Slog - Comments on Mysteries of Seattle: Portable Sanitation Edition http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation They baffled and entranced me upon my arrival in Seattle in 1991, and continue to do so to this day: Honey Buckets, the Northwest's #1 provider of portable sanitation, whose portable sanitation units are called, upsettingly and inexplicably, Honey Buckets. The mystery of the Honey Bucket is reinvigorated each time I have out-of-town visitors, who invariably can't believe their eyes. Among the evergreen exclamations: "I thought you were kidding!"; "That's the actual name?"; "Holy shit!" The great unanswered questions roiling under every exclamation: Who thought naming a line of portable toilets 'Honey Buckets' was a good idea, and why?... Copyright 2008 Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:55:22 -0800 Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:51:46 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Mr. Poe Check yo' spelling of reminiscent.

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791096 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791096 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:01:44 -0800 Comment by Katelyn Aww, adorable!

]]> Katelyn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791098 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791098 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:04:23 -0800 Comment by oldguy The origin/explanation of the name comes from "honey dipping", the process of cleaning out a toilet/outhouse or other unpleasant task.

The Hobo slang dictionary says:
honey dipping - working as a shovel stiff in a sewer, or any unpleasant shovel work.

I remember the term from when I was in the Boy Scouts.

]]> oldguy http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791101 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791101 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:09:26 -0800 Comment by adrian! those are TOILETS??!??!?!? i've been getting my honey out of them for years!!!!! this expains why i hate honey.

]]> adrian! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791107 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791107 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:11:38 -0800 Comment by Winna My grandfather, who was born in 1890 and lived without indoor plumbing for most of his life, used the term honey bucket like I would use outhouse or chamber pot. Maybe it's an old-time or regional phrase?

]]> Winna http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791112 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791112 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:12:50 -0800 Comment by Essex you silly goats - honey buckets are so nicknamed from Japan where they are the large wooden bucks full of shit and piss carried to the fiends to be used to fertilize the crops

kinda cute -and so Strange that with the interest about body functions at certain places - oh, well ... maybe farmers are not so dumb as calcified city folk

great nickname - very international

]]> Essex http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791114 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791114 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:13:30 -0800 Comment by monkey Which came first, Honey Bucket or Honey Hole.

I want a BBQ brisket sandwich now.

]]> monkey http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791124 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791124 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:24:08 -0800 Comment by sniggles Oh god. "Ooze" is such a terrible, gooey word anyway, and now... I can't even find the words to illustrate my discomfort.

]]> sniggles http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791151 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791151 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:38:07 -0800 Comment by uimbyMcF Here's an interesting discussion of other words that conjour up the "ick" factor from Language Log (for linguistics geeks)http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004835.html#more.

BTW, my family referred to the tanker truck that annually pumped out the outhouse in our mountain cabin as the "Honey Hauler."

]]> uimbyMcF http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791201 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791201 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:03:49 -0800 Comment by Matt Inspired by the Melvins' song, perhaps?

]]> Matt http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791214 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791214 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:16:32 -0800 Comment by RonK, Seattle I was recently informed that under certain conditions Honey Buckets can explode - potentially damaging nearby Honey Buckets, cars, and who knows what else.

Can a Public Intern get to the bottom of this?

]]> RonK, Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791217 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791217 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:19:17 -0800 Comment by gillsans There's a Port-a-Shitter company from Central WA that has this tagline on all of their shitters: "#1 in the #2 Business." If that isn't class, I don't know what is.

It seems like that entire industry has a pretty good sense of humor, and I salute them for it!

]]> gillsans http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791222 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791222 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:23:40 -0800 Comment by Fnarf "Honey bucket" has been around forever. Airline employees call the big machine that sucks out the chemical shitters on planes that. As Oldguy and Winna point out, it's much older than that, too. Our great-grandparents knew what irony was too, you know.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791260 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791260 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:03:32 -0800 Comment by blathering michael Back in the '70's, a port-a-can company named itself "Here's Johnny!," hitching their presumably witty, urbane crappers' star to Ed McMahon's famous nightly intro of Johnny Carson. Mr. Carson was neither amused nor as anxious to hook up. The shitter co. was forced cease and desist.

]]> blathering michael http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791306 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791306 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:35:50 -0800 Comment by Dougsf When I was a teenage in the 80's, we used to steal and...errrr... repurpose... the stickers off those things. The humorless Port-a-San here in Northern California just don't cut it.

]]> Dougsf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791308 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791308 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:37:01 -0800 Comment by jz i went on outward bound through the great smoky mountains in NC when i was 13. for much of the trip, we were hiking through pristine forest where we could leave absolutely no waste behind. we hauled around a five-gallon plastic bucket that we crapped in. it was called "the honey bucket."

]]> jz http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791311 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791311 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:37:37 -0800 Comment by Algernon OTOH, this is an area where technology has greatly advanced. Forty years ago, outhouses all smelled horrible. They smelled like, well, of course they smelled like shit. These new fangled things are, if adequately serviced, at worst bearable. So I salute the Honey Bucket ooze things.

Or my gag reflex has matured and I'm too old to smell stuff.

]]> Algernon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791321 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791321 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:50:48 -0800 Comment by honeycarpet I was recently at a super nice wedding, and the honeybuckets on site were upscale 'VIP models, complete w/ carpeted floor, glass mirror, vanity-style sink/counter.
I felt like I was at the W downtown. Until I remembered how disgusting carpet is EVEN WHEN NOT IN A PUBLIC AND PORTABLE TOILET.

Holy fuck.

]]> honeycarpet http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791368 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791368 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:31:08 -0800 Comment by Orv In Minnesota (as in many other states), commercial trucks have to have their GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) posted on the side. I once saw a sewage truck there with the marking, '20,000 pounds of VERY GROSS weight.'

]]> Orv http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791489 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791489 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:06:52 -0800 Comment by ben I also did the Outward Bound course in the Great Smokey Mountains and had the 5 gallon variety of Honey Bucket. I wondered why something so foul would have such a sweet name and was told that's where the Pooh goes, as in Winnie the Pooh.

]]> ben http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791518 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791518 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:42:34 -0800 Comment by CG @15: Now that you're grown up, you can buy the stickers. Or hats or mugs. Check it out on honeybucket.com.

]]> CG http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791612 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791612 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:33:56 -0800 Comment by Emma Leigh In Maine and New Hampshire, the industry leader seems to be The Blow Brothers.

Ooh! Ooh! I know! They should get a celebrity endorsement from Larry Craig!!

]]> Emma Leigh http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791642 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/mysteries_of_seattle_portable_sanitation#c791642 City Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:51:46 -0800