a wee question for you all
29 February, 2008 by blue soup
There are two main foci for my thoughts today:
- Is the future bright?
- Wee (or rather, my lack of)
Question that has bugged me before, but really irritated me just now while I sat staring at the hook on the back of the door and still failing to get anywhere. I didn’t realise that my own worst enemy was my flipping urinary tract! But anyway, can anyone answer this:
I know that there is etiquette about where a man chooses to pee when he uses a public toilet. You know, don’t stand next to someone else if you don’t have to etc. But, if you walk into an empty set of shared toilets (ie, no occupied cubicles), does the one you choose to use say anything about you?
PS - sorry about the pun in the post title.
The far distant future is probably a very dark place. In the interim expect some brightness.
To answer your question the following is worth noting: The furthest toilet is the one that most people will choose and is therefore the dirtiest. The closest toilet is least likely to be chosen and is therefore the cleanest.
If the person has used the toilet cubicles before they tend to take ownership of it and will use it in preference to any other. There is probably some primitive instinct at work here.
I would choose the one with the least amount of piss on the floor and seat….or more likely I’d wait till I got home.
Ok, when I say “public” I mean like at work. Unless your work colleagues piss on the seat and floor? Euuw. Well, it is Smaller Coastal Town so I suppose it’s wrong to expect civilised behaviour…
If I need to use a trap (which, to be fair I try and avoid) then I’ll use one by a wall so I only have one grunting, farting git to my side rather than being flanked by them. If that’s taken then I move along one at a time until I get to a free one, check it and if it’s ok I’ll use that one.
As to urinals, there are strict rules on how these should be aproached and what it says about you if you flaunt these rules is that you’re a tw@t.
This quiz may be of some interest to you: http://gamescene.com/The_Urinal_Game_game.html
Oh, public toilet etiquette is very important, especially in the mens. First rule is to go to the farthest cubicle from the door, if the place is empty. Rule 2 is to always leave a gap between you and the person beside you. E.g. if there are 3 cubicles, the middle one should be the last resort.
dardardrinks that’s urinals, for traps it’s slightly less formal.
The toilets where I work are often totally disgusting. I have no idea where the women that I work with were brought up but they certaintly weren’t taught how to flush a toilet or other such things. Sometimes the toilets are so awful that someone has to pluck up the courage to give them a quick clean before they are useable (we do have cleaners who clean them regularly, but this is obviously not enough for some of my colleague dirty habits). I work for a very respectable organisation, but it seems the flaw in our recruitment processes is asking about toilet habits.
I know a couple of people who, on different occasions, have found poos on the floor. How is that possible???
We also have a large number of people (who are not disabled) who use the disabled toilet. I would never dare venture in there for fear of what I might find.
I would have thought that if there are three cubicle, the least used one is the middle one. As others have said, people normally go for the furthest one, the next person is then likely to pick the one at the opposite end, as it is not the done thing to use the neighbouring cubicle unless you have to, so surely the middle one is used the least? That is always the logic I have worked on.
There is a complete unwritten code about which urinal to choose, and this is without exception, universally adopted. Firstly, you choose a urinal that is next to two unoccupied ones. You also do a minimising the risk of someone occupying the cubicle next to yours exercise.
Also, there is a whole urinal etiquette:
No pairing
Unlike women, men visit the lavatory entirely for practical reasons, and it is always suspect to follow a friend to the loo immediately.
No talking
Terse conversation in the loo can take place before and after, but not during, use of the urinals.
No looking
Eyes should be aimed straight ahead or down in concentration; glances towards your neighbour are very suggestive.
No touching
Hands should be in front of you. An elbow bump can be deflated by a sober apology, but without turning the head.
And loo choice - the one nearest the fan of course.
yes, it does.