ParentalAdvisory, I would venture to guess that those people might have emptied their colostomy bags instead of going the usual way. At least that was the case in a building I used to clean lo these many years ago. Yeah, it’s still really gross, but I can cut somebody slack if I know he/she’s missing some intestines.
[related hijack]
I’d just like to take a moment to say this to the many, many women who hover: about the only way you will catch anything from sitting on a toilet seat is if you have open sores on your butt and/or thighs, and the person right before you–who used the toilet so recently that the seat is still warm–did too, and she had syphilis or herpes, and even then, your chances are remote. OTOH, it’s probably not a good idea to get liquid on a tile floor (yes, that’s what happens to about half your urine) which then becomes slippery, putting the hoverer (or someone else) in danger of slipping and whacking her head on a hard porcelain fixture, getting a concussion or worse in the process. Unlikely, you say? Maybe so, but it’s probably a lot more likely that that would happen then that you would catch a disease from a toilet seat.
Didn’t this comment bother anyone else? “Oh those filthy peasants and their unsanitary habits…” Unless I’m interpretting it wrong, it sounds extremely classist. But it’s just me.
I must say that I’ve seen my share of public toilets but I have yet to come across one that hasn’t been flushed by the former user, so I have never ever thought of this as a problem.
As for (men’s) urinals and flushing that is something I’ve never come across as well. Is it some American specialty to have them filled with water that requires flushing instead of just let them empty by gravity with an occasional outburst of water every now and then?
i don’t know. i’ve heard of it too and can’t decide if i remember vaguely seeing the signs for a fine for not flushing, if it did exist it must have been short, few or both. i think if there really is such a law it is probably directed at the owner of the building for not maintaining the toilets in good condition instead of at the user. some idiot probably thought it would fit the theme of the city by putting up such notices.
in any case, most of the public toilets here have sensors so it’s pretty moot. how do you educate people to flush toilets when most everything is automatic?