In its endless front page pursuit of the trivial, the Hartford Courant today ran a front page article on the outhouses of Chester, a posh community in Middlesex County. Since this is considered critically newsworthy by so august an institution as the nation’s oldest newspaper can anyone criticize me for taking up the subject. It is, after all, only fitting that I point out that here in Groton, where we’re a bit more downscale, in fact at my very home, we have one of the finest examples of outhouses in the state-nay, I must say, probably in the nation.
Our outhouse must have been a deluxe model in its day.
It may not look like much, but open the door and take a look inside. It’s a genuine four-seater. That’s right, a large percentage of the family could have used it all at the same time. No doubt some historian of the everyday could explain the need for the multiple thrones. Perhaps each family member had an assigned seat. Perhaps it was felt that the family that sat together…..whatever.
I’m sure the Courant will want to follow up on its groundbreaking front page outhouse journalism by delving into the mysteries of our outhouse. The entire subject has “Pulitzer” written all over it, but only if they expand it into a series. It would also save them the trouble of wading through, and possibly printing, all the icky news that tends to clog the front pages of some other newspapers.
In all seriousness, I’m not saying that this story has no place in a newspaper. But on the front page? These front page fluff pieces are becoming an everyday occurrence in the Courant (along with the front page ads). Aren’t you supposed to commit attempted journalism on the front page, and save the human interest stories for the Leisure section? We get the Shoreline edition, by the way, which apparently is defined as covering Middlesex (which includes Chester) and New Haven Counties. The Courant delivers here in the boonies, but we are apparently not worthy of inclusion in the Shoreline communities. I don’t know if the outhouses of Chester made it onto the front page of the Hartford edition.
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