Bathroom Talk

The New York Times reported  that when he was locked out of his private bathroom, world chess championship contender Vladimir Kramnik of Russia refused to play his fifth match—bringing the entire competition to a halt.

According to reports, the Bulgarian team noticed Kramnik was taking frequent bathroom breaks and suspected him of cheating…

They reported him to the World Chess Federation, which responded by locking the private bathrooms for both teams. Players could still use the bathrooms, but competing teams would have to share facilities.

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According to the New York Times this month, a Hell’s Kitchen woman went to the women’s bathroom in a New York restaurant with unfortunate results. Moments after the woman entered the bathroom, a bouncer burst into the room and insisted she leave because he believed she was really a man.

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Builder Jeff Howell gave us the low-down on aerated shower heads in a piece for the Telegraph.

If you’re unfamiliar with these products, the basic concept is that aerated shower heads force air through the faucet along with water, allowing you to use less water while still feeling like you’re standing under a heavy stream. The main selling point is savings—according to advertisers, you could save a lot of water and up to £200 per year in water costs. But do they really work?

According to Howell, who’s tested a few of these products, the shower heads do work—although they don’t save you as much water as the ads claim. £30 to £60 per year is a more realistic figure. You can test an aerated shower head by gauging the length of time it takes to fill a bucket with your old shower head and the new one—and comparing the results.

So what are your experiences with aerated shower heads? Do they really save water, and do they really feel like a heavy stream of water? Have you noticed significant cost savings with these shower heads, or are advertisers’ claims nothing but hot air?

According to xatal.com, it’s a really bad idea to shower in bare feet at the college showers.

The reasons are obvious. The shower is a moist, warm environment—perfect for growing molds and fungus.  And if just one person has a case of toe fungus or athlete’s foot, it can easily be passed from person to person in the bathroom.

But that’s not all—your college shower is public, and you never know what gross things people do in showers. It’s not like your shower at home, where only you and your family are using the facilities. People urinate in showers, throw up in showers, and more—and you don’t want to be walking around in that mess in your bare feet.

So when you go to university, buy a pair of flip-flops for shower use and never enter the showers or bathrooms without them. When you’re not using them, keep them in a dry place.  If you let your flip flops stay wet, mold and fungus could grow on them.  Flip flops are a cheap and easy way of preventing skin diseases—and if you buy a pair, your feet will thank you.

NBC News recently reported that a Florida man is suing his city for violation of privacy because of cameras in bathrooms at Colohatchee Park.

 The man believed the bathroom cameras violated his privacy, and believes local police were watching him use the restrooms. According to the man’s lawyer, the city initially installed the cameras because it wanted to prevent sexual contact in the bathrooms.  The man believes the city has gone too far.

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According to a report in Komo News, a woman was arrested for second-degree assault in an argument with her boyfriend. The reason for the argument? Whether or not the dog could enter the bathroom while the couple was taking a shower…

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A North Carolina woman returned home after attending church services to find her neighbour lurking in her bathroom, in the North Carolina Piedmont Triad.

The man claimed that he was using the woman’s bathroom because his own was broken. He claimed the woman’s husband, who was ill and bed-ridden, had given him permission to enter.

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An employee of an Arkansas gas station noticed strange rustling sounds coming from the ceiling late at night.  Checking the bathroom, he discovered a missing ceiling tile and, disturbingly, bare footprints on the toilet lid—according to a story in Yahoo! News.

The employee called police, who discovered…

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A woman in Wichita, Kansas, was found by paramedics in a mobile home bathroom after her live-in boyfriend noticed she was disoriented. She had been sitting on the bathroom toilet so long that her legs seem to have atrophied and she had so many sores that she was literally stuck to the toilet seat.  According to her boyfriend, she had not left the bathroom in two years due to serious agoraphobia.

So how could this continue for two years?

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At the University of Vermont , the college administration has added gender-neutral bathrooms. While administration does give some lip service to improving handicapped access, the purpose of these bathrooms is mostly to limit discrimination against transgendered students, who might ordinarily feel uncomfortable at being forced to choose between male and female bathrooms. 

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