PHLUSH

I realize that over the past year, I never really talked about what I did at my internship. After reading the most recent adventures that my little sister is having down under, I was reminded of the time I was assigned to research public restrooms. Specifically the Portland Loo. Well, in the course of my research I found that Portland came up with the acronym PHLUSH to encourage proper hygiene. It made me laugh really hard. It still does. It would have been nice to have the above sign in my freshman apartment where we had an alcoholic roommate who would forget to PHLUSH (both the verb and the acronym) If you want to hear the adventures we had in that apartment, you'll have to wait for another time.

Anyway, as part of the assignment I had to research different types of public restrooms. You wouldn't believe the different models, and styles that are out there. There are some that automatically open after a specified period of time (I'd hate to be the poor sap who didn't eat his recommended daily value of fiber stuck in that loo) they also have ones that automatically sanitize themselves after every use. The balancing test is to give people their privacy so they use the loo, but to ensure that no illegal, or lewd activity goes on inside (which is why the angle and location of the air vents is so important. That way the cops can look inside and see just enough to determine what business is going on). My favorite public loo is in Europe. It is conveniently called the See-Through-Loo. It is made of one way glass, so on the outside all you see is a mirrored cube, but on the inside you can see everyone walking by.

It looks like this:




And this:




Feel free to store this in your useless knowledge folder.