Tag: John the Fearless

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Thomas Crapper: Remembered From the Bowels of History

Thomas Crapper toilet at the Victor Horta Museum, Brussels. Photo by Oxyman (2007). Victor Horta Museum. PD-GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons.
Thomas Crapper toilet at the Victor Horta Museum, Brussels. Photo by Oxyman (2007). Victor Horta Museum. PD-GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons.

Whom and what can you believe these days? Today it’s known as “False or Fake News” and during the Reagan era, it was called “Spin.” A headline (or social media) is where it all starts. I should know. Remember my blog called Cindy Lauper and the Naked Princess? That one got a lot of attention. I recently read a BBC History Magazine article entitled The Legend of Thomas Crapper: Five Myths. It appears as though there has been a fair amount of false news perpetuated about Mr. Crapper over the past century. I suppose it’s all a bunch of crap.

Meet Thomas Crapper

Portrait of Thomas Crapper. Photo by anonymous (c. 19th-century). PD-70+. Wikimedia Commons.
Portrait of Thomas Crapper. Photo by anonymous (c. 19th-century). PD-70+. Wikimedia Commons.

Thomas Crapper (1836−1910) is fondly remembered as the inventor of the toilet or if you will, the flushing toilet. However, is this really true? No, it’s not as we’ll see in a moment. Thomas was seventeen when he apprenticed under his brother George, a master plumber. By the time Thomas was twenty-five, he had gone out on his own and started a brass foundry and plumbing shop near Chelsea (now an affluent section of West London and my nephew’s favorite English Premier League team). Read More Thomas Crapper: Remembered From the Bowels of History

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Flowers, Birds, a Jewish Community, and a Murder

Flowers and Birds

Inside a shop – Marché aux Fleurs de Paris. Photo by Yannick Bammert (2010). PD-CCA 2.0 Generic. Wikimedia Commons
Inside a shop – Marché aux Fleurs de Paris. Photo by Yannick Bammert (2010). PD-CCA 2.0 Generic. Wikimedia Commons

In the middle of an island (Île de la Cité) in the middle of the Seine River (France) and in the heart of Paris sits a flower market. It is called the Marché aux Fleurs and you can visit it every day of the week. That is, except on Sunday when it is transformed into the Marché aux Oiseaux (bird market). The market has been in operation since 1808—more than 200 years ago—a very short amount of time when putting it into perspective with the history of Paris.

A Jewish Community

Almost a thousand years ago, this small plot of land was home to the Jewish population of Paris. It was considered one of the first Jewish quarters (or ghettos) in Paris. Today we think of the Marais District as the heart of the contemporary Parisian Jewish community with streets such as Rue Pavée, Rue des Rosiers, Rue des Ecouffes (often used as a derisive word for pawnbroker), and Rue Ferdinand Duval (a.k.a. Rue des Juifs—Street of the Jews—until 1900). Read More Flowers, Birds, a Jewish Community, and a Murder