Member-only story
I wrote the first version of the Wikipedia article about the toilet brush
It’s probably my legacy to the world.
I wrote the first version of the Wikipedia article about the toilet brush. I know. And no, I don’t know where my knighthood has got to either.
Before then, if you went to Wikipedia and searched for toilet brush, you were presented with an empty page saying that, if you were so inclined, you could create a new article.
Until that moment, around the world people were, staring, confused, at the upturned, spiky tree in the corner of their bathroom, unable to comprehend what it might be.
It’s changed, of course, in the intervening 13 years. But even now, the current version contains little remnants of the slightly facetious version I started with:
The toilet brush can be used to clean the upper area of the toilet, around the bowl.[1] However, it cannot be used to clean very far into the toilet’s U-bend and should not be used to clean the toilet seat.[2]
In East Anglia where I grew up, this is what ‘passes’ for humour. We’re a very scatological people.
I think about this page sometimes. And if I’m feeling low or in a self-flagellating mood, it occurs to me that this may be my greatest contribution to humanity.
