I dont know why you have to bring the environment of politicians into your realm. Isnt it enough that they infest the rest of the paper?

The keys on a keyboard, ATM and even most door handles are about the same sanitary state as the proverbial dunny can? So why look elsewhere? I can remember my first visit to Berlin and as I was standing and peeing at an airport loo , a lady was mopping the floor alongside me and followed me where I had stood -just in case i dripped on the floor. I was very impressed with this display of teutonic thoroughness! It must show in the lower load that their health system suffers? Now why graffiti artists cant be sentenced to keeping public loos tidy -i dont know? The statistic that most aussie men use the same undies for two or three days running (pun) released yesterday shows that your topic is very close to us indeed? Was it that release that prompted you to think of unsanitary dunnies?

If anyone misses the old outdoor stinker they can always take a drive up to Coachwood or Fryingpan Creek camping grounds for a whiff of nostalgia. We had one at Fern Bay when I was 7 years old or so and every time I go camping up there it brings back memories. While we're on the subject, how about the old ice box instead of the refigerator. My grandfather used to deliver the ice and gave my father the day off school every monday so he could help him with the deliveries. After a few weeks of not showing up for class the principal called my grandfather in to explain his son's absence the fisrt school day of every week. His response? "Mondayitis"

Have we now sunk to the levels of toilet humour? This topic could cause a stink and probably enough to snakes hiss people off not to mention giving them the tom tits.

jc"s got this list of topics he recycles perenially in a different way -but consistantly predictable. Think about it -theres only a finite number of topics than be spoken of so rehashing must happen. The dues of the blogger is to contribute -no matter what . Wit, charm, brilliance, entertaining language know no bounds except what we put upon them?

2 experiences from my youth : (1) With my father, pig shooting at Krambach, and experiencing the diabolical long drop dunny, a hundred yards from the mouse infested shearer's shed we slept in. An adventure never to be forgotten : red belly blacks on the track during the day, and gawd knows what at night. (2) In rural France, experiencing the relatively civilised long dropper ~ with fairly rough ceramic 'footprints' on the floor, a 6" hole between, and a bucket of water sitting adjacent. Bombadier style aim prowess was critical. Bizarrely, the entire facility was arranged so all walls were tantalisingly 2 or 3 inches from your fingertips! Tumbling over during the squat was a high risk for a while.

Hello Jeff, read your article "No flies on me now" with intrest and it bought back lots of memories. As a child I lived in a country district called Wolvi in Queensland it's about 20 km from Gympie and 140km from Brisbane. We has a pan tiolet, that dad used have to dig a hole and bury it when it was full, as a young child I did not mind this in fact I used to help him dig the hole.

This was done in an area away down the "back" away from the house. We even had the little square bits of newspaper hung on a nail for our use. We as kids knew we could not play down there, but as kids would be kids we did not always follow the rules. We sort of knew where the freashly dug holes were and would jump those, would you belive it me being the youngest did not jump far enough, here I am waist deep in what ever dad had not long buried talk about stink, well I was pulled out and hosed of for about half an hour, believe me I did not play down their again.

I remember seeing my first "lush" toilet at my cousin home in Brisbane. We were city and country cousins and swaped places very school holidays at christmas time. I was fascinated where did it go, ran under the house to see if it went there only to find all there pipes.

Even with the bath water at home we had to share the bath water as it did not always rain so you used to rotate who was first in the bath at night, but at "Aunty Marys" you could have a much water as you wanted, it was pure heaven have the bath half full of water when it got cold you could let it out and "just" turn the taps on agsin. It would take me about an hour for a bath. to a small country girl it wonderful, but I must say the soap did not lather up like it did at home,.

We also had a pay back time with the city cousnis, when it was their turn to come to the country for christmas. We has great delight in showing them how to milk a cow, that you could not simply walk to the corner shop to buy milk, eggs, butterand meat. We had got own back,got the bull in and ask them to milk him, poor old bull played up a bit, he had not been touch where they were trying to touch him, had to come to their rescue of that. They could not understand how the milk got into the bottles, would it not take a long time to put the milk into the bottle from the cow we were ask.

I had better finish this is way too long for a "blog" but its just from all those memories who rekindled, it was like I was back in time with the family all being together, so thank you jeff. What is the old "thanks for the memories".

A few years ago a bloke in the USA kept the sundried remains of his outdoor lavatory attendances over a period of 12 months and said the content did not fill a shoebox. Don't some Asian countries use their "product" to fertilise food crops? There is a passage in the Les Miserables novel about the waste of human, um, 'waste' and that it should be used as fertiliser. Human urine also can be utilised as phosphate (which at present must be mined such as at Nauru) - essential for crops. Waste not your waste! (but gardeners, it needs dilution or it will burn) [your plants, not you - depends if you have plumbing problems]

People today are more effluent than their forebears.

Ploppy - Son of Ploppy (love the Blackadder reference), there was and may still be the practice in south east asia of using human waste to fertilise the crops. Unfortunately a proliferation of sickle cell aneamia was a result of this practice. I'd be surprised if it is still common, but who knows.