I cut the bold part of this because I don't think it's right (aside from the second bit being natter):
- Before toilets, there were outhouses. Before outhouses, there were chamber pots. What do you do when the chamber pot is full? Throw it out the window. That's why tradition dictates that gentlemen walk on the right side when out with a lady: so that he gets hit with the shit and she doesn't. More polite dumpers would shout "gare à l'eau!" (French: "watch out for the water") to warn passers-by, from which we get the word "loo".
- Did everyone walk in the same direction on mediaeval pavements? Not to mention that mediaeval streets were very often narrow enough that whichever side you walked on you'd be more or less as near to a building as the other party.
Does anyone have a source for this? The version I heard is that the man walks on the right so his sword arm is free.
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Cut the pothole from "Renaissance Faire" to "Society for Creative Anachronism." As an SCA member, I can say that there's some real difference between the two organizations. Putting aside the fact that the SCA tends to less thematic accuracy but more detail accuracy, a Renaissance Faire is a performance put on by a group of performers for a bunch of non-performers. An SCA event is something that the attendees do for themselves; there's no distinction between 'staff' and 'guests', because everyone is both staff and guests.
In other words, they aren't the same group, they're two different groups, and shouldn't be confused with each other.
Re: Vikings, washing The link talking about how they actually weren't stinky also says that the description of Ibn Fadlan is likely exageration, they *DID* change the water, but probably not the basin (which to his eyes makes it just as bad).