Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's regulations on minimum gap size (had a client in the industry) https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/26620/why-do-publ...
We learn something every day
Whether we want to or not.
What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
151–160 of 557 posts
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#152> To ancient Romans, the practice of sitting on a shared toilet in an open room full of people was entirely ordinary. That's a funny thing to say for an American, because, to Europeans, American toilets are much too public: doors don't go to the floor or ceiling, and even "walls" are thin sheets of wood/plastic loosely joined together with huge spaces between them. It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit a…
In my high school, the stall doors were removed because kids were smoking in them.
That reminds me of an interesting tidbit from my youth. In elementary school, the stall doors were removed, I suppose for the same reason. Because of that, nobody ever used them. You just had to hold it. One day, I just had to go. One of my wonderful classmates walked in on me in there, and I was mercilessly mocked for quite a while afterwords. Good times.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#153I think a machine vision directed spray is the future. I don't fancy collecting the training data though.
Please no. I don't want asshole recognition software tracking my movements from washroom to washroom.
Are you suggesting that each human has a unique anus-print? Or is this just some shitty theory of yours?
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#154When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00A0RHSJO/ $35 and installs in 10 mins with included tools on most toilets. I have installed them on every toilet I regularly use and somewhat internally question anyone who uses Amazon and toilets and doesn’t have one. It also now bothers me when I stay in a 5 star hotel in the US and there is no bidet; I have seriously considered installing one of these (and leaving it) in each hotel…
This is great if you don't have small children -- I discovered this the hard way... Otherwise, you probably need something with an auto shut off watchdog timer.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#155> To ancient Romans, the practice of sitting on a shared toilet in an open room full of people was entirely ordinary. That's a funny thing to say for an American, because, to Europeans, American toilets are much too public: doors don't go to the floor or ceiling, and even "walls" are thin sheets of wood/plastic loosely joined together with huge spaces between them. It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit a…
In many public places, it's a homeless / drug deterrent. There's a perception that a private stall creates an opportunity for drug use among the indigent population. It's an interesting commentary on the "world's richest nation" when public stalls are made uncomfortable to deter homeless from having a place to defecate. By contrast, look at the number of coffee shop bathrooms (for example) that use a code system to f…
> By contrast, look at the number of coffee shop bathrooms (for example) that use a code system to further keep out the riff-raff, and in exchange generally offer a more private setting - maybe not European standards, but more private nonetheless.
Makes sense if you’ve been responsible for a bathroom that has been defiled. I worked in a retail shop where a homeless person bathed himself from the sink and made things such a mess that the bathroom had to be closed off from both customers and employees. It was, bluntly, gross.
Being homeless should not rob people of access to basics such as a bathroom. At the same time, businesses should not have to fill in for this need. The solution, as I see it, is improving access to city resources with a budget designed to serve the homeless. I don’t know how to accomplish this; it just seems most appropriate to me given my limited knowledge.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#156TL;DR:
> an ancient Roman would grab a tersorium (or, in my technical terms, a “toilet brush for your butt”). A tersorium is an ingenious little device made by attaching a natural sponge (from the Mediterranean Sea, of course) to the end of a stick. Our ancient Roman would simply wipe him- or herself, rinse the tersorium in the running water or a small bucket of vinegar, and return it to the stand for the next person to use.
The question is finally answered in the 11th paragraph of the article.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#157Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the 6th post I have seen this week along the formula (1) I am from Europe and I went to America. (2) Americans do things in a way I find unusual and/or distressing. (3) The cause must be a character flaw shared by all Americans (security and puritanical reasons...?).
Eh, when someone says "it sure feels strange, and very difficult to get used," it doesn't have to be negative. You can take it as a "character flaw" jibe, but it's really just an observation. source: American that is still in shock by septic tank users that have to throw their feces-paper in the trashcan.
I grew up near Tacoma, WA with a septic tank. Every house on the street has one. We had to have a septic truck come out and pump it every few years. Otherwise it was just like sewer.
They did put sewers in about 15 years after the houses were built, and mandated hooking into it on the next septic tank pumping. But the tanks are left underground, as removing them would leave a 20 foot hole in the backyard of each house.
In short, what's this about tossing your stool in the trash?
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit alone in a toilet; I still don't know if it's for security purposes (to check if someone has a heart failure?) or puritanical reasons (make sure people aren't having sex?) but it sure feels strange, and very difficult to get used to when one comes from a different culture. I've always thought it was far less interesting than that: they're cheaper and faster to inst…
There's regulations on minimum gap size (had a client in the industry) https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/26620/why-do-publ...
Ok, so cost and cleanability might be incentive so have doors like that, but not incentives to make regulations.
Those regulations likely there for "decency and safety". E.g. to discourage people having sex, or to make it more obvious if someone passes out. That is: the regulations really are there to make reduce privacy.
There might be good arguments for reducing privacy, but that is still the proximate goal of the rules.