Category — Blog

Venture Capitalist Brad Feld wanted to donate money to MIT in exchange for naming rights to one of the campus’ bathrooms. They rejected his offer, but the University of Colorado in Boulder was more than happy to grant Brad his wish. And so it is that the men’s bathroom on the second floor of the ATLAS building now bears a plaque with Brad’s name, and the following advice:

The best ideas often come at inconvenient times. Don’t ever close your mind to them.

Amen to that, Brad.

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Anonymous writes:

British Toilet Association

I kid you not:

http://www.britloos.co.uk/

In fact I did know this, but I think it bears a mention here anyways. The BTA is a wonderful organization, championing the cause of better public toilets. More countries need a group like this.

Anne writes:

Love your website.

Something that really grinds me is when a woman sits in the stall next to me at work where there are 4 stalls and the 3 are unoccupied. I don’t sit next to anyone unless I have no choice. This is more bothersome with women I know than in public. I also try not to go to the bathroom if I’ve just seen someone head toward it. I have the luxury based on where I sit of seeing that sort of thing. I like my privacy and I like to give others theirs (another take on the Golden Rule).

That’s a tough one Anne. On the one hand, I have to agree - it’s pretty silly to use a stall right beside another occupied stall when there are others available. On the other hand, especially for stalls cleanliness trumps proximity. I think it’s fine to use an adjacent stall if the others are dirty, running out of toilet paper, doors don’t lock, etc. But all things equal, there’s no reason to plop yourself down right beside somebody else.

As for the timing, it’s absolutely a nice touch to wait for a lull in the bathroom if you can. Just so long as you don’t cause an accident in the process!

Larry writes:

What about the men who do not lift the toilet lid when urinating?

Honestly, I don’t have an issue with the act of urinating with the seat down itself. The problem is with men who have bad aim, and then refuse to clean up after themselves. Seat down or seat up, if you get pee droplets on the seat or the rim or the floor, you really ought to wipe those up!

It’s definitely bad etiquette to leave pee anywhere in the bathroom other than properly inside the toilet.

Just how much room for novelty restaurants is there in Taiwan? Apparently a lot, because Modern Toilet Diner is one of not two but twelve restaurants in the chain. The toilet theme even reaches the menu, but let’s hope it reaches there in name only…

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If you are a woman, and you ever use a public bathroom in Korea, I’d advise you to be on the lookout for peeping toms - at least if this sign snapped by flickr user will_hybrid is any indication…

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S writes…

I work in an office with 8 other women. We have two unisex bathrooms with no automatic closers on them. I sit within sight of the open door and hate seeing the toilet. I have expressed this concern to all other co-workers and the door is still open most of the time. Naturally, every so often there are personal feminine items in the bathroom in plain sight. We are having a lot of visitors from within our company here soon (more than 100) and I have expressed to my boss the need for automatic closers on the doors. By the way all other bathrooms have automatic closers, including the ones adjacent to my boss’s office door.

What is your take on this? To close or not to close?

My response:

I absolutely agree that bathroom doors should be closed at all times in the workplace. If automatic closers can’t (or won’t) be installed, then I think everybody should be encouraged to close the doors when they leave the bathroom.

I wish I could offer some strategy to help with your boss or coworkers, but I can only wish you good luck.

Consider yourself warned. Next time you launch a few swear words at your toilet (don’t we all on occasion?), you might just find yourself facing a ticket. That’s right, a woman from Scranton (Home of The Office?!?!) let her toilet know just how she was feeling - potentially to the tune of $300 and 90 days in jail.

If you can believe it, a neighbor heard her, and Dawn Herb was cited for disorderly conduct! I am never moving to Scranton!

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Sim Jae-Duck was born in a toilet (though the article is woefully short on details there). It seems this may have propelled him towards his current life of toilet fanaticism. The Korean man has started the World Toilet Association which he hopes will work alongside the World Toilet Organization (confused yet?) to promote cleaner toilets in poor and developing countries across the globe.

Good on him!

And to cap off his career, he plans to live out his days in a brand-new toilet shaped house. This is where Mr Sim and I stop agreeing on things…

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Especially not if you happen to be using a public bathroom when Mariah Carey and her cronies decide to enter. Apparently Mariah’s lackeys tried to kick a couple of girls out of the bathroom when Mariah wanted to use it. Refusing to leave, and apparently looking quite a bit like peeping toms (pun fully intended), they were warned against ogling Mariah during the act.

FYI: It’s piss-poor etiquette (again, pun fully intended) to kick people out of a public bathroom just because you have a shy bladder.

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