the English-language version of Wikipedia at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine_therapy

Apparently, among many others, J.D: Salinger was a practitioner.

Unfortunately - at least for research purposes - the only external links given are to sites of persons or organizations sceptical (in the pejorative sense of the word) about the value of urine therapy.

The German Wikipedia entry, at:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenharnbehandlung

does give the link to the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Harntherapie e.V., a promoter of urine therapy.

Indeed, I first thought your juxtaposition of the book titles "Taking the Piss; A Potted History of Pee" and "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" was thematic!

In passing (!) I should mention the list of inventive ways English- speaking people (well, men) have found to describe urination: bleed the lizard, change the water on the goldfish, drain the main vein, drain the radiator, freshen one's Snapple, break the seal, pump ship, release the pressure, shake hands with the unemployed, shake the dew off the lily, strain the potatoes, discharge my tea, tap a kidney.

The phrases familiar to me are: 'Excuse me, I have to go see a man about a horse' (used by a co-worker), and 'I have to go water the radishes' (alternatively - 'turnips'). Variants of the 'radishes' phrase are still in use in my immediate family (in German translation - 'Radieschen' - as well).

Chris Bruce,
avoiding, for once, any attempt at
a witty remark in his signature, in
Kiel, Germany
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