Vergil,

Privy-digging is one of the biggest forms of site-looting here in Richmond. The
local bottle collector clubs love to tear into every privy they can find, week
after week after week!

Dan

Vergil Noble wrote:

>      Speaking of clandestine digging, anyone see the syndicated medical
>      advice column by Dr. Gott published in many Saturday newspapers this
>      past weekend?  The writer wanted to know if he could contract any
>      diseases while "privy digging."  It seems he has eye on some
>      50-year-old privies that he wants to get into for bottles and other
>      relics.  The good doctor advised him that there was probably very
>      little health risk, but wondered why he would be intersted in privies
>      used in the 1950s--since that was in his own lifetime and folks then
>      rarely used them as trash recepticles.  Instead, he highly recommended
>      searching for privies on old farmsteads, where the you could find
>      really good stuff--the older, the better!
>
>      Imagine if we anyone were to hand out harmful and outrageous medical
>      advice publicly.  Accordingly, I'm planning to write a pretty pointed
>      letter to Dr. Gott and to my local newspaper.  Unfortunately, I did
>      not bring the paper in to the office today, but I will attempt to scan
>      the text and provide the doctor's address tomorrow for those of you
>      interested in piling on.  Perhaps a coordinated campaign of protest
>      might even result in a retraction of such bad advice.
>
>      [log in to unmask]

--
Dan Mouer
"Pioneer"
http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm