# The chamber of horrors known as the men's room where I work (TMI!!) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 10, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872 "2005-03-10T18:20:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/21 "2005-03-11T20:37:23Z")
While going to college I worked part-time in a supermarket, and the bathroom wasn’t particularly dirty… but the _smell_… Shit just simply did not explain it. There was a gateway to Hell in there somewhere, there had to be. When somebody went in and took a big fat smelly dump, it smelled _better_ in there. You could hand a turd from a string and call it an air freshener. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/22 "2005-03-11T20:41:39Z")
That should be “han **g** a turd…” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/23 "2005-03-11T20:43:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Umiat had it much better. Because of the permafrost we had propane fired crappers. You’d drop a doggie into a dry bin and then hit a big red button and “KKkkkkrrrrraaaa” as these orange flames would shoot out and scorch your poodle. Two added bennies were a) no stink, and b) nice toasty seats first thing in the morning. Ah, the simple pleasures. They had one of those out at the University of Utah’s “Fly’s Eye” near the Dugway Proving Grounds. It was termed “The Detroylet” ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/24 "2005-03-11T20:47:39Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > we had propane fired crappers. I want one. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/25 "2005-03-11T21:03:37Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > There’s a salmon processing plant in Kenai, Alaska that has bathrooms that flush not with water, but with mineral oil. It seems the plant was too close to a protected wetland to install a septic tank and leach line, so a sewage system was designed to use about 400 gallons of mineral oil to carry the sewage to a holding tank, where _the mineral oil is then recovered and used over and over again_. It wasn’t too bad in the spring when the oil was new, but by the end of summer, with scores of employees crapping and peeing up to 15 hours a day, it started to look like the toilets were flushing with apple sauce. The aroma was indescribable, and if you pinched a loaf just right, it would plop into the thick, carmel colored goo with just enough force to splash a cold, oily blob onto your ass, where it adhered like a jellyfish to a smooth rock. Even worse was the all-too-frequent times that the can overflowed, and that oily abomination spread across the floor creating a horrid slick that defied cleaning without leaving a thin film of ghastly greasiness on the floor. > > Anybody beat that? So, instead of nice, natural poo in water, (which some cultures used as fertilizer) they thought dumping oil would be better? Did they think the little critters in the protected wetlands did not poo and pee either? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/26 "2005-03-11T21:11:34Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > So, instead of nice, natural poo in water, (which some cultures used as fertilizer) they thought dumping oil would be better? Did they think the little critters in the protected wetlands did not poo and pee either? No, the oil never left the system; it was reused over and over. Once a year the oil was changed, and the old oil was put back in drums and sent to a recycler\*. The holding tank was pumped periodically and processed at a sewage treatment plant. \*One year, the maintenance engineer had the bright idea of burning the dirty oil in the oil-fired heater in the maintenance shop. You can imagine the smell; no, wait you can’t possibly. Trust me, it was hellish. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/27 "2005-03-12T03:20:34Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > There’s a salmon processing plant in Kenai, Alaska that has bathrooms that flush not with water, but with mineral oil. So considering the different specific gravities of water vs. mineral oil, did floaters still float? ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/28 "2005-03-12T04:18:05Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Anybody beat that? Woodstock '99. Nearly a quarter of a million people on an old Air Force Base in 96 degree heat. No shade. The porta-potties were overflowing by the end of the second day. They were not emptied. Walking into the stall, there was a\* mound \* of poop, bloody tampons, and pee-soaked toilet paper reaching a good two feet above the seat. I was so desperate to go, that I climbed the insides of the stall with my arms and legs pressed against the inside and suspended myself like a spider over the heap of junk. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/29 "2005-03-12T14:37:32Z")
> [@Girl Next Door](#): > > Woodstock '99. “The brown piles are bad! Don’t take the brown piles!” ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/30 "2005-03-14T03:36:32Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > “The brown piles are bad! Don’t take the brown piles!” I’ll have you know that you just damned nearly made me wet my pants. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872/31 "2005-03-14T14:30:21Z")
Recycled mineral oil was used in several interstate rest area bathrooms here in VA for a number of years. The sites were in environmentally sensitive areas (near wetlands, streams, etc.) that couldn’t support package treatment plants, and were too remote to be served by municipal wastewater treatment. Nasty indeed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chamber-of-horrors-known-as-the-mens-room-where-i-work-tmi/293872.md?page=1)