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


On Apr 27, 2010, at 2:04 AM, cblists@xxxxxxxx wrote:
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_.
This text is mentioned, along with an account of the beliefs of the Chinese Association of Urine Therapy, and a... passing mention... of "Chinook olives," (acorns soaked for five months in...) Aztec, Egyptian and Ayyurvedic practices and a whole lot more. I do wonder how much the authors gave into the temptation to repeat hearsay. One instance--they quote a custom of the Pericuis, a people who inhabited California. The only source I can find on these people is "The Native Races of the Pacific States," by Bancroft et al, which was published in 1874 and so demonstrates the prejudices of that era. The bibliography doesn't even mention this work. Worse still, there is not one source on Native American customs. Where, then, does the description of "Chinook olives" originate?
The authors mention that Porta-John, the American company which supplies toilets to festivals and other outdoor events, is now a subsidiary of Enzymes of America Holding Corp," a company that wants to "mine human waste." Now there's a new take on "the business of business is business."
Oddly the authors omit all mention of the role of nuns' whiddle in the history of the contraceptive pill, and fail to mention one of my favorite movies of recent times, "Kenny."
They do, however, alert readers to the following "game," http:// gamescene.com/The_Urinal_Game.html My longstanding refusal to play *any* computer game, exempts me from trying it.
Lest list members think we have strayed beyond bounds here, I should add that there is a whole section on piss in literature: Chaucer, Molly Bloom, the Tin Drum... Also a section on music and the visual arts.
Fish don't make urea, by the way, "they just let the surplus nitrogen form ammonia, which is immensely soluble in water and is flushed out of the system via the gills as the fish swims." Now you know. 

David Ritchie,
not off to see a man about a dog in
Portland, Oregon

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