Cynde,
We just watched 'Catch Me if You Can' this weekend, and you're right - ICK! (If that grossed you out, DO NOT see the movie "Trainspotting!")

"Since men usually seem to do it all aster than the women, I often use their toilets at cinemas or theaters. _They_ are imbarassed when I leave the stall ;-P

Alice Twain"

Alice this reminds me of a concert that we attended last fall. It was about to begin, the line to the ladies' room was still way out the door, so a bunch of us, who had been imbibing and were emboldened by a sense of safety in numbers, announced "Women in the men's room!" and we barged in. After leaving the stalls we made the same announcement, much to the surprise of the guys at the urinals...but we didn't miss a note of the opening act.

Now...I have an Italian Bathroom story. We were in Sorrento at a time when (lucky me) my husband was often mistaken for Richard Gere. We were seated next to a table of rowdyand vociferous italians enjoying their Saturday night out. I suppose, due to the mistaken identity, they eavesdropped some and heard me calling him Richard...his name...further proof. At one point they asked me if he were the infamous and much loved in Italia, Richard Gere. I answered, "oh no...just a resemblance." A little while later i visited the washroom...(one of those two stall, one for women one for men, then one sink for all places.) While at the sink, a man from the party next door entered, closing the door behind him.Picture this. My hands are soapy, under the water, when he steps behind me, presses "himself" up against me, running his hands all over me and whispers in my ear. "non posso crederlo! Sto faccendo l'amore con l'amante di Richard Gere. Sto toccando l'amante di Richard Gere. It was like being in the Twilight Zone, far too surreal to believe. Soapy hands and all, I shoved him away, ran from the room, grabbed my stuff and left the restaurant, with my husband blinking and perplexed still at the table.
Told him the story two blocks later.

The Turkish Toilets flush! There is just as much porcelain and plumbing in them as in a regular toilet.

Pat, send your husband over to my house - I adore Richard Gere!!

Pauline from Slow Travelers

You know how when there are long lines at the ski lifts and people yell, "Single!" so they can double up with a single further along in the line and get on a chair faster?
When I was at Aspen in the 70's (when Gretel's was still halfway down the Ajax) the line for the women's bathroom was about a half hour long. So I yelled, "Single!" and this great guy in the parallel line took me to the men's room and guarded my stall and got me back out again. Mad cool move!
That was also the day my friends stashed my parka behind Jack Nicholson during lunch so I had to practically crawl over him to get it and hit the slopes again. He couldn't have been more gracious about it. Memorable day.

Has anyone else enjoyed this site?? I am proud to say that I have contributed to it.

http://www.thebathroomdiaries.com/

Any of you do Peace Corps?
I spent two years doing outdoor pit toilets in Korea. I heard from volunteers who didn't have the gene that let them squat with their heels flat on the floor (with which I, fortunately, was blessed) that a long bout of what ailed so many visitors to the third world then was absolute agony. I just took my cigs and my novel and got comfortable the way you see old people squating in the marketplace chatting all day. (And there's nothing like matches for your cigs for burning any unpleasant methane in the air.) God, you guys are getting a lot of life history out of me. Haven't thought about this stuff in years. (Callie, great site!)

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Originally posted by Cynde:
Those Turkish toilets - when you're done is there a way to flush? A hose, a bucket of water, a flusher?

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A flusher, obviuously!!! And it flushes better than most WC toilets.

Alice Twain
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Sciur capitan, questa che l’è la verità, adess ghe n’hoo piee i ball, Giovanni el turna a cà. Se te voret scriv te regali la mia pena, se te voret sparam questa l’è la mia schena.

Mr capitain, this is the truth Now I am sick of it, Giovanni goes back home If you want to write to me, I’ll give you my pencil If you want to shoot me, here’s my back.

          Davide Van De Sfroos, Sciur capitan

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Originally posted by Eccomi:
he steps behind me, presses "himself" up against me, running his hands all over me and whispers in my ear: "non posso crederlo! Sto faccendo l'amore con l'amante di Richard Gere.

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You shouldn't have left the restaurant, you should have called the police (113 in Italy) and denounced him for rape! He surely deserved it è_é

Alice Twain
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Sciur capitan, questa che l’è la verità, adess ghe n’hoo piee i ball, Giovanni el turna a cà. Se te voret scriv te regali la mia pena, se te voret sparam questa l’è la mia schena.

Mr capitain, this is the truth Now I am sick of it, Giovanni goes back home If you want to write to me, I’ll give you my pencil If you want to shoot me, here’s my back.

          Davide Van De Sfroos, Sciur capitan

The greatest thing about this thread are all the hilarious bathroom experience related stories. I've learned more about my fellow STs in the past two days than in the six weeks preceding.

This is my favorite bathroom related story:

My husband and I were driving through Switzerland a couple of years ago, when we stopped off at a rest stop to stretch our legs. My husband went off to use the bathroom, while I waited for him outside. After a few minutes, I hear him yelling and screaming language that would make a sailor blush, along with what sounded distinctly like the sounds of kicking and pounding a bathroom stall door. I stood frozen in shock (my husband has to be one of the most quiet, reserved, laid back people on the face of the earth), watching as about five bathroom mates fled in panic from the chaos. About thirty seconds later he emerged, calm and serene as if nothing had happened. I knew a time bomb when I saw one, so it took me about 15 minutes to work up the courage to timidly ask what had happened.

It turned out that he had taken off his (brand new, expensive) sunglasses and put them in his shirt pocket for safe-keeping while, um, enthroned. Having done his business, he leaned over to pull up his pants, and the glasses fell out into the toilet. He jumped up and turned around in panic, not knowing that it was one of those electric eye toilets which automatically flushes once you move from the seat. So he could only watch helplessly (and swear and kick the toilet) as Raybans got sucked into the next life with a violent whoosh.

Sometimes technology does more harm than good.

Rebecca

www.brigolante.com

Rebecca,

That's way too funny! I can definitely simpathize with your husband!

That story about the sunglasses made me LOL! Poor husband.

Thank you, all, for welcoming me. I've only ever been to Italy twice, and I look forward to many more trips. My spouse is half Italian (my MIL was born in the "arch" of the boot and moved to Canada at a young age - her Milanese cousins laugh at her Italian), and I hope to get him over there next spring. He thinks he won't tolerate an 11 hour plane ride too well, but I tell him it's like childbirth: you think you never want to go thru THAT again, but the end result (plus time) changes your mind.

"Pat, send your husband over to my house - I adore Richard Gere!!

Pauline from Slow Travelers"

I'm a pretty generous person, but him, I don't share.

"You shouldn't have left the restaurant, you should have called the police (113 in Italy) and denounced him for rape! He surely deserved it è_é

Alice Twain"

Well, maybe for assault, but at the time I was not thinking too clearly and feeling rather intimidated.

...but back to those interesting showers...the ones that wet down the whole room. Lucky if they have the toilet paper covers so you don't ruin the roll. In this situation one must forgo the blowdryer to avoid electrocution. Wet hair is better than an unwanted perm.


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quote:

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Rebecca: "I stood frozen in shock ...watching as about five bathroom mates fled in panic from the chaos."

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Ok, is this a translation thing or am I being naive? What. or who are bathroom mates?

Beebee

I will fess up to my favorite bathroom story as well. First a little background.

My last trip to Italy, I bought a Zegna suit at Segna in Firenze. On my next trip to NYC, thrying to find out how much I had saved, I made the discovery that my suit was not available in the US. Zegna ships different styles to the US, even to their boutiques.

Now for the bathroom. I was in Baltimore seeing rigoletto. At the first intermission, nature called. There were two lines or the men's room. I waited until I finally approached a urinal. Just as I was stepping up and gentleman from the other line stepped up to the urinal next to me.

I was waiting for nature to take its course when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that this gentleman had on a great suit. In fact, it sorta looked like mine. I made several surreptious glances in his direction (most men have this hangup about making eye contact while standing at a row of urinals). In doing so I noticed he was looking at my suit. Then we both came to the conclusion that we were wearing identical suits. All the way from Italy to wind up at the Baltimore Opera peeing next to each other.

I almost turned to stare but that would have been damaging to my shoes and his suit. No society grand dame coould have been more peeved at eyeing some other woman in the same designer dress. We left without saying a word to each other but boy the joy of wearing fine duds was diminished that evening!

And since my need to pee in the first place was in part due to having drunk a fine bottle of Terri di Tufo before the opera, I have successfully combined my love of Italy, wine and opera with getting down and dirty!

Dean

Meet my lawyer-- Gianni Schicchi!

Wow I'm feeling left out. I don't have any good bathroom stories except for the time my daughter (then 2), walked in on Chris in the bathroom and commented, "Daddy, you have a nice tail."

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Originally posted by Alice Twain: Since men usually seem to do it all faster than the women

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Do we have any architects or urban planners who can explain why male and female facilities are not designed for queues to be the same length? Often it seems that the (lack of) thought is to give men & women the same number of pedestals - plus put in some urinals for the men.

Here in St. Louis they build a new Hockey Arena for the St. Louis Blues a few years ago.
Some forward thinking architect (probably a woman) actually designed in twice as many women's bathrooms as men's.
The first time we went to a game, my daughter and I had so much fun seeing men in a long line out the door and around the corner for a men's room while we walked right into a women's bathroom with no wait.

Deborah Horn

In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I'd like to do a past life regression and stay there.
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Marketing Solutions for Health Care

My 'strangest' toilet experience was in Singapore. Our company's office is in a very modern highrise office building. It is 44 story tall tower built in 1994. I walked into the women's restroom and there were two stalls; one western and one eastern "squatter" style. I just did not expect it. Also on another visit to the restroom, I discovered the squatter stall was preferred by our local women employees. It definitely was a cultural awakening for me.

Coincidently, my group at work has also had a toilet talk thread going. We've been following the news about Microsoft coming up with the iLoo, a portable toilet with internet access. Turns out to be a hoax. Then there was glow in the dark toilet seats. Check out the suggested names for the product at the bottom of the page. Finally one member posted the following word definition:

retromingent(re-tro-MIN-jent)

adjective: Urinating backwards.
noun: An animal that passes urine backwards, e.g. raccoon.

[From Latin retro- (back) + mingent, stem of mingens, past participle of
mingere (to urinate).]

"When my turn came, I discovered that the bathrooms had been designed for a retromingent. The rest of the flight? Rather uneventful."
Jeffrey Levine; The Concorde, Firsthand: Built for Speed, Not for Comfort;
The Washington Post ; Dec 17, 1989.

"I can verify that camels are, indeed, retromingent."
Sally Bixby Defty; Just Deserts Midnight at the Oasis Sing Your Camel to
Bed; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; May 16, 1993.

- marta

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The advantage of sitting facing the wall

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I have always faced away from the wall, getting the water the right temp before I sit down. I think us men would have a logistical problem facing the wall. Our gear would get in the way of the water.

What a fascinating thread. I had always, well, once, heard the word as "retromicturating," as in, "Look out, the cheetah is a retromicturating cat!"
And I will be the first to admit that all the little nagging questions about bidets that had been gnawing at my relatively sophisticated self since I first saw one at age 17 have been answered. Except for one: do men ever use bidets?
Yrs, Robert

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Originally posted by Robert Santa Monica:
do men ever use bidets?
Yrs, Robert

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You better believe it. Trust me, you will walk down the street with a little extra spring in your step.

I think my female guinea pigs go retromingent or are retromingent or something retromingent.

Anyway, forgive me, Su Meri, but all this time I thought you were female. I'm never good with names.

Just curious, do they have other names for the toilet? The John, crapper, throne...?

I can't believe that this is the thread where I did the most posts. Can you tell what kind of conversations I have when I'm with the girls at a bar?

^*^*^*^*^*^*Cynde^*^*^*^*^*^*
Amo Italia

quote:

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Originally posted by Su Meri:
I think us men would have a logistical problem facing the wall. Our gear would get in the way of the water.

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It might turn out fun, if the water is at the right temperature and running not too fast...

Alice Twain
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Sciur capitan, questa che l’è la verità, adess ghe n’hoo piee i ball, Giovanni el turna a cà. Se te voret scriv te regali la mia pena, se te voret sparam questa l’è la mia schena.

Mr capitain, this is the truth Now I am sick of it, Giovanni goes back home If you want to write to me, I’ll give you my pencil If you want to shoot me, here’s my back.

          Davide Van De Sfroos, Sciur capitan