His name was Crapper

“In a perfect world” she said, “His name would have been John Crapper. John P. Crapper. But this is not a perfect world and his name was, in fact, Thomas A. Crapper. I don’t know what the A. stands for – feel free to make your own assumptions there.”

We were listening to the tour guide on the Seattle Underground Tour and she was, of course, talking about the inventor of the modern flush toilet, a device which figures prominently in the history of a place that is build on tidal flats. That Seattle residents were surprised, when they bought thousands of them off a boat from England many years ago, that they needed to connect them to a city sewer system (“what’s that?”) was just one indication that this city had a long way to go toward becoming the jewel of the Northwest that it is today.

Yesterday we did Seattle – the market, the waterfront and the Underground Tour. We even did the ‘fantasy’ thing in the market – shopped for fish, vegetables, crusty bread and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Great fun - great day.





A Seattle sidewalk, from the dark and seemy underside.