i think you guys would appreciate this. i'm listening to this audio book during my commute right now called 'little heathens', a memoir about this woman recounting her childhood growing up during the depression on an iowa farm.

...and, naturally, the topic of outhouses comes up...about how they, especially the kids, would try to get their bodily works on some kind of reliable schedule, so as not to have to trudge outside to use the outhouse at night and in the dead of winter.

but, in times of emergency, they kept a chamber pot at the top of the stairs which then had to emptied, cleaned and replaced the next day. a chore no one liked to do.

the kids called the chamber pot "the piss pot"...seems logical enough....the older men called the chamber pot "the thunder mug"
...

now, i don't know if you guys have ever heard that term before, but it was a new one for me and i almost crashed my car from laughing so hard.

the question now is -- will i ever call a toilet anything else?