Just to show that Scott Stocking’s light side is just as misinformed as his dark side, allow me to correct his “correction.”

(He’s not all wrong; that was just my lighter side speaking.) I am now quoting extensively from “More of the Straight Dope,” by Cecil Adams, regarding Ken Grabowski, a researcher at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

“Grabowski has made several trips to England and collected hundreds of documents, including baptismal and death records, photos, magazine write-ups about Crapper’s plumbing company, advertisements, and so on.

“Having inspected the evidence, (I) must say Grabowski makes a compelling case.

“Thomas Crapper (1836-1910), an English sanitary engineer, apparently founded a plumbing fixture company in London in 1861, and his products became well known throughout the British Isles.

“While Crapper did not actually invent the flush toilet, he did come up with certain improvements.

“Moreover, his equipment, with his name prominently displayed, was installed at military barracks where it may have been seen. But Crapper’s name as the origin of the word ‘crap’? Not exactly.

“There was crap before there was Crapper (you should pardon the language), but big-C Crapper quite possibly gave rise to little-C crapper, meaning ‘toilet.’ That’s the Straight Dope friends. Accept no substitutes.”

And there you have it.

Paul M. Stout

Junior

Art Education