# Toilets **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 21, 2017, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904 "2017-04-21T09:19:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![UKinFrance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3ab097/32.png) [@UKinFrance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UKinFrance)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/1 "2017-04-21T09:19:03Z")
Also earth closet. In some places in England (and elsewhere perhaps) houses were built without toilets. Later a toilet was built in the yard. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/2 "2017-04-21T09:40:10Z")
Which article is this in reference to? Can you post the URL? There are so many columns about toilets, it helps us to comment better if we’re all on the same page. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/3 "2017-04-24T21:18:38Z")
It’s “pick-and-choose” Monday again … We have the excellent article by our good friend **Dex** [“Why is it called a restroom, anyway?”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2870/why-is-it-called-a-restroom-anyway) (June 2nd, 2009) that provides extensive detail to **The Master’s** original article [“Why do we call it the “bathroom,” even when it has no tub?”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/573/why-do-we-call-it-the-bathroom-even-when-it-has-no-tub) (March 3rd, 1985) … Supplementing **The Master’s** comments about the Crapper … I happen to be the proud owner an official “John Crapper” toilet … says so right on the top of the bowl up where the shit seat is bolted down … alas alas, it’s a Standard American remake of likely 1950’s manufacture … ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/4 "2017-04-24T23:40:45Z")
“Some places in England”? What do they teach kids these days? That used to be the way that it was done in _all_ places in _all_ countries, until a scant few centuries ago. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/5 "2017-04-25T04:17:29Z")
Two from my childhood in Maine: _basement_ In every school I ever attended. _wayside_ At summer camp. (Always referring, in my experience, to a permanent building with cold-water plumbing.) ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/6 "2017-04-25T13:58:59Z")
The “Restroom” adjective puzzled me when I was a kid. I pictured a lounge, with overstuffed easy chairs. Wasn’t sure why it was necessary to take a break from the apparently brutal restaurant atmosphere, but was impressed with their accomodating nature. ---
**Author:** ![waddlingeagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@waddlingeagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waddlingeagle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/7 "2017-04-25T14:05:44Z")
“Comfort room” was still in common use in the Philippines when we were living there ten years ago. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/8 "2017-04-25T14:48:04Z")
Another one not on Dex’s list, _house of ease_, as from the easing of the bowels. Swift uses the expression in his 1734 poem [A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/50580). BTW this and his [The Lady’s Dressing Room](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/50579) are still essential reading for young men embarking on their first romance who may have a rather too idealized view of the objects of their affection. Although there is a very real danger that the poems might cause them to take up monasticism! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/9 "2017-04-25T15:01:12Z")
Some science fiction books have used the term “the refresher”, or simply " 'fresher". I think that was the word used in Asimov’s _The Caves of Steel_, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/10 "2017-04-25T17:10:49Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Two from my childhood in Maine: > _basement_ In every school I ever attended. > _wayside_ At summer camp. (Always referring, in my experience, to a permanent building with cold-water plumbing.) Ah, the “wayside.” 😃 > [@](#): > > Dear Madam: > I take great pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated nine miles from the house you occupy, in the center of a beautiful grove of pine trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding 229 people and it is open on Sunday and Thursday only. U. S. Dopers of a certain age will recall the legendary “W. C.” joke that prompted Jack Paar to storm off the set of the Tonight Show in 1960. > **[Jack Paar’s “Water Closet” Joke](https://witwisdom.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/jack-paars-water-closet-joke/)** > > On February 10, 1960, Jack Paar, the then-host of “The Tonight Show,” told a four-minute joke based on an innocent mix-up involving the initials W.C. The NBC censors decided it was dirt… ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/11 "2017-04-26T05:59:06Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Ah, the “wayside.” 😃 > > U. S. Dopers of a certain age will recall the legendary “W. C.” joke that prompted Jack Paar to storm off the set of the Tonight Show in 1960. > > [Jack Paar’s “Water Closet” Joke | Half Wisdom, Half Wit](https://www.google.com/amp/s/witwisdom.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/jack-paars-water-closet-joke/amp/) This UK Doper remembers the hooha as well. Although we didn’t get the show the story was in all the papers. So was the wayside euphemism in reference to Paar’s joke or independent of it? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilets/784904/12 "2017-04-26T12:46:08Z")
No, no, “hooha” is a euphemism for something else.