Archive for December, 2005

Litter Box Cakes

Posted in Misc on December 11th, 2005 by pottymouth

We recently read a little bit about litter box cakes – these are real, edible cakes that look like kitty litter but are actually made of German chocolate cake and crumbled cookies with tootsie rolls to look like poop. They are served in (clean) litter boxes using (clean) litter scoopers are utentils. It turns out that a lot of people like to serve these cakes on April Fool’s Day and on Halloween as a sort of saucy, spooky, witty, holiday-appropriate take on dessert.

It got us thinking: wouldn’t it be funnier to serve up a box of actual (dirty) kitty litter as a cake using (dirty) litter scoopers as utentils? You could throw in some real tootsie rolls just to throw people off a little.

Is it true about the GAP?

Posted in Misc on December 8th, 2005 by jcn

We learned the other day (from a friend, we think, though one can never be sure about these things) that employees at the GAP are required to let customers use their restrooms, regardless of the number of pairs of khakis you may or may not be buying. In fact, we learned that many a street vendor will walk in off the street, ask to use the bathroom, and then, having done their business, walk right out again. We were unable to confirm this policy, however – anyone have the inside poop for us?

In the course of our extensive research, we did come across a site that seems to be as well visited and updated as our own, addyourown. The section of interest to us is the one entitled “addyourown: Manhattan restrooms and reviews” and while the site itself purports to be a “fast, easy, free way for people to find restaurants, coffeeshops, bookstores, and other places in major cities worldwide,” this one particular section could prove useful to someone finding themselves in Manhattan with the urge to go and access to the Internet but no toilet.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the other cities listed on the site, and if you happen to find yourself in, say, Manhattan Beach and in need of a loo, you are – ahem – SOL.

Unclean hands

Posted in Saipan on December 7th, 2005 by pottymouth

For a while now we have been working in Saipan’s most govern-mental building: it houses the Governor’s office, the Legislature, and the Office of the Attorney General.

For even longer than we’ve been here, this building has suffered a major problem – the water in the bathroom goes off at around 4 pm every day. We usually work until around 5:30 or 6, which means that we are frequently without easy means to wash our hands after using the loo.

Which is disgusting. We like to be sanitary, and so we always use a cup of drinking water to wash our hands when hands should be washed after 4pm. But most people don’t; this we know for a fact.

There was recently a big election on Saipan. A lot of the people who work in this building will be leaving soon. Perhaps it’s time for cleaner hands in Saipan’s government?

Photo Feature: Arosfa Hotel

Posted in London on December 6th, 2005 by jcn

Arosfa Hotel Ensuite

We’ve never actually stayed at a hostel before, but we recently learned from the New York Times that the hostels of today are no longer the room-sharing, toilet down the hall adventures that they once were. Many of them even offer private ensuite accommodations, which makes us wonder what makes a hostel and different than a sans-“s” hotel. Regardless, on our last visit to London, damned if we were going to stay somewhere that required a trek out of the room at 2am to visit the loo and so “ensuite” was our keyword of choice. Wanting to be fairly central, we discovered the Arosfa hotel, a smartly appointed hotel on Gower Street that struck us as neither overly generous in its amenities nor overly stingy (I believe that the “full English” breakfast was on all occasions missing at least one ingredient that would have brought it up to the level of being a “full” English as opposed to, say, merely toast, tomato and eggs; also, there was no Internet to be found at all on the premises; but there was a breakfast involved and the entire building was immaculate).

True to its advertisement, the room we got (on the top floor no less) did feature private facilities, but the true marvel was the engineering required to deliver the room with a full shower, toilet and sink all in a space smaller than 5′ square. The shower was designed such that we had to turn the water on with the shower head pointing at the wall, lest the spray from the nozzle soak the entire room. Once the temperature was to our liking we were to step into the shower area, pull the curtain around us, and only then swivel the shower head into position.

The toilet itself was situated in such a way that our knees pushed up against the bathroom door when it was closed, which made for a rather distracting experience, and which required us on several occasions to use the loo with the door ajar. This in itself was something of an adventure for to get the plumbing in place for this loo-in-a-box, the entire unit was placed about a foot off the floor, which gave us the feeling of relieving ourselves from a very, very high place.

While it was not the most comfortable hotel bathroom experience we could have had, it continues to give us much joy in discussions of it as an engineering marvel, and for that we can do nothing but whole heartedly recommend it for all London-bound travelers.