Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Urine My Space

This is probably the only men's room post on the entire internet written this week that is in no way connected to Senator Larry Craig.

On my floor there are two men's rooms. One has three urinals and one stall, the other has five urinals and two stalls. For a quick leak, I go to the smaller (closer) men's room. When it's time for, um, a sit down, I go to the two-stall bathroom which is farther down the hall.

I have long thought the rules of engagement when faced with a bank of urinals is universally understood.

I am wrong.

Two days in a row, I have been first in, chose Urinal #3 (farthest one) and have been followed in by a student who faced with the choice of #1 or #2. Here's the scenario:

| 1 | 2 | 3 |
. . . . . . x

And they each chose #2—directly adjacent to me! WTF? This wouldn't be the first time moron students here have drawn my ire in the can.

Think you know The Rules? Take the test.

For those of you who missed Art History 101, the picture is of this.

In related news, at the library today, I used one of the crazy new waterless urinals. Saves 40,000 gallons of water a year. Per public urinal. Pretty good. Put that in the commercial building code, please.

6 comments:

michelline said...

I got a 40 out of 60 on the test. To be honest, I don't stress over urinals that much. At work, each bathroom has 2 stalls and 2 urinals so chances are you're next to someone most of the time. However, I though everyone knew that you always leave a space if possible.

We have 3 floors with identical restrooms and sometimes all 6 stalls are full. That's a real bitch.

For some reason, I guess because most of us know each other at work, some guys think it's ok to hold conversations in the restroom. That's bad enough, but I really wish people wouldn't answer their cell phones while anywhere in the bathroom. Play games and read while you're sitting on the crapper - ok. Make or take a phone call - not ok.

Mrs Furious said...

For a quick leak, I go to the smaller (closer) men's room. When it's time for, um, a sit down, I go to the two-stall bathroom which is farther down the hall.

And we all know which one you spend more time in ;)

Mike said...

I got a 35.

And I didn't even tap my foot or rub it against the foot of the guy next to me.

Mr Furious said...

I got a 40—I missed the two hardest questions—but I take issue with my "wrong" answers.

While I understand the answer to number five, I disagree, and contend that 1 is still the better choice. And that last question is crap. I'm in there to take care of business. If the bathroom is that crowded, the rules relax in my opinion—unlike in my situation when there was only two people—me and the crowder...

michelline said...

And that last question is crap. I'm in there to take care of business

Exactly. And the question left unanswered the issue of the stalls. For the last question, you could use a stall if one is available.

There's also the divider factor. Dividers automatically lessen the crowding factor, IMO. I've seen a few places with floor to ceiling dividers for the urinals, in which case I don't think it matters anymore.

Anonymous said...

I adhere to the "any port in a storm, sailor," doctrine. Meaning I don't worry about it much.

One thing that does steer my choice, though, is a puddle, whether in front of a bowl or urinal. Two with puddles and one dry, I'll go for the dry.