Sunday, July 20, 2008

Miss Fixit


I'm feeling all-powerful today. Just did my first home-maintenance job. The fill valve on my upstairs commode needed replacing, and I did it myself--not without a little sweating and swearing and fighting with tools in tight places. But I did it, and now my bathroom is silent. Finally.

Incidentally, while searching for the picture I used in this post I found out it's not really called "Rosie the Riveter." People started calling it that in the 1970s, but at the time is was painted, the woman in it had no name. It was a poster painted for Westinghouse, probably as a war effort morale-booster. The real Rosie the Riveter painting was done by Norman Rockwell as a cover for the Saturday Evening Post, and can be found here. Makes more sense, really, since the woman in the picture above isn't riveting anything.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the repair. I knew that a Rosie the Riveter was on the Saturday Evening Post, but I always assumed it was the picture above. A nice bit of trivia, thanks.

Just Me said...

I knew that somewhere back in my memory banks, probably when I visited the Rockwell Museum, but I'd long since forgotten and attributed the title to the Westinghouse ad.

Congrats on fixing the leaky toilet. You've graduated to lesson #2, replacing the bathroom faucets. (A word to the wise: be super-duper careful if you're tempted to take a wrench to the drain pipe under the sink. I speak from experience.)

Anna said...

Interesting, you call a lavatory a commode, over here we would call one of those invalid potties sunk in a chair a commode. That or a rather ornate chest of drawers.

She may not be Rosie the Riveter but she's pretty riveting. Congratulations on the plumbing.

--V said...

I may not have used the right word. I was trying to be all euphemistic 'cause I didn't want to say "toilet." Don't know why. But there, I just did anyway.

I checked wiktionary, and apparently it can be either a chest of drawers, a wash stand, a chair with a chamber pot in it, or a toilet. Isn't English wonderful?

Anonymous said...

Yes - just as long as you're both absolutely clear what you mean when one of you says, "May I use the commode?"

--V said...

Yes indeedy. There's a mental image I didn't want. Pardon me while I go wash out my brain....