(sparsum prolixus telum)

The term “blunderbuss” is of Dutch origin, from the Dutch word donderbus, which is a combination of donder, meaning “thunder”, and buss, meaning “Pipe”.

When a blunderbuss is ready to fire you have very little warning. It’s coming out there, and it’s coming out now! After assuming the correct birthing posture, with a huge explosion of gas (hereafter known as “the propellant”), your work is done. A sizeable dump is evacuated in less than a second.

Initial inspection of the bowl reveals it to look like it’s been on the receiving end of Yosemite Sam’s shotgun – the bowl being peppered with detritus and, had it been alive, would surely be dead now.

One flush is generally not enough to remove the “buckshot”, and will usually require some manual brushing intervention to return the bowl to its former pristene state.