Bill Bryson Quotes
I turned to my own bunk and examined it with a kind of appalled fascination. If the mattress stains were anything to go by, a previous user had not so much suffered from incontinence as rejoiced in it. He had evidently included the pillow in his celebrations.
Bryson, Bill. Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe. Secker & Warburg, 1991.
The agency was supporting a program to recycle human feces which were treated in communities by sanitizing them and removing most of the water and packaging the dried sludge as a fertilizer for lawns, gardens, parks, and farms. The treated biosolids were marketed under many names such as ComPro, BioEdge, Notrohumus, Vital Cycle, etc. To promote the concept and overcome the bad image of human feces, the agency arranged to have it spread on all the lawns and gardens of the White House. The decided that “poo” and other descriptive nouns would not fit the desired image. See {635106} for their solution.
Lyon had spat in the face of Congressman Roger Griswald, 1762-1812 who had called Lyon a coward. Modern House rules prohibit personal attacks and remarks about fellow Congressmen.
This quotation shows us that the 16th century English did not bathe very often. Even the Queen would only bathe once a month and she and the norms of the times did not feel that she “needed” it that often. Many English would go many months without bathing. Other Europeans were as bad or worse. Japan, in contrast, at the same time, had very frequent bathing. The Romans, 1500 years earlier not only bathed very frequently but created facilities for bathing in most Roman communities. Jewish communities also bathed frequently and had ritual baths but these were mainly for women.
William McGuire Bryson OBE HonFRS is an American–British author of books on travel, the English language, science, and other non-fiction topics. Born in the United States, he has been a resident of Britain for most of his adult life, returning to the U.S. between 1995 and 2003, and holds dual American and British citizenship. He served as the chancellor of Durham University from 2005 to 2011.
