Word of the Day

The plumbing was complicated and noisy and the bedpan washer made a peculiar clanging noise, but because some time in the distant future the hospital was to be re-sited and become a modern showpiece with every conceivable mod con the architect and Hospital Committee could think of, the antediluvian conditions which at present existed were overlooked--not by the nursing staff, of course, who had to cope with them and voiced their complaints, singly and in groups, round the clock.
Britannia All At Sea

Noun: mod con
Usage: Brit
Modern convenience; the appliances and conveniences characteristic of a modern house (ie, heating, electricity, plumbing)

I can honestly say that before I picked up a Betty Neels I had never heard the phrase mod con. When you read this the entire inhabitants (including the short diapered fellow) of La Casa van Voorhees will be camping...in the wilderness...without the mod cons to which Mevrouw Betty Keira van Voorhees is so lovingly attached...without even a metered geyser to call my own.

Happily, if you're willing to share with hundreds of others, Honeyman State Park boasts warm showers and flushing loos. It was created by the CCC during the Great Depression under the FDR administration--which reminds me of the TVA (another FDR program) designed to deliver a few mod cons to the Tennessee Valley...