In 1929, Charles Sale authored a small book of humor entitled The Specialist, about a country handyman, Lem Putt, who one day decided to become “the champion privy builder of Sangamon County.” He took all aspects of his craft seriously, first and foremost the question of location. He suggests building a privy near a woodpile since “a timid woman . . . is too bashful to go direct out so she’ll go to the woodpile, pick up the wood, and go back to the house to watch her chance.” This means that the wood box will get filled by noon. He suggests beams over joists since nobody likes a “diggin’ party.” (“Aunt Emmy ain’t gettin’ a mite lighter. Some day she might be out there when them joists give way and there she’d be—catched.”) He prefers lean-to roof designs over a pitched roof (less room for wasp nests), a hook and eye over a spool and thread to fasten the door (“either the spool or thread will give way and there you are . . .”), crescent moon designs over a window for ventilation, and a nail to hang the catalog as well as a box for the corn cobs (“Pa’s of the old school and would prefer the box”). When asked how long the average mail-order catalog ought to last he opines, “. . . by placin’ the catalog in there, say in January—when you get your new one—you should be into the harness section by June.” He also railed against Mr. Sears Roebuck, who put too many stiff colored pages in the catalog. It was “hard to figger.”