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Originally posted by Carmel:
And unlike children, you can't put your cat into nappies, and it doesn't grow out of it, and it won't eventually listen to reason.

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Ah, but also unlike children, when you have been sufficiently amused by it, you can dump it out the door without the Social Services coming round.

and corgigreta...try auto racing for short lines for women...watching long lines of men waiting for the bathroom after consuming enormous quantities of cheap beer is almost as much fun as watching cars go around and around and around and around.

babybear, the urinals in the UK and Europe seem to be the more "individual" ones where you get your own basin. (As an aside, the ones in Sweden are placed quite high up; even I at about 1.8m just made it!) They have small "cakes", 5 or so cm. The bottom has slits rather than an open tube.

Most in Oz and in Canada I have used are giant metallic things which span metres. These are where you'd get the bigger cakes. I still remember the expression of a girl at school who entered the men's bathroom on a dare: "Oh my god! There's a huge metal thing along the wall!!!"

Increasingly they seem to be being replaced with "intelligent" urinals that flush detergent or something with the water. One particularly "intelligent" urinal I used in San Francisco proudly announced it did not use water or anything, but rather had some form of liquid in the drain that broke down the waste for maximum water-saving efficiency and hygiene!

Erin, has the situation improved at all?

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Originally posted by CorgiGreta:
Some random thoughts:

Why are the public facilities for women always inadequate for the number of women attempting to use them? This is especially unfair because we don't have that thingie to squeeze while waiting in an interminable line.

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Before Denver built its new football stadium, the lines in the women's rooms were notoriously long. Several years ago, they almost had a riot during a game when some women, tired of waiting in line, stormed one of the mens rooms, blocked the entrance door so that no more men could get in, ran the men out, and proceeded to turn it into an ad hoc extra facility.

They became known as the Urinal Nazis, and the Denver TV stations reported it as the lead story for several days running. Of course the men complained, and for subsequent games, they had to post armed Denver cops at the doors of all the men's rooms at Mile High Stadium to protect the men from cranky women with full bladders.

Similarly, when they were building Denver International Airport some years ago, there was talk of installing a patented urinal for women in all the ladies rooms. From descriptions in the press, it resembled the "Mr. Thirsty" appliance at the Dentist's office--only Larger.

I never should have had carpeting, but my combination bedroom/office always was difficult to keep warm, so my dad put down some carpeting for me some years ago. Leonora, my cat, has been angry with me recently because I have been spending time at the computer rather than doing better things (such as stroking her) and has used the area under the desk for her own private latrine.

Sprinkle the Sodium bicarb on the carpet and leave for two days, then hoover. You could also try having bowls of the stuff around the area. Also orange peel is said be avoided by cats.

The sodium bicarb is very good for 'spillage' from children too!

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Originally posted by Firenze:
One thing I learnt was always carry bundles of tissues - oh, that and the Cantonese for 'Where is the toilet?'

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But could you understand the answer?

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Originally posted by babybear:
Before you do that, have you tired Sodium Bicarb? I don't know if it would be enough to remove the smell, but it might be worth a try.

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I used to use white vinegar to clean up after my dog. Vinegar is acidic, and urine is alkaline. The vinegar counteracts the urine.

bb -- lifesavers are the same shape as Polo Mints. However, I (unlike Greta) have never seen a urinal cake in that shape. One wonders from where Greta gained this knowledge?

Urinal cakes are generally cylindrical cakes of waxy substance in shocking yellow, pink or blue. Occasionally they are rather small and one might find several per urinal. generally they are 3 or so inches across and one would expect one per.

Urinals in this country are generally individual, and either extend to the floor or else hang on the wall like an unattractive post-modern garden fountain. The "cake" sits in the bottom, or basin, where there may or may not be water, but genrally is urine from the previous user.

In England you may find the same sort of urinals, or you may find the stainless steel models that the Admiral describes. These look like some sort of trough for feeding animals, and generally drain to one central pipe, which means if several people are using one there is a sort of stream of... well, you know what, running down the length of it. You will generally find the stainless steel model in country pubs of a certain vintage, night clubs, and sometimes old cinemas.

A note on pronunciation. In American English "urinal" is pronounced with the accent on the first sylable, and the "i" is short, as in "virginal". In proper English, the accent is on the second syllable, which is also a long "i", hence "ur-EYE-nal".

Didactic Urinals

Am I the only one who finds little messages (usually along the lines of "Don't Do Drugs") on the mat on which the urine cake rests to be just kind of weird? Do they have moralistic messages in Brit urinals or is this an American thing only?

From this

(Ferndale, MI -- December 11, 2000) Men visiting the restroom at area bars and restaurants can look down for a safe sex message courtesy of the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project (MAPP). The non-profit HIV education organization has distributed thousands of urinal mats printed with the message, “Man’s Other Best Friend. Play Safe. Use a Condom.”

The mats were distributed free to dozens of bars and restaurants in Michigan as part of a project funded by the Michigan Department of Community Health.

HT, a very good explanation. Does anyone else have the irrational fear when you stand on the metal over the trough that it might collapse and your shoes will splash in the ... ?

I find this thread absolutely amazing, and upon reflection, am embarassed by my contributions to it.

But all this leads me to conclude that I prefer the arrangements for women, but wish there were more of them.

Perhaps it's the fascination with that which cannot be said in polite society...a chance to talk about what we have never talked about before.

I too am a bit shocked reading what I have written and imagining friends reading it.

Just this once, I shall descend to join in toilet talk. Once, I put on my best clothes and walked through Harrods... one outfit there, of course, would cost enough to clothe me for a year, but I thought it would be fun. The charade did not work. No sales assistant mistook me for a true customer. I drowned my sorrows by paying a pound for the privilege of peeing... such extravagance.

What is your apartment like now?

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Originally posted by tomb:
I find this thread absolutely amazing, and upon reflection, am embarassed by my contributions to it.

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Oh please don't be! And that goes for the Admiral as well.

For a lot of women this is knowledge that could not have been gotten from other sources. Thank you to all the men who have explained things. You have done so in a clear and unembarassing way.

I believe that India is even more interested in bowel movements than any other nation. But that information was from the "Goodness Gracious me" team, and they might just have been pulling our legs.

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Originally posted by Moo:
Erin

What is your apartment like now?

Moo

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Originally posted by Newman's Own:
Just this once, I shall descend to join in toilet talk. Once, I put on my best clothes and walked through Harrods... I drowned my sorrows by paying a pound for the privilege of peeing... such extravagance.

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If you go upstairs, it's free. They only charge on the ground floor, because so many people come in, never buy anything, use the loo and leave.

Or so I'm told.

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Originally posted by Carmel:
If you go upstairs, it's free. They only charge on the ground floor, because so many people come in, never buy anything, use the loo and leave.

Or so I'm told.

Better still, go somewhere else.

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Originally posted by Benedictus:
what you will get is boiling the cats on the stove, with lemon, garlic, and onion. Perhaps you should try it with chicken.

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It does not contain lemon or garlic.

For the piece de resistence, pour stew over urine cakes and serve warm.

All you need is to fry the onions in butter and cinnamon to perfume the air and kill odors.

Boiling the cats would create an additional bad smell.

The reason that women don't have sufficient bathroom facilities is because architectural standards are designed by men, and they think that equal floor space means equal facilities, and it has never occurred to them (even after numerous women have pointed it out) that you can fit more urinals in a given space than you can fit toilet stalls, and that it takes less time to unzip and piss than it does to undo the layers of formal women's wear (including panty hose), not to mention getting it all back in order.
Not to mention that women have other reasons to use the toilet stalls. Not to mention that I have read articles about this problem in architectural publications. The guys still don't get it.

Bottom line -- public restrooms are designed by men and they are TOTALLY CLUELESS.

Chat Brunswick Avec Les Gateaux Des Pissoirs.

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Originally posted by Joan the Dwarf:
Like Harvey Nicks just 'round the corner where the loos are free and come complete with attendent and lots of free perfume and handcream (an added bonus for an excema sufferer).

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If you can handle these, you're lucky. The penalty for my touching anything like this is
a week of skin like fire, and people avoiding you in the street.

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Originally posted by jlg:
Bottom line -- public restrooms are designed by men and they are TOTALLY CLUELESS.

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they can't ALL be designed by men...

the 'wash-basin' in the mens' loos at the student union here in manchester looks like a huge circular metalic urinal. many drunk students (and some not so drunk) have made the mistake of peeing in it. any man would've known that that's a really daft shaped wash-basin for a male toilet. hell, i almost made the mistake of going in it when they built it.

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Originally posted by Newman's Own:
it is nice to know I blew an entire pound just for a high class piss!

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