Okay, explain the trough. Is it possible to actually be “shoulder to shoulder” with people if the place is crowded enough? What other rules of engagement are there?
The trough concept strikes me as something of an antiquity. I prefer a little privacy, even in public places.
I should have read through the thread. Big fat “eeew” on the shoulder-to-shoulder thing.
A tavern in Seattle (The Vogue?) had a 3-man trough, 2 toilets and 2 sinks. After the beer had been flowing for a while and the line to the ladies room became very long, a whole new set of rules came out: the trough & sinks were for the boys and the toilets were for the girls. At times like these, decorum and etiquette are pretty much out the window…luckily there was no window, or I’m sure “out the window” would have been involved as well.
My mother always taught me to take the dishes out first.
IMO, people who piss in the sink are unlikely to follow ANY rules of etiquette.
Rule #8: Keep both hands on your member or in the general vicinity at all times.
Rule #9: Again, NO TALKING.
Indeed. In the US, I’ve only seen troughs in stadiums/race tracks/that kind of thing, and in some of the seedier bars. Which is good, because I can only use one when I’m drunk enough not to care. The rules of engagement are simply that you act as if the wall in front of you is the most fascinating thing you’ve ever seen. And that you make it quick.
Yeah, I like that. Because as any gay guy will tell you, there’s just nothing sexier than watching a guy take a piss.
Seriously, was that just a throwaway comment, or do straight guys really think that homos are just waiting to side up next to them at a urinal and take a nice long look? Are these guys desperately wishing that they had access to women’s bathrooms, so they could stand over the stall door and watch some fine young thing sitting down and doing her business?
Typically only in the military and adjacent to men’s locker rooms.
Just the ignorant homophobic ones. You know, like, politicians and religious leaders.
I’m sure no one in the world, especially homosexuals, likes seeing nekkid people!
If someone sidled next to me in an otherwise open and empty bathroom I’d think he was either cruising or trying to make me think he was. Unless he knew me, of course, in which case he could also have been trying to strike up a conversation. Nothing wrong with trying to strike up a platonic conversation with a stranger that way, either, it’s just not the first thing I’d think of if that happened to me.
There can be two different types of trough.
One where you’re basically urinating against a wall and at the floor there is a gutter.
Second is more akin to an animal feeding trough (ie the gutter is about 3 foot in the air).
I have often been in places where it’s been shoulder to shoulder.
Usually in pubs when there’s a big game on.
Most Scottish pubs have troughs and the etiquette is to stand as far away from the other person as possible. If there are two or three people there try and use a stall.
One thing that most men have been caught doing is pushing a cigarette butt or a urinal cake along the trough. Always an embarrassing moment when someone walks in on you doing that. 
One should never ask questions around here if one is not willing to be directed to a web site with pictures containing the answer. ;(
I think there may be some misunderstanding. In the stadia that I am familiar with, the “trough” is really just a tiled wall with a slightly recessed drain and a pipe feeding water along it continuously.
Rule #24 do not say the above while standing at a urinal peeing.
Actually, you should chill out…at Hofbrauhaus in Munich, they have this huge trough and hundreds of dudes fight to get near it and the peni is a peein’ as far as the eye can see…
Rule #8: The urinal set lower on the wall serves a dual purpose.
Or so I’ve heard
::shudder:: Point taken. I’ve been on the internet long enough that I should know that there are indeed people who can’t distinguish between sexual and excretory settings. And there’s a word for them, and it’s not “gay.”
Uh, no offense, pervert.
Yeah - Rule #2: PREVIEW, DAMMIT! :smack:
Rule #10: When finished, a quick shake usually suffices. Performing what could be construed as a warm up to a full on Joderall Bank can cause offence.
OK so far:
**Rule #1:** Unless there is no option available, do not use a urinal adjacent to another urinal already in use.
**Rule #1a:** You do not talk about Urinal Club
**Rule #2a:** Stand close enough not to pee on the floor.
**Rule #2b:** You do not talk about Urinal Club
**Rule #2c:** PREVIEW, DAMMIT!
**Rule #3:** Eyes front.
**Rule #4:** There will be NO rule #4
**Rule #5:** When you pick your nose whilst pissin,' flick the booger into the water or at least hose it off the back wall of the urinal. Don't leave it there to adhere to the porcelan! That's gross.
**Rule #6:** NO TALKING.
**Rule #7:** No poofters.
**Rule #8:** Keep both hands on your member or in the general vicinity at all times.
**Rule #9:** Again, NO TALKING.
**Rule #10:** The urinal set lower on the wall serves a dual purpose.
**Rule #11:** When finished, a quick shake usually suffices. Performing what could be construed as a warm up to a full on Joderall Bank can cause offence.
**Rule #24:** Do not say [SO glad I'm a girl. SO, SO GLAD!!] while standing at a urinal peeing.
**Rule #12: ** I don’t pee in your ashtray, please don’t thow your smokes in the urinal.
**Rule #13: ** Weeping openly at the urinal is only permitted if you have an STD
14 or so…
FLUSH!!!
Well, after you’re done, anyway…
Another note, on why someone may choose the urinal next to you, rather than skipping - if the one to be skipped to is of lower height, I may or may not use it; I’m tall enough to be pissing on the valve of the ‘junior height’ urinal.
I don’t know if it’s still there, but the mens room at the University of Hawaii’s swimming pool used to have this wierd ambiguous circular trough thing. We’d walk in there sometimes, and guys would urinate into it, and other times, people would use it to wash their hands. Most of us just never understood the thing and avoid using it at all costs.
Rule #25 - do not cross streams (aka “The Ghostbusters Rule”)
Anyhoo…