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Stumpage Reports
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Tuesday, June 10, 2003 :::
Coprology Conundrum: or, Crap Culture Clash
The place I live is a big, apartment-like complex. It is part of campus housing and is provided for graduate students, married students, and international students, so we don't have a bunch of drunken undergrads throwing televisions out of windows. All the apartments in my building are studio apartments and everyone in this building is either single or at least living alone.
Living in this little petri dish of a U.N. has it own share of problems.
I live on the third floor of a three story building, and pretty much keep to myself except for Romanian Neighbor Lady and her friend Always Getting Pregnant Redneck Girl. There are smaller buildings with two and three bedroom apartments and some of them have little garden plots outside of them. There are no garden plots near my building, which as you will learn, is a good thing. Redneck Girl used to live in one of those buildings and told us the following:
The oriental, asian, whatever people, that live here like to fertilize their gardens with human shit. I had read the phrase "night soil" in some Vietnam war stories I've read, and a Chinese character in Harry Turtledove's World War series referred to night soil a lot. I never had really thought about it, but I guess this is what they were talking about. Redneck Girl complained about this and supposedly the practice has stopped. She moved out shortly afterwards and none of us have had the inclination to go check out the gardens. She said she actually saw someone holding their baby over the garden as it shat.
Here is a nice little painting of some Night Soil Men.
I know I did a poop-laden blog entry a couple weeks ago and that may make you wonder about me. I'm not hung up on shit or anything, but it is a ready topic everyone can relate to. It was either this, scanning forestry papers, or packing up so I can move, so you got the night soil at E.S. King Village.
Quote of the Day:
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
--- Thomas Jefferson, 1787.
(90% of my books are packed up, so I'm getting "Quotes of the Day" from the internet, believe them at your own risk. I'm pretty sure the above one is accurate.)
::: posted by tom at 11:10 PM
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