two for one
during a bus tour of edinburgh the other day, i learned a bit about the history of the city's waste management. at the same time, i realized that many times, we don't know how to flush our own toilets.

you see, back in the day, edinburgh was so starved for space that they simply did not have any waste management facilities or any room for a public dump or landfill. every night at 10 pm, people would open up their windows facing the street and yell a french phrase that sounds like "GUARDAYLOO" (which means something like "watch out for the water") and hurl all of the household's waste (trash, pee, poo, the works) into the center of the street. lovely. oh btw, edinburgh was voted "the worst place to live in europe" for 250 consecutive years, an honor that the people here seem to be very proud of.

on to the story. so you may ask, where did all this waste go? well, edinburgh's nice, cobblestone streets are pretty steep, so all this nasty stuff just oozed down the street, via gravity. and conveniently enough, it also rains 90% of the time here, so the rain also helped all this yummy gummy garbage trickle down the street..

..all the way until it reached a wonderful, little pond: THE SOURCE OF THE CITY'S DRINKING WATER. what a b-e-a-utiful story, doncha think?

unfortunately, i think this is the same way many of us deal with our own problems. instead of dealing with the matter directly, in order to find a permanent solution to the situation, we merely put it off. sure, it may seem easier to just ignore or find a temporary fix to the problem, but sooner or later, you'll find a bigger dilemna: DOODOO IN YOUR WATER!

ok jk, but you get my drift, right?