2025.01.12 'TIS TRUE. THIS P.U.D. Lyn G.Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blogpost

There really are some things that I do NOT believe!  BUT I saw it in the N.Y. Times— such a trustworthy organ that this must be the hard truth.

Add to this the esteem of antiquity, 18th century no less. And, for francophiliacs, the ooh la la allure of the Folies Bergère, incredibly truth revealing a bit more female flesh than a scooped neck but less than a bare bottom. This device is nothing short of miraculous—for women only. What does a woman do when she has to urinate, and she cannot simply pull over to the side of the road to relieve herself. 

Once when we lived in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, I was waiting for the bus to arrive, and I knew I could not hold this urge, and I wasn’t old enough yet for adult pampers. I looked desperately around and saw no other way but to leave the bus stop, walk quickly around the corner and relieve myself on a well-manicured lawn. I had no tissue, and even if I had, where would I toss it?  If I had been a man, well you know.

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All this is a way to thank the NYT Magazine, for publishing an article, entitled Personal Urination Device, under the category of “Letter of Recommendation”.  Included was a gloriously bright red illustration of this new invention, “a plastic conduit provides new pathways for relief.”  The author’s name is Melissa Hart. She who wrote “Downs Syndrome Out Loud.” This writer lives in Oregon and obviously writes the truth, tells the truth, and of course is on social media. I am trained to write thank you notes so I did. 

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I even wondered if this mighty item would be something female clergy could slip into the sacristy, or sequester in the tiny kindergarten-size, toilet-only. Clergy robes which often resemble effulgent garments women wore in Victorian times. 

Thank you Melissa Hart for your humor, good courage. Also to NY Times’s (2/22/24) for foregoing gender bias for the sake of, well you know.