18 Comments

1. 

   “Man” means “human”, and that’s not a human?

   (Or is it just the gross of being barefoot in a public bathroom?)

2. 

   From “Bridge to Terebithia” by Katherine Petterson:

   Lord, he loved to draw. Animals, mostly. Not regular animals like Miss Bessie or the chickens, but crazy animals with problems-for some reason he liked to put his beasts into impossible fixes. This one was a hippopotamus just leaving the edge of the cliff, turning over and over – you could tell by the
   curving lines – in the air toward the sea below where surprised fish were leaping goggle-eyed
   out of the water. There was a balloon over the hippopotamus – where his head should have been but his bottom actually was – “Oh!” it was saying. “I seem to have forgotten my glasses.”

   Jesse began to smile. If he decided to show it to May Belle, he would have to explain the joke, but once he did, she would laugh like a live audience on TV.

   —- It’s …. a gorilla… in the restroom! That’s a surprise! That a crazy in animal in an impossible fix for some reason!

3. 

   The door to the men’s room has a window, so the cartoonist can show it written backwards from inside? Not much privacy there.

4. 

   billybob, the glass might be translucent at best. I’ve seen this.

5. 

   The windowless sort of bathroom becomes very difficult to navigate in case of power outage.

6. 

   James Pollock – or if you take too long and the motion-activated lights shut off. Which happens to me occasionally in our office building.

7. 

   Even in motion-activated lighting, the lighting near the exits should be on all the time. And bathrooms shouldn’t have motion lighting at all. You don’t want people to have to jump and wave their arms while they’re making use of a urinal.

8. 

   I’m sure this has happened at Anthrocon.

9. 

   “Do not go in there. Someone’s had too many bananas recently.”

10. 

    Having “Men” reflected backwards on the mirror only makes sense if it is written on the inside of the door (or, I guess, somewhere else within the men’s room, which seems equally unlikely). If it was written on translucent glass, so as to be readable from the exterior but visible in the interior, it would be reflected forwards on the glass.

    I don’t think it’s really part of the joke. I think it’s just there as an (arguably superfluous) indicator that this is a public restroom.

    James Pollock, while your arguments against motion-sensor lights in restrooms are sound, they exist all the same. Unfortunately.

11. 

    At one of the campgrounds we go to there is a motion activated light in the ladies room. Sometimes when we are traveling one needs to “sit” for awhile – especially if one’s dinner is not sitting well, and I have had problems with the lights going out – and no, there is no other lighting near the exits. I also have had the same problem in some stores (when on the road in the RV we try not to use the RV toilet as much as possible) and I have been left in the dark in same.

12. 

    This feels like a weak attempt at a Chas. Addams style cartoon. There are not a few of those that feature someone doing something prosaic seeing something very odd doing the same thing.

13. 

    Re: MerylA 1/1/19 3:17am

    If you are in a stall in a larger bathroom, the only way the light will go out is because of lack of motion, so, obviously, there is no one outside of your stall. So, from your seat, unlock the stall door (assuming it is within reach), swing it open and closed, and relock it. That motion should trigger the light to go on (assuming the light sensor is within view of the stall door). This would be an option even if there are others in other stalls, since you will still have your privacy when you swing the stall door open and closed.

14. 

    That should have read:
    MerylA 1/3/19 3:17am

15. 

    “while your arguments against motion-sensor lights in restrooms are sound, they exist all the same. ”

    I didn’t say there weren’t. But in buildings public enough to be covered by the fire code, permanent lights for the exits are part of the fire code.

16. 

    Just because there’s a light showing where the exit is doesn’t mean that there’s enough light to see anything in your stall. Or, at least, anything more than a faint red glow showing around the door of your stall.

17. 

    Almost everyone carries around a device that can provide a bit of illumination in a dark room. And more people use it in the rest room than should.

18. 

    Pinny – thank you. I am generally the only one in there as we are late night people and everyone else has turned in for the night, as well as most of the RVs and trailers are large than us and have actual bathrooms in them so people use them more than we use our toilet closet. (Except the two years the RV park we normally go to decided to put up permanent teepees which did not have toilets in them in and the people in them were in the bathroom – an idea – and the teepees – now gone) I can basically find my way around the bathroom in the dark, but as Mark in Boston mentioned – there is a light on the device I use to play solitaire – with me anyway.