In a recent commentary in Starpress.com, columnist Chuck Avery makes the interesting observation that current home decorating magazines "glorif[y] the human need to bathe, urinate and defecate with expensive and ornate retreats." He also claims that "the people who show off their fancy bathrooms are generally the same people who hide their television sets [1] inside a piece of furniture resembling an armoire. They don't want visitors to see that they do anything so disreputable as watch television."

Is he right? Are the well-to-do becoming Shameless Shitters but shameful TV viewers?

Dave adds: One of the main points of my upcoming book is how the 18th-Century Victorians adopted the private, sequestered, indoor flush toilet because it enabled them to differentiate themselves from the stinking masses who used public outdoor privies to relieve themselves. With these "bathrooms," the rich could pretend they didn’t even shit at all. This column shows how far culture has reversed itself -- now shitting is a point of pride, and "high culture" folks differentiate themselves from the stinking masses by hiding their TVs, so no one knows that Mr. and Mrs. Yuppie watch The Simple Life just like Cletus and Brandine do.