Pretty Fly With Your Fly
My mother, having listened to more than her fair share of my complaints about the inability of VH and the Big-Eyed Boy to keep their pee where their pee belongs, sent me an email today about the Amsterdam airport’s unique solution to that very problem.
Supposedly, they’ve etched a fly into every urinal knowing that men are likely to aim at the thing, and thus prevent pissing off employees who are tired of cleaning the walls, floors and just about every other surface in the bathroom.
Naturally, I was skeptical but it turns out this story is anything but new. Apparently it’s been floating around (pardon the pun) for over a decade now.
“So what do you think most men do? That’s right, they aim at the fly when they urinate. They don’t even think about it, and they don’t need to read a user’s manual; it’s just an instinctive reaction. The interesting feature of these urinals is that they’re deliberately designed to take advantage of this inherent human male tendency.”
According to one website, research has shown 80% less splattering with fly-etched urinals than without… which seems to imply that boredom might itself be the primary cause of men pissing all over the dang place… something I just don’t get.
Then again, I can’t say I’ve ever been bored while standing around with a penis in my hand, so perhaps it’s not my place to question this phenomenon.
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Human nature is a strange thing, innit?
Margi’s last blog post..My brief hollywood observations
Let’s go with “male nature”. After all, you know women would refuse to use a toilet that had a fly in it.
The Little Guy keeps spraying the back of the bowl and the seat. We have to get him in the habit of putting both seats completely up (he holds them at an angle) and to use his hand to alleviate the “fire hose effect”. He’s 7-1/2 next month so it’ll take some time to get him into the new habit.
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See, if I thought for a second that the Big-Eyed Boy would be diligent about hand-washing I’d recommend that. Unfortunately, though, I get to thinking about him doing that in public bathrooms and, well, ewww.
Hand sanitizer. That’s what we use. Method makes a nice one called Sweet Water that’s really nice. He uses that. Bring Purell when you are in public. That’s what we do. We also bring hand washing wipes when we’re out. Skip the sink in a public restroom altogether.
kimsch’s last blog post..I Love Bunn!
There is some information out there that suggests if one aims 20 degress to the left and 20 degress from horizontal you will greatly decrease the splashback.
Ever tried explaining 20 degrees to an 8 year-old child?
Hmmmmmm I see some basic geometry coming up in an upcoming math lesson.
Upon studying our Son when he was small, his problem was that he had the attention span of a gnat. While standing in front of the toilet he was constantly looking around and of course not just his head would move but his body would too! His older sister (9yrs older)having to share the bathroom with him was constantly yelling at him about spraying the seat even when it was up. Poor kid had two of us yelling at him. Once in a while our son has been spotted with the door open and his head is still looking everywhere except where it should be, which is where he should be aiming. So upon these observations I would say that the male species just don’t bother aiming, since they are too busy looking at the ceiling and everything else.
I think a urinal or toilet with a picture of a nude playboy bunny might be successful for a more mature male to concentrate on aiming, perhaps a sponge bob or other cartoon character might work for a younger male. Just need to have American Standard figure out a way to put the picture into the porcelain.
Tai-Tai’s last blog post..Pretty quiet lately…. [Anonymoused] [Anonymoused]
The attention span of a gnat… yep, that’s about right for both of them.
They should create a urinal with a target in it and the man with the most accurate aim that day gets him name and good lies about him put on a screen in the corresponding ladies’ room, along with his telephone number. Or at least have a sign in the men’s room saying that this is the case.
The home version could have other rewards for accuracy. You can come up with your own.
LOL. That’s brilliant!
I’m thinking that I need to find someone to come etch flies into the toilets in my house.
OMG, I just found out they sell fly stickers for urinals!
Fellas, We Should Always Aim to Please…
When I read this I immediately thought of Mrs. Metal Dad, who has borne the burden of three, often clueless…
Simple solution without resorting to “tricks” like giving them something to aim at…
I taught both my sons the same thing…the same as I do…I SIT to piss. I did not relish the idea of having to cleanup piss, so I sit. Simple. Even with a “target”, the urine is going to aerosol (much like what happens when you flush with the lid up). There is going to be splashings…little droplets of piss…over everything around the toilet. Soooo…SIT DOWN. It isn’t some manly thing to piss standing up…it’s ridiculous
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Applause. This is precisely how my mother taught me, and precisely how I’m going to teach my son.
wg’s last blog post..Oh, now this is bad news.
They also sell little paper fishies that float in the water to use for aiming.
They’re flushable.
kimsch’s last blog post..I Love Bunn!
I don’t why this strikes me as the equivalent of the blue streak they considered putting after hockey pucks, but it does. After all, a puck is often hard to see, but a toilet is quite a bit larger - not to mention stationary…
Hey - you’re talking about toilets but there was no Tippling Tuesday? Were you short on new recipes?
Actually, I was short on sleep the night before and forgot to future-post an entry for it. Doh!
Hey, be cheap and throw a cheerio into the pot. They aim at the cheerio and it all flushes!
For nasty boy pee smell in the bathroom, get the cleaners used for pet urine. It’s enzymatic and breaks down the pee so it doesn’t smell anymore. I used to spray it around the base of the toilet weekly and just let it sit and work. Don’t wipe it up (at least not for a good long while).