Ugh, standing in line for the bathroom.
Waiting your turn to a cacophony of flushes, stalls slamming open and closed, hand dryers
blowing, and…other sounds.
Yeah my favorite thing in the world.
Like yesterday, I was standing there thinking and thinking, until the place started stinking
and stinking!
Ew!
I rushed out!
Guess I can hold it.
Why are some public bathrooms so stinky?
Well, one reason is that the toilets in most public bathrooms don’t have lids, so the
aroma lets loose.
Could it be that city planners want the smell to chase you away, thereby speeding up the
line?
Is that why public toilets don’t have lids?
On the other hand, why do we have lids in private privies?
Well, to tamp down the odor, of course.
But lids serve a lot of functions…
They keep you from getting sprayed when you flush!
They also prevent stuff in your pockets, like your keys, from falling in.
You’d be surprised how many cellphones splash into toilets!
Falling in the toilet is one of the most common ways cellphones get damaged (and would probably
be rated the “most” common way if people weren’t too embarrassed to report it!)
If your phone falls into the toilet in a public restroom that has a super-fast air-blaster
for your hands, you “might” have a shot at drying it out before water damages it (but
that’s another video).
But if you drop your phone down a port-a-potty …well you can kiss that one goodbye – but
I wouldn’t do that now.
Try writing a letter instead.
Speaking of writing: Graffiti—that scrawl on the bathroom wall—is another reason public
toilets don’t have lids.
Before cellphones, if Johnny spotted the number for a good restaurant scribbled over the sink,
he’d write it on the toilet lid, then rip the lid off and carry it to the payphone to
make a reservation.
And if the restaurant was busy when he arrived?
No problem! — he’d brought his own seat!
Before Garage bands were popular, Bathroom Bands were all the rage.
When the band’s roommates needed the lavatory, musicians often practiced in public restrooms.
While lead singers broke into song, drummers—practicing their licks—broke the seats!
Did I say all the rage?
I meant all the outrage…
In riots everywhere, angry potty-goers ripped off the lids out from under the drummer’s
sticks and cried “No more!”
(But it’s still fine to sing in the shower.)
At home, things like toothbrushes and medication are way better off bouncing against a lid
than falling down the hole.
Luckily, in public bathrooms there’s less of a chance of this, as the sink is usually
in a separate location.
Still, it’s a public space, so go easy on the grooming.
It’s OK to pick the spinach out of your teeth, but leave your blow dryer at home.
As for medicine, if you’re that sick, you might want to stay home.
You don’t want to spread germs, and there are already a lot of those in public bathrooms.
In fact, that’s probably the best reason not to have a lid on a public toilet.
Lids can be icky and we spread germs by touching icky things and then absent-mindedly touching
something else, like our food or our face.
You’re thinking about that now, aren’t you?
So, remove the lid (so there’s nothing to lift or close) and you remove a huge source
of germs!
But wash your hands anyway!
Another reason we have lids on toilets is to protect our pets.
It’s gross, but Puppy and Kitty look at the toilet as a big ol' water dish, and this
can be dangerous if you use harsh cleaning agents that might make them sick.
That goes double for public bathrooms, which battle those germs we talked about with powerful
chemicals.
So, if you bring your pup into the loo on a nice day at the dog park, make sure to keep
an eye on him!
New York City removed toilet lids so that tourists who aim their camera down the toilet
can get a better shot of Manhattan’s famous Sewer Alligators.
Unfortunately, this makes the lines longer, as those guys are shy.
Meanwhile, apartment dwellers keep the lid down and rest easy, knowing that any roving
reptiles will bash their head on the cover when they try to pay a visit.
But citizens of ancient Rome weren’t so lucky.
Ancient Rome’s public bathrooms were simply long wooden benches with several holes that
patrons would sit over.
Women weren’t allowed to use these public toilets.
In fact, there aren’t records of public toilets for women until the Victorian Era.
But I doubt that the Roman ladies minded – sometimes rats came up through those holes and bit you
on the …well, let’s just say it was a bummer.
And if you think that’s bad, sometimes the toilets exploded!
Talk about disgusting!
And dangerous too— these explosions happened because the things that dropped into the toilets
contained a mixture of hydrogen and sulfide: making a boom-boom!
Although we’ve learned to manage this problem, stories of exploding toilets persist.
They usually involve someone who innocently dumps a beauty product that mixes with the
… toilet contents … down the potty, where it festers until Johnny gets a nasty surprise.
But—when you get to the bottom of it, these are likely urban myths (which is disappointing,
but probably a good thing.)
Romans weren’t the first to install public toilets—that honor belongs to the ancient
city of Crete.
Flourishing and flushing as far back as 3000 BCE, Cretans developed ground floor latrines
that flushed by means of an overhead reservoir.
People used to get lost in Crete, sometimes for years.
Historians blame the island’s famous labyrinth—a huge maze that still exists today.
But any Bright Sider knows – they were just looking for the facilities!
Hey!
That’s another reason not to have lids in a public bathroom: so the smell can help you
find your way to it!
Hey I didn’t say it was a good reason.
After Crete, flush toilets disappeared until 1851, when an exhibition in London charged
patrons a penny for the honor.
I’m not sure if these toilets had lids, but pay-toilets are still around, and money
is one of the main reasons we find so few lids in public toilets, even the free ones.
Lids cost a lot to replace, and they need to be replaced a lot!
Believe it or not, people steal them!
I have no idea why.
They make lousy gifts and aren’t much better as souvenirs (they also take up a lot of room
in your luggage.)
Of course, it’s not just people who steal toilet lids.
The reason there’s often no toilet paper in the stall with you, is that mummies wrap
themselves in toilet paper when they need to freshen their bandages—then, if it’s
winter, they take the toilet lids and use them to go sledding.
(If you’ve never seen this, it’s because both toilet seats and freshly wrapped mummies
are white, so they’re hard to spot in the snow.)
And when the lids aren’t stolen, they break!
Hinges are a weak spot on any toilet seat and, if the bathroom is busy, hinges get a
lot of use—some of it rough.
People don’t want to touch them.
(Remember those germs?)
So, they kick the lids open and closed with their feet.
All too often, the hinges break.
Then, even though the other parts of the toilet are functioning A-Okay, the whole contraption
is marked “out of order.”
One less toilet makes that too-long line, even longer.
Every city has a budget, and spending a lot of tax-payer money on tougher toilet seats
is a hard sell.
(It also makes a rotten campaign ad: that poster of me and the toilet lid was a mistake.)
It’s easier to just remove the lids altogether.
It’s not just the sanitation department that benefits.
Police departments no longer have to break up fights over who left the seat up!
And finally there’s this: what does Kensington Palace in London and a poker game have in
common?
Occasionally, there’s a royal flush.
Oh c’mon, you could see that coming, couldn’t you?
Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a
friend!
And here are some other cool videos I think you'll enjoy.
Just click to the left or right, and remember: always stay on the Bright Side of life!