A mystery
I'm getting to this somewhat late, but there it is. In December, I received this letter:
A couple from Massachusetts moved into a home across from my home in Florida in January of 2008.They recently put up a display in their front yard across the street from my home. The display consists of a white toilet on a white plywood platform with 4 yellow chrysanthemums in front and small white picket fences on either side.
Just wondering if this is an old Massachusetts Holiday Tradition. Perhaps you and your readers could let me know if this is connected with Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years Day. I have known several people from Massachusetts and have never heard about this Tradition, if that is what it is.
Would like to know if it would be appropriate to tell them how nice their Holiday Display is, or just what to say, if anything. It would be correct to tell them this is the best Holiday Toilet Display I have ever seen, since it is the only one. Don't know of anyone else who put a toilet in the front yard until the Massachusetts people moved here.
I asked the writer for a photo of this Holiday Toilet Display, and was obliged:
A subsequent follow-up revealed that the display is still in place, post-holiday.
I am uncharacteristically speechless. What do you think?
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Robin Abrahamswrites the weekly "Miss Conduct" column for The Boston Globe Magazine and is the author of Miss Conduct's Mind over Manners. Robin has a PhD in psychology from Boston University and also works as a research associate at Harvard Business School. Her column is informed by her experience as a theater publicist, organizational-change communications manager, editor, stand-up comedian, and professor of psychology and English. She lives in Cambridge with her husband Marc Abrahams, the founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, and their socially challenged but charismatic dog, Milo.
