Gross bathroom behavior at LAX
Maybe it’s the delirium from 20 hours of traveling back from Australia with another 12 to go (that’s air-time and wait-time), but as I was dutifully washing my hands at the Los Angeles airport bathroom, a middle-aged well-dressed dude walked in eating an apple. I pulled a Howard Hughes and got a little compulsive about my hands, to see what this guy would do. He wandered around the bathroom, looking for an empty stall, all the while eating his apple.
He went into a stall while continuing to eat his apple.
I left.
He went into a stall while continuing to eat his apple.I left.
Going poop in public -- Rocky Mountain Chocolate edition
With four daughters, I’ve changed a lot of diapers over the years.
Almost all the diapers were cloth; at least for the first two children. Then, after too many green apple splatters seeping through, migrated to the seemingly more absorbent disposable diaper.
And then there were the emergency dumps that, well, we’ve all had, regardless of age. On Weeds last night, Nancy Botwin, played by Mary Louise Parker (right), peed into a cup while waiting to cross the Mexican-U.S. border.
Sometimes it’s not nearly that neat.
A reader told The Consumerist yesterday that,
"Last night we were out with friends and went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at Bella Terra/Huntington Beach. We were eating outside as my 5 year old daughter got an uncontrollable urge to use the bathroom and began crying and screaming 'diarrhea, diarrhea.' I ran into the store with her in my arms, begging to use the bathroom and they refused multiple times.
“I explained she had diarrhea and couldn't hold it and told them she was about to go on the floor. They refused again and never offered me any alternatives. I begged them to have a heart and that she was 5 but by that time she had lost it all over herself and me. I ran with her in my arms to the movie theater that let me use their bathroom. I cleaned her up, threw out some of her clothes and went back to the Chocolate Factory - asking for names and number of management. I again pleaded with them to use their heart in situations like this.”
Almost a year ago, a similar incident happened at a Jo-Ann Fabrics in Indiana. With similar results.
Today, California’s Orange County Register reported that officials with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory issued an apology, and that the story sparked a backlash that led to death threats, according to store owner, Bonnie Overturf, who was not there during the incident last Thursday.
Overturf said her employees were following insurance policies for her store, and there were at least a dozen restrooms near the store the mother could have used.
Bryan Merryman, chief operating officer for the Colorado-based candy company, issued an apology to the mother Tuesday, saying "the actions of one franchised store's employees do not represent the values of the company … We truly regret this situation occurred."
"We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account,'' he wrote.
Overturf, who said she apologized to the mother earlier, contacted police once death threats began and her home address was posted on an unknown Website. People also threatened to throw feces at her home, she said.
People shouldn’t throw piles of shit at store owners and their homes; or leave burning bags of poop on the front step. Poop is the source of many pathogens, stores are not all equipped to handle public poop, and some people don’t clean up after themselves (or pick up their dog’s shit).
But when kids (or others) gotta go, it’s better to isolate the mess to a bathroom.
I’ve cleaned up lots of shit. And expect lots more.
Almost all the diapers were cloth; at least for the first two children. Then, after too many green apple splatters seeping through, migrated to the seemingly more absorbent disposable diaper.And then there were the emergency dumps that, well, we’ve all had, regardless of age. On Weeds last night, Nancy Botwin, played by Mary Louise Parker (right), peed into a cup while waiting to cross the Mexican-U.S. border.
Sometimes it’s not nearly that neat.
A reader told The Consumerist yesterday that,
"Last night we were out with friends and went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at Bella Terra/Huntington Beach. We were eating outside as my 5 year old daughter got an uncontrollable urge to use the bathroom and began crying and screaming 'diarrhea, diarrhea.' I ran into the store with her in my arms, begging to use the bathroom and they refused multiple times.
“I explained she had diarrhea and couldn't hold it and told them she was about to go on the floor. They refused again and never offered me any alternatives. I begged them to have a heart and that she was 5 but by that time she had lost it all over herself and me. I ran with her in my arms to the movie theater that let me use their bathroom. I cleaned her up, threw out some of her clothes and went back to the Chocolate Factory - asking for names and number of management. I again pleaded with them to use their heart in situations like this.”
Almost a year ago, a similar incident happened at a Jo-Ann Fabrics in Indiana. With similar results.
Today, California’s Orange County Register reported that officials with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory issued an apology, and that the story sparked a backlash that led to death threats, according to store owner, Bonnie Overturf, who was not there during the incident last Thursday.
Overturf said her employees were following insurance policies for her store, and there were at least a dozen restrooms near the store the mother could have used.
Bryan Merryman, chief operating officer for the Colorado-based candy company, issued an apology to the mother Tuesday, saying "the actions of one franchised store's employees do not represent the values of the company … We truly regret this situation occurred."
"We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account,'' he wrote.Overturf, who said she apologized to the mother earlier, contacted police once death threats began and her home address was posted on an unknown Website. People also threatened to throw feces at her home, she said.
People shouldn’t throw piles of shit at store owners and their homes; or leave burning bags of poop on the front step. Poop is the source of many pathogens, stores are not all equipped to handle public poop, and some people don’t clean up after themselves (or pick up their dog’s shit).
But when kids (or others) gotta go, it’s better to isolate the mess to a bathroom.
I’ve cleaned up lots of shit. And expect lots more.
Time to survey toilets
The Western Mail in Wales reports the National Assembly’s Enterprise and Learning Committee has found education funding is so complicated schools are missing out on vital cash for basic facilities like clean toilets and classrooms as a result.
It is calling on the Education Minister Jane Hutt to lift the “funding fog”, and also wants the Assembly Government to carry out an immediate survey of all school toilets.
Sharon Mills, of Deri, near Bargoed, whose five-year-old son Mason died after contracting E. coli, said,
"We are living in the 21st century, yet many school toilets are like something from the dark ages."
Although it is believed the Deri Primary School pupil contracted the food poisoning bug through infected meat, many of the 150 people – most of them school children – who were struck down two years ago contracted the illness from people who were already infected. Promoting good handwashing habits is seen as one of the best ways of preventing disease.
But an inquiry by leading Welsh health experts found that a failure by many schools to provide basics such as warm water and soap for children to wash their hands after using the toilet encouraged the bug to spread.
Mother-of-two Pam Sacchi, of Bridgend, whose son Daniel, now 14, was hospitalised after contracting E.coli in 2005 when he was 12, said:
“I still have parents coming up to me, complaining their children don’t have soap to wash their hands with in their school toilets. This should not be happening and something needs to be done. I realise there are sometimes funding shortfalls but the health of our children must come first.”
Proper handwashing begins with access to proper tools. That is why soap and paper towels are a necessary requirement for any public bathroom.
It is calling on the Education Minister Jane Hutt to lift the “funding fog”, and also wants the Assembly Government to carry out an immediate survey of all school toilets.Sharon Mills, of Deri, near Bargoed, whose five-year-old son Mason died after contracting E. coli, said,
"We are living in the 21st century, yet many school toilets are like something from the dark ages."
Although it is believed the Deri Primary School pupil contracted the food poisoning bug through infected meat, many of the 150 people – most of them school children – who were struck down two years ago contracted the illness from people who were already infected. Promoting good handwashing habits is seen as one of the best ways of preventing disease.
But an inquiry by leading Welsh health experts found that a failure by many schools to provide basics such as warm water and soap for children to wash their hands after using the toilet encouraged the bug to spread.
Mother-of-two Pam Sacchi, of Bridgend, whose son Daniel, now 14, was hospitalised after contracting E.coli in 2005 when he was 12, said: “I still have parents coming up to me, complaining their children don’t have soap to wash their hands with in their school toilets. This should not be happening and something needs to be done. I realise there are sometimes funding shortfalls but the health of our children must come first.”
Proper handwashing begins with access to proper tools. That is why soap and paper towels are a necessary requirement for any public bathroom.
Florida restaurant fined for keeping bread in bathroom
Eyewitness News in Sanford, Florida discovered a popular fast food restaurant, Checker's. that's accused of storing food on the floor inside the men's restroom. The food that was left on the floor in the restroom was just one of several critical violations health inspectors found at a Checkers location in Sanford.
Employees at the Checkers store on South French Avenue at West 15th Street apparently decided it was okay to store buns for their hamburgers inside a not-so-clean men's room.
Tuesday, it appeared they had changed the policy, but not before racking up a dozen health code violations.
Employees at the Checkers store on South French Avenue at West 15th Street apparently decided it was okay to store buns for their hamburgers inside a not-so-clean men's room.
Tuesday, it appeared they had changed the policy, but not before racking up a dozen health code violations.
Rating the toilets
Paris in spring. I remember the toilet.
Specifically, the toilet on the sidewalk of a busy Parisian street.
And it looked exactly like this (left).
The N.Y. Times has stolen my idea for the cover story when I was appointed editor of the Ontarion, the University of Guelph student paper, in 1987, and decided to rate the local bathrooms as New York City unveiled its first coin-operated public toilet designed to be the high-tech equal of any of its counterparts in Paris, Singapore or other world-class cities.
(I went to local bars -- and it cost the paper thousands in lost advertising revenue cause they didn't like the results. This was before restaurant inspection disclosure.)
The story says that last week, two reporters, a man and a woman, visited six public toilets and, for comparison, two private ones, at a museum and a hotel.
Pennsylvania Station’s bathrooms are located in various companies’ waiting areas. The women’s room at New Jersey Transit was clean and every stall was working. Violins played over a loudspeaker.
The bathrooms in the main ticketing area at the Port Authority Bus Terminal are hard to find (there are no signs and the floor maps are difficult to decipher). There is debris on the floor. Signs warn that plainclothes police officers patrol the restrooms.
One sign details prohibited behavior, including smoking and drinking. It also warns that no one should “bathe, shave, launder, or change clothes.”
The main restrooms in the Egyptian Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are just past “Egypt Under Roman Rule 30 B.C. — 400 A.D.” and are clean and well lighted, if busy. A bathroom attendant visited twice in the space of 10 minutes.
The bathroom at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown is just past the candle-lighted library and down the stairs. The lighting fixtures are crystal and the faucets polished brass. A red flowering plant smells sweet. No one else is there.
Specifically, the toilet on the sidewalk of a busy Parisian street.And it looked exactly like this (left).
The N.Y. Times has stolen my idea for the cover story when I was appointed editor of the Ontarion, the University of Guelph student paper, in 1987, and decided to rate the local bathrooms as New York City unveiled its first coin-operated public toilet designed to be the high-tech equal of any of its counterparts in Paris, Singapore or other world-class cities.
(I went to local bars -- and it cost the paper thousands in lost advertising revenue cause they didn't like the results. This was before restaurant inspection disclosure.)
The story says that last week, two reporters, a man and a woman, visited six public toilets and, for comparison, two private ones, at a museum and a hotel.
Pennsylvania Station’s bathrooms are located in various companies’ waiting areas. The women’s room at New Jersey Transit was clean and every stall was working. Violins played over a loudspeaker.
The bathrooms in the main ticketing area at the Port Authority Bus Terminal are hard to find (there are no signs and the floor maps are difficult to decipher). There is debris on the floor. Signs warn that plainclothes police officers patrol the restrooms.
One sign details prohibited behavior, including smoking and drinking. It also warns that no one should “bathe, shave, launder, or change clothes.”
The main restrooms in the Egyptian Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are just past “Egypt Under Roman Rule 30 B.C. — 400 A.D.” and are clean and well lighted, if busy. A bathroom attendant visited twice in the space of 10 minutes.
The bathroom at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown is just past the candle-lighted library and down the stairs. The lighting fixtures are crystal and the faucets polished brass. A red flowering plant smells sweet. No one else is there.
