Navassa Island:  Guano Capital of the USA

Wikipedia page.

Navassa Island was claimed for the United States on September 19, 1857, by Peter Duncan, an American sea captain, under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, for the rich guano deposits found on the island, and for not being within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, nor occupied by another government's citizens.

Article from 2012 here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 02, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Excrement, Natural Resources, Nineteenth Century

Minipoo

Minipoo Dry Shampoo was sold from the 1940s until the 1960s. I'm assuming that 'poo' must not have had the same slang meaning back in the 1940s? Otherwise why would a manufacturer choose a name suggesting a small bowel movement?

I came across a newspaper column from 1980 commenting on the strangeness of the name. So at least by then the name had started to sound odd to people.

Muncie Evening Press - Mar 19, 1980

I found the Minipoo images at the National Museum of American History website. The very first comment there, posted in 2015, was from a woman, Dolores Mitchell Byrne, claiming to have been the model on the label. I googled her name and found that a woman of the same name won the title of "Miss Subways" back in January 1961. (Paul has posted about this unusual beauty contest here.) She's got a different hairstyle, but I think it's her, the Minipoo model. You can see a more recent photo of her at BrooklynPaper.com.

Dolores Mitchell Byrne, aka 'Miss Subways' - via Facebook

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 17, 2017 - Comments (12)
Category: Hygiene, Excrement, Hair and Hairstyling, Slang

Follies of the Madmen #323

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 14, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, Excrement, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1930s

16 Old Ladies Locked in the Lavatory

The artist.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 13, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Humor, Hygiene, Excrement, Music, 1940s

Humanure

Check out the Humanure Film in which "Humanure Girl" travels from the future to teach us about the benefits of making compost from human feces.



And if you want to dive deeper into the subject of Humanure, the Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins seems to be like the Bible of Humanure enthusiasts.

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 05, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Body Fluids, Excrement

National Poo Museum

The UK will soon open a "National Poo Museum" on the Isle of Wight. It will "celebrate poo." Says a spokeswoman, "The National Poo Museum is set to be the place to immerse oneself in the wonder of excrement while finding out lots of extraordinary nuggets of information about all things poo-y."

More info: Isle of Wight County Press

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 17, 2016 - Comments (15)
Category: Museums, Excrement

Unexpected

It seems that BK's Halloween Whopper has an interesting side effect. It goes in with a black bun but it comes out green. Not just green, but GREEN!! If you are interested in how green there is a picture at the link if you scroll down and click on it.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 06, 2015 - Comments (10)
Category: Food, Excrement, Eating

Father Pierre Monastery Herbs

Original ad.

I wish I could find a picture on the internet of the packaging for this product. Or learn who the legendary Father Pierre was. Alas, even the mighty Web does not have the answer to everything.

But I did find out the ingredients.



As to the recipe's effectiveness, I cannot attest.

Apparently, this current-day Russian product also known as "Monastery Herbs" has a different composition.



"Ingredients: rose hips, currant leaves, birch leaves, roots and rhizomes Elecampane, grass oregano herb St. John's wort, willow (willow-herb)."

Russian page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 25, 2015 - Comments (7)
Category: Body, Nature, Religion, Advertising, Excrement, 1940s, Russia

Stop And Think

In the movie Jurassic Park Jeff Goldblum's character says, in conversation about the Park, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they never stopped to think if they should." I think that quote is very apropos to a recent Japanese culinary accomplishment. Cheesecake made using bacteria found in gorilla feces.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 06, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Excrement, Can’t Possibly Be True, Eating

One In The Hole

A Norwegian golf course has been the victim of a perverse kind of vandalism repeatedly since 2005. Someone is sneaking on the golf course at night and defecating in the golf holes. The groundskeeper claims the vandal is likely a man due to the size of the...droppings. Security lights were erected to catch the offender, only to be disabled by him. So, 10 years later, this nasty person is still using the course holes as his personal potty much to the dismay of the grounds staff.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 26, 2015 - Comments (6)
Category: Stupid Criminals, Excrement, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust