Art History is fascinating stuff you know. Today I learnt something quite amusing. Back in the days of ‘ye old’ about the 1500′s I think it was (I’m too pooped to lean over and check my notes) the sewer system in cities wasn’t that great. Actually it was fucking gross but back then it was normal … the sewer system ran down the middle of the street. So at night when people were all curled up in the beds and needed to go for a pee or a poop they would use their chamber pots.

In the morning they would open their windows and biff the contents out the window into the sewer that ran down the middle of the street. Now back in those days they had these weird shoe like looking things called ‘patterns’. They would wear these over top of their good shoes because they literally didn’t want to stand in poop and wreck their shoes. On an off note when it was snowing and various other ‘shit’ was on the ground these shoes would leave patterns and that is the origin of ‘pattern making’.

Anyways back to the shit flying out of windows … the tutor asked today if anyone knew about the gentleman always walking beside his lady on the side closest to the roadside. It wasn’t to protect her from dangerous vehicles as one may think today or any reason other than to protect her from flying poop and pee. In essence the guy did the gentlemanly thing and risked walking nearest the road to sheild any incoming shit.

So when your dearest walks beside you on the sidewalk it’s not because he’s protecting you from imminent danger, as much as he’d like to think he’s doing something that is an age old habit.

Protecting you from flying shit. Isn’t that gentlemanly