Still on hiatus, but...

... I had to lower the tone and share a little learning.
Louis Bourdaloue SJ was one of the most noted French preachers of the 17th Century. He was summoned to Versailles on numerous occasions and his sermons were so popular that one had to arrive hours early to be assured of a seat. However, as I discovered in a museum today, his reputation as a preacher is not the reason that his name is still remembered. Because of the inevitable hours of waiting before hearing him the ladies of the court were, it would seem, frequently 'caught short' and therefore had to make appropriate arrangements. They would conceal about their persons a little portable urinal, an example of which I saw in a museum today, then and now known as a 'Bourdaloue'.