"Classic" U-shaped toilet seats

Unca Cecil --

A few things to consider about this old topic, recently given new life on the website:

1. "Three times readers have sent me this question in the space of four months. You people really have to start getting out of the house." If they're curious about public toilet seats, they must have been out of the house.

2. Let's not demonize this half of the gene pool -- we're just as we were made. Some of us splash more than others, and some of us make an effort to clean up, regardless of where we are.

3. What about the seats in women's rest rooms? I assume they're the same shape, for the purpose of saving money, or for "easier access to the plumbing" (for tampons and such). then again, it could be different, just as it is with men's and women's shirts -- one buttons from the left, the other from the right.

Regards and respect for your giant brain,
Da Cap'n

The following is an example of complete B.S.

Toilet seats have the "U" because of the an error in manufacturing. Just as Ivory (tm, reg. tm, I don't know) soap was created by accident. In the early days toilet seats were made out of wood and there was a special machine employeed to router out the inner hole (I'm sure it was called the butt hole reamer). While the operator was off dribbling on a toilet seat, the machine's up/down mechanism broke. Since the machine normally operated by moving the cutting to into position, dropped and milled the hole, lifted and moved out of the way, without the up/down motion, it just cut a path in, routed, and cut a path out. Just like Ivory, instead of pitching that batch, the manufaturer just packaged it up and sent it on its way. Public reaction was mixed, but corporate customers liked it as a long-needed improvement. Less time was spent in the bathroom lifting and dropping the seat, and janitors found that they could clean the bowls with touching the seats. The rest is history.

The proceeding was complete B.S. (aren't most posts that way)

I don't care if it's U-shaped or not, you still have to lift the damn thing or chances are you'll pee on it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either rude or sits down when he pees or both.

Or is a professional sharp shooter!