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Art's glass toilet tests courage

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chrisgreville

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Dec 3, 2003, 7:49:01 AM12/3/03
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3257370.stm

An artist has created a usable public toilet in a glass cube to challenge
the curiosity - and bravery - of people passing London's Tate Britain
gallery.
Monica Bonvicini said visitors would have to "defy their own embarrassment"
to use the minimalist cubicle, made from one-way mirrored glass.

Chris Greville


Incredible Rhyme Animal

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Dec 3, 2003, 8:39:02 AM12/3/03
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"chrisgreville" chrisNooo-s...@hotmail.com writes:

>An artist has created a usable public toilet in a glass cube

Only in Britian...

chrisgreville

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Dec 3, 2003, 10:02:44 AM12/3/03
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"Incredible Rhyme Animal" <george...@aol.comWerewikf> wrote in message
news:20031203083902...@mb-m22.aol.com...

> "chrisgreville" chrisNooo-s...@hotmail.com writes:
>
> >An artist has created a usable public toilet in a glass cube
>
> Only in Britian...

New country?


David K. Wall

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Dec 3, 2003, 10:03:08 AM12/3/03
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chrisgreville <chrisNooo-s...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I'm glad that the one-way glass is arranged for people to see out but
not in. Considering some of the works of "art" of recent years, I
thought at first that it might be the other way around. Actually my
first thought was that the plumbing was made from glass, and others
would be able to see the contents during a flush. Passersby could
then speculate on what the "user" had been eating lately.
Disgusting, but mildly amusing.

When I was two or three years old we had a toilet in our mostly
unfinished basement. No walls or anything around it. I didn't like
using it then, and even in college I never liked using the bathroom
in the dorms because of the lack of privacy. Defecation is a normal
and necessary function, but that doesn't mean I want to see other
people while I'm doing it. That's just my personal preference, of
course. Others are free to do as they please. That is, as long as
they don't crap on the sidewalk and so on. We have to have some
standards, if only for health reasons.

But if I really had to go, I'd use the glass toilet.

--
David Wall

M C Hamster

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Dec 3, 2003, 10:52:15 AM12/3/03
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"David K. Wall" <use...@dwall.fastmail.fm> wrote in message
news:Xns9446664197...@216.168.3.30...

My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this the universal
practice in grade schools, or some sadistic streak in our local officials?
I never could use those, except under the most urgent of conditions.

Even the teachers had to use them. I remember much tittering and teeheeing
when someone would come out and say "Mr. Trainor is taking a shit!!" and
we'd go in and sneak little peeks, walking by the stall, apparently just for
the spectacle of seeing your teacher sitting on the john.

M C Hamster "Big Wheel Keep on Turnin'" -- Creedence Clearwater Revival


Max C. Webster III

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Dec 3, 2003, 11:31:29 AM12/3/03
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ebe...@tampabay.ARE-ARE.com.unmunge (Hactar) done said:

> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> wrote:
>
>> My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this the
>> universal practice in grade schools, or some sadistic streak in our
>> local officials?
>

> If it's a sadistic streak, it's a wide one. Mine did likewise
> (seffner.fl.us, ~1980 +/-3).

My elementary school (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1970 - 76) had no doors on their
stalls.

Junior high (BR, 1976 - 78) did.

High school (BR, 1978 - 82) did not, but I could always hold it until my class
at the Performing Arts Center, and one needed a key to get into that bathroom .
. . luxury!


- Max -
=======
Libra: (Sept. 23 - Oct. 23)
There are some vital, useful ideas in
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, but you
shouldn't apply them to home decorating.

M C Hamster

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Dec 3, 2003, 11:38:13 AM12/3/03
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"Hactar" <ebe...@tampabay.ARE-ARE.com.unmunge> wrote in message
news:bql2f8$c6m$1...@pc.tampabay.rr.com...
> In article <3fce0603$0$26705$45be...@newscene.com>,

> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> wrote:
> >
> > My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this the
universal
> > practice in grade schools, or some sadistic streak in our local
officials?
>
> If it's a sadistic streak, it's a wide one. Mine did likewise
(seffner.fl.us,
> ~1980 +/-3).
>
> > I never could use those, except under the most urgent of conditions.
>
> AOL.

So why did they do that? I'm theorizing it's cuz kids would crawl in and
lock the doors and then crawl out the bottom leaving them locked. But the
janitors could have a little key thing to unlock them, right?

I really don't think grade school teachers should have to use these doorless
stalls. It potentially undermines their authority.

Rox

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Dec 3, 2003, 11:39:42 AM12/3/03
to
I attended 4 different elementary schools as a child (we moved a lot) and
all of them had stall doors. So did my high school.

Maybe it's a boy/girl thing? My high school was pretty large so we had 3
different gyms. The only way out of the smallest of them was to walk through
the boy's locker room. On the few occassions we girls needed to walk
through the boys room was horrific. Lockers hanging off the walls
crookedly, benches snapped in half and even some stall doors hanging off by
one hinge.


M C Hamster

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Dec 3, 2003, 11:41:13 AM12/3/03
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"Max C. Webster III" <maxx...@aol.com.mil.gov> wrote in message
news:20031203113129...@mb-m01.aol.com...

>
> High school (BR, 1978 - 82) did not <snip>

No shit!

ra...@westnet.poe.com

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Dec 3, 2003, 11:51:26 AM12/3/03
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Hactar <ebe...@tampabay.are-are.com.unmunge> wrote:
> In article <3fce0603$0$26705$45be...@newscene.com>,
> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> wrote:
> >
> > My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this the universal
> > practice in grade schools, or some sadistic streak in our local officials?

> If it's a sadistic streak, it's a wide one. Mine did likewise (seffner.fl.us,
> ~1980 +/-3).

Hmmm, you know, now that I recollect, some of them didn't. I distinctly
recall using the bars over the doorways for acrobatics whilst in third
grade.

> > I never could use those, except under the most urgent of conditions.

> AOL.

You'd have to wait for class to start up and then ask to go so that you'd
have a decent chance at an empty bathroom.

John
--
Remove the dead poet to e-mail, tho CC'd posts are unwelcome.
Ask me about joining the NRA.

Max C. Webster III

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Dec 3, 2003, 11:53:09 AM12/3/03
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"M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> done said:

> "Max C. Webster III" <maxx...@aol.com.mil.gov> wrote:
>
>> High school (BR, 1978 - 82) did not <snip>
>
> No shit!

And that's what I left there!

Opus can confirm this. The main boys' bathroom was a huge, rectangular room.
Floor length urinals were on the short walls, sinks were along one of the long
walls, and the center had two lines of back-to-back toilet stalls. The stalls
had walls but no doors.

James Gifford

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Dec 3, 2003, 12:29:14 PM12/3/03
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You've gotta be shitting me.

--

| James Gifford * FIX SPAMTRAP TO REPLY |
| So... your philosophy fits in a sig, does it? |
| Heinlein stuff at: www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah |

Opus the Penguin

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Dec 3, 2003, 2:20:34 PM12/3/03
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ra...@westnet.poe.com wrote:

> Hactar <ebe...@tampabay.are-are.com.unmunge> wrote:
>>
>> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> wrote:
>> >
>> > My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this
>> > the universal practice in grade schools, or some sadistic
>> > streak in our local officials?
>
>> If it's a sadistic streak, it's a wide one. Mine did likewise
>> (seffner.fl.us, ~1980 +/-3).
>
> Hmmm, you know, now that I recollect, some of them didn't. I
> distinctly recall using the bars over the doorways for acrobatics
> whilst in third grade.
>
>> > I never could use those, except under the most urgent of
>> > conditions.
>
>> AOL.
>
> You'd have to wait for class to start up and then ask to go so
> that you'd have a decent chance at an empty bathroom.

And then some sadistic cretin would walk in on you and go back to class
and whisper, "Timothy's in the john, doing number 2" and someone else
would raise a hand and say he needed to go, and come back and whisper
the message to the next guy. I regret to say I was the second sadistic
cretin (almost wrote sadistic cretin number 2) in one such scenario.
Sigh. Why was I such a jerk? Why was it funny?

--
Opus the Penguin (that's my real email addy)
You snipped my sig!

Opus the Penguin

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Dec 3, 2003, 2:20:36 PM12/3/03
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maxx...@aol.com.mil.gov (Max C. Webster III) wrote:

> "M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> done said:
>
>> "Max C. Webster III" <maxx...@aol.com.mil.gov> wrote:
>>
>>> High school (BR, 1978 - 82) did not <snip>
>>
>> No shit!
>
> And that's what I left there!
>
> Opus can confirm this. The main boys' bathroom was a huge,
> rectangular room. Floor length urinals were on the short walls,
> sinks were along one of the long walls, and the center had two
> lines of back-to-back toilet stalls. The stalls had walls but no
> doors.

I honestly do not remember, even though I clearly remember the open
stalls from 2nd Grade in Tulsa, OK. I must have blocked this out (or
up).

I was only at BRHS for freshman and sophomore years - 1979 - 81. If we
can tempt Glenn Rice back here, he was also there, 1979 -83. I'm
surprised I have no recollection of this.

Al Yellon

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Dec 3, 2003, 2:30:22 PM12/3/03
to
Opus the Penguin wrote:
>> You'd have to wait for class to start up and then ask to go so
>> that you'd have a decent chance at an empty bathroom.
>
> And then some sadistic cretin would walk in on you and go back to
> class and whisper, "Timothy's in the john, doing number 2" and
> someone else would raise a hand and say he needed to go, and come
> back and whisper the message to the next guy. I regret to say I was
> the second sadistic cretin (almost wrote sadistic cretin number 2) in
> one such scenario. Sigh. Why was I such a jerk? Why was it funny?

Taco.

--

"If you want it, come & get it, for crying out loud..." -- David Gray
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++
Rants, comments, reviews: || To contact me use the following:
http://www.yellon.org/links.htm || itghtfr02 (at) sneakemail (dot) com


ra...@westnet.poe.com

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Dec 3, 2003, 2:54:09 PM12/3/03
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Opus the Penguin <nospa...@netzero.net> wrote:
<snip>

> > You'd have to wait for class to start up and then ask to go so
> > that you'd have a decent chance at an empty bathroom.

> And then some sadistic cretin would walk in on you and go back to class
> and whisper, "Timothy's in the john, doing number 2" and someone else
> would raise a hand and say he needed to go, and come back and whisper
> the message to the next guy. I regret to say I was the second sadistic
> cretin (almost wrote sadistic cretin number 2) in one such scenario.
> Sigh. Why was I such a jerk? Why was it funny?

Youthfull indescretions. We all have them.

M C Hamster

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Dec 3, 2003, 4:52:19 PM12/3/03
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"Al Yellon" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:bqldkf$23uo5d$1...@ID-173352.news.uni-berlin.de...

> Opus the Penguin wrote:
> >> You'd have to wait for class to start up and then ask to go so
> >> that you'd have a decent chance at an empty bathroom.
> >
> > And then some sadistic cretin would walk in on you and go back to
> > class and whisper, "Timothy's in the john, doing number 2" and
> > someone else would raise a hand and say he needed to go, and come
> > back and whisper the message to the next guy. I regret to say I was
> > the second sadistic cretin (almost wrote sadistic cretin number 2) in
> > one such scenario. Sigh. Why was I such a jerk? Why was it funny?
>
> Taco.

Y'know, Al... just wanted to let you know that your message produced for me
the biggest AFCA laugh so far in the month of December.

You're getting the knack!!!!

M C Hamster

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Dec 3, 2003, 4:55:04 PM12/3/03
to
"Opus the Penguin" <nospa...@netzero.net> wrote in message
news:Xns94466DDD8DAC3op...@127.0.0.1...

>
> And then some sadistic cretin would walk in on you and go back to class
> and whisper, "Timothy's in the john, doing number 2" and someone else
> would raise a hand and say he needed to go, and come back and whisper
> the message to the next guy. I regret to say I was the second sadistic
> cretin (almost wrote sadistic cretin number 2) in one such scenario.
> Sigh. Why was I such a jerk? Why was it funny?

It's guys like you, Opus, who were so cruelly constipating to guys like me
in grade school. I hope you've asked for some divine guidance to help you
work this through.

M C Hamster

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Dec 3, 2003, 5:02:17 PM12/3/03
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"Rox" <roxann...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:ilozb.382330$0v4.19...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

Now that you mention it, Rox, I think that the girls' stalls in my grade
school may well have had doors on them. (I recall, and get almost dizzy
with the recollection, how one evening, at a Boy Scout meeting, several of
us actually went INTO THE GIRLS BATHROOM, figuring the scout leaders
wouldn't catch us. It was no more than 15 or 20 seconds' worth of exposure
before we ducked out again, giddy with the sights we had beheld. However, I
don't recall whether there were doors or not.)

I'll accept that boys are more destructive than girls, but I'm kinda
surprised that girls didn't tear the doors off too. Especially because the
girls were so much bigger and taller than we were at that age.

I'm sure our high school had doors on the stalls. If it hadn't, I'm sure I
would have remembered it.

Opus the Penguin

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Dec 3, 2003, 5:29:05 PM12/3/03
to
"M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> wrote:

> "Opus the Penguin" <nospa...@netzero.net> wrote in message
>>

>> And then some sadistic cretin would walk in on you and go back to
>> class and whisper, "Timothy's in the john, doing number 2" and
>> someone else would raise a hand and say he needed to go, and come
>> back and whisper the message to the next guy. I regret to say I
>> was the second sadistic cretin (almost wrote sadistic cretin
>> number 2) in one such scenario. Sigh. Why was I such a jerk? Why
>> was it funny?
>
> It's guys like you, Opus, who were so cruelly constipating to guys
> like me in grade school. I hope you've asked for some divine
> guidance to help you work this through.

I was relentlessly picked on from 4th through 8th grade. Perhaps there
was some retributive justice going on for the day I went to gawk at the
fat kid taking a dump?

groo

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Dec 3, 2003, 5:47:28 PM12/3/03
to
M C Hamster wrote:
>

>
> Now that you mention it, Rox, I think that the girls' stalls in my grade
> school may well have had doors on them. (I recall, and get almost dizzy
> with the recollection, how one evening, at a Boy Scout meeting, several of
> us actually went INTO THE GIRLS BATHROOM, figuring the scout leaders
> wouldn't catch us. It was no more than 15 or 20 seconds' worth of exposure
> before we ducked out again, giddy with the sights we had beheld. However, I
> don't recall whether there were doors or not.)

Of course not. Your attention was focused on the opulance that is a
female washroom: the Corinthian leather toilet seats...the solid gold
sink fixtures...the jacuzzi full of champagne...the handball
courts...the bowls full of complementary diamonds...the wet bar with top
shelf liquors...the chamber orchestra...the truffle and butterfly tongue
hors d’oeuvres...

You should not, however, have posted on Usenet that you have seen what
lies within. You're life isn't worth a plugged nickel now. Do you think
they can allow it to be known that the reason it takes so long for them
to go is that the toilets are clear at the back, and the room is the
size of a football field?


--
"The great thing about working in advertising was that malpractice
insurance was unnecessary, as everything we did was malpractice." - M C
Hamster on afca

groo

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Dec 3, 2003, 5:48:46 PM12/3/03
to

I'm so glad you didn't say "work this out".

Harvey Van Sickle

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Dec 3, 2003, 6:01:16 PM12/3/03
to
On 03 Dec 2003, M C Hamster wrote

Maybe they just gave in to the inevitable.

Ours always had doors (Ottawa: finished high school in 1970), but
there was always the threat that someone would climb up and stare over
the partition, just to unnerve you.

(I recall sitting on a toilet with my feet raised, so that if someone
checked out the stalls to see which were occupied, he'd assume mine was
empty. They never just pushed the doors open to check -- that would've
diminished the humiliation of someone appearing at high level.)

> Even the teachers had to use them. I remember much tittering and
> teeheeing when someone would come out and say "Mr. Trainor is
> taking a shit!!" and we'd go in and sneak little peeks, walking by
> the stall, apparently just for the spectacle of seeing your
> teacher sitting on the john.

??? WHAT??? YOUR TEACHERS USED THE SAME TOILETS AS THE STUDENTS?????

Geez.....what has the world come to????

(Right through high school, our teacher's toilets were *definitely*
off-limits -- detention territory for stepping over the threshold. We
still had to use the "Boys" and "Girls" -- right up to seniors' level.)

--
Cheers,
Harvey

For e-mail, change harvey to whhvs.

tooloud

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Dec 3, 2003, 6:12:51 PM12/3/03
to
Harvey Van Sickle wrote:

<snip>

> ??? WHAT??? YOUR TEACHERS USED THE SAME TOILETS AS THE STUDENTS?????
>
> Geez.....what has the world come to????
>
> (Right through high school, our teacher's toilets were *definitely*
> off-limits -- detention territory for stepping over the threshold. We
> still had to use the "Boys" and "Girls" -- right up to seniors'
> level.)

I remember having to stay after school during sixth grade because I used the
lavatory in the teacher's lounge once when all the urinals were in use in
the men's, er, boy's, room and I had to go *really* bad. It seemed silly to
me at the time that they kept me 15 minutes late simply because I had to go
to the bathroom, but I kept that to myself, along with the realization that
it was plenty well worth it.

--
tooloud
Remove nothing to reply...


Al Yellon

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Dec 3, 2003, 6:22:25 PM12/3/03
to

Why thank you! <bowing>

(Of course, that'd have meant more if it were Dec. 30 instead of Dec. 3, but
I'll take the compliment!)

Mark Steese

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Dec 3, 2003, 10:14:39 PM12/3/03
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"chrisgreville" <chrisNooo-s...@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:bqkm3u$68a$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk:

In a related development, David Blaine has announced that he will spend
forty days locked in the glass-cube toilet, with only a single Tate
Gallery brochure for reading material.

--
Mark Steese
unscramble and underscore to email
----------------------------------
The concept of being quoted out of context was invented, I believe, by
people who blurt out ill-advised statements and then regret them later.
True out-of-context distortion -- someone saying "It's not as if I'm a
thing of evil" and being quoted as bragging "I'm a thing of evil" -- is
rare to the point of being unknown. --Neil Steinberg

artyw

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Dec 4, 2003, 8:37:08 AM12/4/03
to
Harvey Van Sickle <harve...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:<Xns9446EA2E...@62.253.162.115>...

>
> ??? WHAT??? YOUR TEACHERS USED THE SAME TOILETS AS THE STUDENTS?????
>
> Geez.....what has the world come to????
>

This is true in some of the schools I have subbed in recently. (and
some of these have no doors for the toilet stalls). In one school,
there is an additional RR for teachers right next to the main office.
In it there is a sign saying "No #2 (no shit!) because the office
workers have to smell it.

Gus

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Dec 5, 2003, 1:21:36 AM12/5/03
to
Was a janitor for 2 years in 1958-59 in a K - 12 school.

The girls restroom was consistently dirtier than the boys and the feminine
hygiene products were slung willy-nilly all over the place.

Jerry Bauer

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Dec 5, 2003, 1:31:52 AM12/5/03
to
On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 22:21:36 -0800, Gus wrote
(in message <20031205012136...@mb-m23.aol.com>):

> Was a janitor for 2 years in 1958-59 in a K - 12 school.
>
> The girls restroom was consistently dirtier than the boys and the feminine
> hygiene products were slung willy-nilly all over the place.
>

...in the girls' restroom.


Lesmond

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Dec 5, 2003, 10:32:40 AM12/5/03
to
On 3 Dec 2003 09:52:15 -0600, M C Hamster wrote:

>
>My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this the universal
>practice in grade schools, or some sadistic streak in our local officials?
>I never could use those, except under the most urgent of conditions.

In our high school the girls had doors on the stalls but the boys didn't.
They claimed it was a deterrent to smoking. I always suspected it was a
deterrent to masturbation. Obviously no one noticed the smoke constantly
billowing out of the girls' room. And no one smoked in the stalls, anyway.

>
>Even the teachers had to use them.

Now, at our school the teachers had their own (locked) bathrooms. You would
occasionally smell pot emanating from them.

I remember much tittering and teeheeing
>when someone would come out and say "Mr. Trainor is taking a shit!!" and
>we'd go in and sneak little peeks, walking by the stall, apparently just for
>the spectacle of seeing your teacher sitting on the john.

Everyone needs a hobby.

--
Hand me down my soup and fish
I am gonna get my wish.

Jesper Lauridsen

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Dec 10, 2003, 11:25:58 PM12/10/03
to
On 3 Dec 2003 09:52:15 -0600, "M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.hairnet> wrote:

>My grade school had no doors on any of the stalls. Was this the universal
>practice in grade schools, or some sadistic streak in our local officials?

Odd, I have never in my life seen stalls without doors.

>I never could use those, except under the most urgent of conditions.

At one point I was so disgusted with the state of school toilets that I
did not use them for a period of almost 6 years.

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