4:2, #593: The Necessary

Being descended from two plumbers, I seem to have a natural curiosity concerning Things Necessary...no, not the 'necessary' that Jesus talks about in Luke 10:42 which comes supernaturally, although for the last 30 years I have had that gift, too. Today it's the derivation of the various names given to the facility that we all use, indoors or out. 'The Necessary' is the name I picked up from the movie '1776.' That particular outhouse was located just down the street from Independence Hall and would have been the 18th century equivalent, I guess, of the Jiffy Johns I've used on construction sights 'back in the day;' which in my case was the 1970s.

Which brings me to 'john,' 'crapper,' and 'loo;' all of which are adequately detailed at [http://didyouknow.org/toilets/]. By the way, Google gave me 12,500,000 sites in .29 seconds for 'why the toilet is called john.' I like the idea that old Tom Crapper was a plumber, if you believe the article, even though he didn't invent it. The question then becomes, just what did a plumber do in the 18th century? Yick! ;p And those FRENCH...Mon Dieu!!

For those of you familiar with the term 'head,' well, if you look at the front end...the bow...of a square-rigged ship, down there 'a-head of the wind' that would be blowing from the stern or back end usually, was the place to recycle last night's ship board meal and grog ration! Ironically, on a lot of ships, there was a head carved into the ship as part of the decoration. I guess on land there was the outhouse, aboard ship the REALLY out house! ;p

Well, 'inner room' or 'throne room' are still my preferred nomenclatures. As I've said before, Matthew 6:6 tells us to 'go into your inner room and shut the door' even though it was written before the advent of indoor plumbing and 'pray to your Father who is in secret,' so you're essentially entering His throne room of grace by being in the head/loo/necessary/throne room. OK, that's enough...time to open up some buildings for those who get here early with a long car ride and large cup of coffee! ;)
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