What are your favourite / current loo-side books?

[Panjandrum]

You appreciate the spread of faecal bacteria which this ostensibly innocent practice promotes?

Remind me not to accept an invitation to dine chez Caliban any time soon.

[Nick Armstrong]

You appreciate the spread of faecal bacteria which this ostensibly innocent practice promotes?

Remind me not to accept an invitation to dine chez Caliban any time soon.

Perhaps when you practise it, Mr P!

However, noted re: the invite!!

[amateur51]

I fear I may be having a hallocinogetic flashback. I recall french frank hanging her frozen peas out on the washing line, last Christmas? And we wondered, did you peg them individually, pea by pea on a frozen whirligig or merely lynched Captn. Birdseye? Honestly, I swear this happened in Bristol!

You got it, spot on Anna!

Wasn't there also the episode of making kedgeree for guests at a luncheon party in Bristol with pickled eggs?

[amateur51]

You appreciate the spread of faecal bacteria which this ostensibly innocent practice promotes?

Remind me not to accept an invitation to dine chez Caliban any time soon.

Did you do basic bacteriology in your St John's Ambulance course, Panyan? (he only joined for the uniform. There were sulks for weeks when he found it was basic black with a white sash )

[french frank]

Wasn't there also the episode of making kedgeree for guests at a luncheon party in Bristol with pickled eggs?

Your problem with that, pray?

What was worse, I had to go to the local secondhand shop and ask if I could borrow a chair for a few hours

[Anna]

Personally, I think we are all too obsessed with hygiene. Bacteria are friendly little creatures which live inside us, yes, one and all. And when we seek to destroy them with penicillin we kill the good ones as well as the bad. So, what do we do? We eat probiotic yoghurt, which is teaming with them good guys. How silly. Better to eat a bit of dirt, get immune and avoid the associated illness and not have to eat yoghurt, innit?

[umslopogaas]

#81 Anna

... er, not entirely. There are lots of nice bacteria out there and that includes the ones that contribute to sharpening your yoghurt and also the ones in your gut which help digest the food, keep everything moving and then dispose of the remains either a long way away down the sewer, or a very short way away down in your septic tank (or indeed, in mine). But there are some seriously unfriendly ones out there too, like Clostridium botulinum, which produces one of the most toxic substances known to man (botulotoxin) and can kill you with so little effort I wouldnt go within half a mile of a culture of those little nasties unless I was assured by at least two post-doctoral microbial pathologists that they were safely contained. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is pretty unkind too, I seem to recall, but I think all it does it give you gas gangrene so your limbs fall off, it doesnt actually kill you, though you just might wish it had. A little bacterial joke, I suppose. But if you want the last laugh, keep the penicillin handy.

And yes, there is drug resistance, but maybe another night ...

[Anna]

Actually, I was joking about yoghurt and bacteria ........ I eat a big pot of it every day. Yoghurt, that is. But, you know, all these anti-bacterial sprays you use in the kitchen, they kill the good guys as well as the bad guys. And why are so many children suffering from allergies now? It's because they are not allowed to get dirty. Dirt is healthy.

[MickyD]

A tempestuous life, MickyD?

Was it ever, Amateur! I highly recommend the book, I find it hilarious and just the thing to provoke some stimulus in the loo.

[MickyD]

o, I do hope you enjoy Humphry Clinker - haven't looked at it since my student days forty years ago - but - as I recall it was the best of all the Smolletts - (tho' I did like Travels Thro' France and Italy..., ) - and - if I recall aright - they do visit - Bristol...

Another pleasant 18th century read is the charming Diary of Parson Woodforde. Ideal for the loo as the diary entries are not too long!

[Nick Armstrong]

I am currently enjoying a biography of the totally outrageous Tallulah Bankhead. It is difficult to imagine now how sensational her behaviour and comments must have been in the 1920s and 30s.

Is this the one, MickyD? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tallulah-Ban...2389357&sr=1-4

[vinteuil]

Another pleasant 18th century read is the charming Diary of Parson Woodforde. Ideal for the loo as the diary entries are not too long!

... and Woodforde occasionally gives good advice -

1763 Feb. 17. I dined at the Chaplain's table with Pickering and Waring, upon a roasted Tongue and Udder, and we went on each of us for it £0. 1. 9. N.B. I shall not dine on a roasted Tongue and Udder again very soon.

Tho' he usually ate much better -

1795 May 25. ... We had for Dinner, First Course, a fine Pike boiled and fryed Gudgeoons, Gravey-Soup, Saddle of Mutton rosted, Veal Collops, boiled Tongue and Spinnage, and garden-stuff. 2nd. Course, Four rost Pigeons, Asparagus, Gooseberry Tarts, Cheesecakes, and Maccaroni. Desert. Oranges, Almonds & Raisins, & Nutts. After Coffee and Tea we got to Cards...

[Nick Armstrong]

... and Woodforde occasionally gives good advice -

1763 Feb. 17. I dined at the Chaplain's table with Pickering and Waring, upon a roasted Tongue and Udder, and we went on each of us for it £0. 1. 9. N.B. I shall not dine on a roasted Tongue and Udder again very soon.

Tho' he usually ate much better -

1795 May 25. ... We had for Dinner, First Course, a fine Pike boiled and fryed Gudgeoons, Gravey-Soup, Saddle of Mutton rosted, Veal Collops, boiled Tongue and Spinnage, and garden-stuff. 2nd. Course, Four rost Pigeons, Asparagus, Gooseberry Tarts, Cheesecakes, and Maccaroni. Desert. Oranges, Almonds & Raisins, & Nutts. After Coffee and Tea we got to Cards...

I love it. I imagine the cheesecakes were different then than now, esp. as they appear to have ben served with the pigeons. My mother used to make collops.

As you say, spot on advice re: Udder.

[Mr Pee]

I always have the latest edition of Private Eye atop the cistern, and also Peter Schikele's definitive biography of P.D.Q. Bach, which never fails to raise a smile as I do the necessary.

[amateur51]

I love it. I imagine the cheesecakes were different then than now, esp. as they appear to have ben served with the pigeons. My mother used to make collops.

As you say, spot on advice re: Udder.

Praps the advice could be encapsulated as 'when offered something or udder, always choose something'