They were once a staple in rural America, a necessity of daily life.
Today outhouses, which are outdoor toilets, are mostly gone -- but not if you walk into Janie Peel's backyard. She already has three and might have two more on the way. One is coming all the way from Texas.
``This is my newest one,'' she said, gesturing toward a vintage outhouse with two seats that was moved to her backyard without being taken apart.
PHOTO: AP
``It took three men to lift it,'' she said. ``But if we hadn't (taken it), it would have been torn down.''
Peel has always thought that outhouses are really interesting. She lives in the US state of Georgia, where she works in the real estate industry. In her free time she collects old outhouses.
``I can't stand to see old buildings torn down,'' she said.
Her favorite is an ancient outhouse that has two seats, a metal roof and crude wooden posts for corners. The rusted metal on one side has holes in it from where somebody shot it with a shotgun. The bullet holes are just where people using the outhouse would have been sitting.
Peel is not sure why the outhouse was shot. It could have been vandalism, assault or perhaps somebody's way of creating holes to let air come in and out more easily.
``It has a lot of character,'' she said. ``You have to wonder about the conversations that might have taken place in there.'' (ap)
它們一度是美國鄉村地區不可或缺的日常必需品。
時至今日,戶外廁所幾乎已消失無蹤,但走進珍妮.皮爾的後院才發現其實不然。她已經有三個戶外廁所,還有兩個正在運送途中,其中一個更遠從德州托運過來。
她一邊指著一間雙馬桶座的老式戶外廁所,一邊說:「這是我剛買的。」這個戶外廁所沒經過拆卸就被搬到她的後院。
她說:「要三個人才搬得動它。如果我們沒買下來,它就會遭到拆除。」
皮爾向來對戶外廁所很感興趣。住在美國喬治亞州的她服務於房地產業,閒暇之餘,喜歡收集老式戶外廁所。
她說:「我沒辦法眼睜睜看著老式建物被拆除。」
她最愛的是一個有雙馬桶座、金屬製屋頂和簡陋木角柱的老式戶外廁所,在其中一面生鏽的金屬牆上還有獵槍留下的彈孔,這些彈孔的位置剛好都在如廁者蹲坐的高度。
皮爾不確定這些戶外廁所為何遭到槍擊,有可能是遭人蓄意破壞、攻擊,也可能是有人為了讓空氣更容易流通而穿鑿的洞。
她說:「它很有特色。你一定很想知道那裡面曾出現過什麼樣的對話。」 (美聯社/翻譯:林倩如)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
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