Omnivore - Don't flush!

Eating. It's all about digestion. Digestion. It's all about elimination.

When I was a kid, my mother would scream "Don't flush!" when I was using the bathroom. As soon as I came out, she'd rush to the toilet bowl, looking for signs of illness. By the time I was a teenager, I was calling her a "feces reader."

Too much information?

Not nearly enough, according to a piece in today's Salon.com by Leslie Crawford. Her story mainly focuses on a little book titled What's Your Poo Telling You? Initially published as a novelty for purchase at Urban Outfitters, it's now sold 225,000 copies in grown-up bookstores everywhere. Crawford writes:

Apparently its success is proof that at long last poo has come out of the water closet....Indeed, what the book's coauthors, Josh Richman and Anish Sheth, M.D., say was once regarded as "malodorous waste" can now be openly regarded for what it is: a miracle of creation, a crystal ball of intestinal health, a feng shui of the derrière. "Like a snowflake, each poo has a wondrous uniqueness," they write. They deconstruct specimens such as the "log jam," "a cruel reminder of your inability to perform," and "hanging chads," "stubborn pieces of turd that cling."

Crawford also documents the importance of feces reading to Oprah and mentions a cook book aimed at the "intestinally challenged." And there's a funny video of New Yorkers being interviewed about the state of their poo. Check it out here.