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The Big Necessity
I can't decide if that is a very good or a very bad title. Nonetheless the book itself is excellent. The author, Rose George, stresses:
To be uninterested in the public toilet is to be uninterested in life.
You also learn that toilets may have saved more lives than any other human invention, public toilets are disappearing in London and many other cities, and that many Kenyans have "helicopter toilets," which start with the use of a plastic bag. My favorite moment in the book is this:
After five hours of my questions, Mr. Tanaka shyly offers two of his own: "Why don't English people want high-function toilet? Why is Japan so unique?"
Definitely recommended and yes it is a serious book too.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 16, 2008 at 10:47 AM in Books, History | Permalink
Comments
I don't think I like where this "helicopter toilet" is going...
Posted by: Ryan Cousineau at Oct 16, 2008 11:58:36 AM
Is a helicopter toilet what Bernanke uses?
Posted by: dave smith at Oct 16, 2008 12:13:57 PM
It's how he clears those toxic assets from the system.
Posted by: Jeff H. at Oct 16, 2008 12:25:54 PM
I agree with Mr. Tanaka, why don't we get the awesome toilets they have in Japan? I would love a toilet with built in controllable bidet function, warmed seat, and dual flush capability. The other neat thing with a lot of Japanese toilets is that the tanks typically fill from a faucet on the top of the tank so you can wash your hands with the water you're just going to end up flushing down the toilet anyway. Although, I will say the Japanese habit of not having soap in the lavatory with which to wash your hands does puzzle me.
Posted by: Sbard at Oct 16, 2008 12:44:03 PM
"Is a helicopter toilet what Bernanke uses?"
Ah! So THAT is what he meant. I just the dollar dump just hit the propellers.
Why is everything public $#!++y? Oh, wait, we know the answer to that one.
My first proposal is that sinks should be outside the bathrooms. You only need half as many sinks and the public viewing makes handwashing normative.
Posted by: Andrew at Oct 16, 2008 12:49:48 PM
"Is a helicopter toilet what Bernanke uses?"
Yeah, and Kenyans is a typo. It's supposed to say "Keynesians"
Posted by: pants at Oct 16, 2008 2:05:29 PM
Sounds interesting. It will be #2 on my list of books to read...
Posted by: MichaelG at Oct 16, 2008 2:29:47 PM
I hope the book is organized into brief chapters that can be read in say five minutes or so.
Posted by: MH at Oct 16, 2008 2:42:16 PM
My doctor told me I should wash my hands BEFORE going #1 and after #2. It makes much more sense.
Posted by: Erik at Oct 16, 2008 3:03:32 PM
Here in the UK disabled folks have a special key for public toilets; to prevent them (sadly) being vandalised. I was wondering why a similar system couldn't be introduced for responsible adults; if keys are individually ID, a "complain about previous user" button should help to eliminate the scum from the system, as it were. Especially if a deposit is made. Pun intended :-)
Or you could just charge :-) Places like Waterloo station have a huge flow of customers, as it were, but with a modest 20p charge are maintained spotless by a legion of salaried cleaning staff. And I bet they still make a profit.
Posted by: Alistair Morley at Oct 16, 2008 4:38:15 PM
Why is there no standard for which side of the toilet the paper roll is placed on? Do a significant fraction of people use their left hands to wipe?
Posted by: Paul N at Oct 16, 2008 6:32:11 PM
My doctor told me I should wash my hands BEFORE going #1 and after #2. It makes much more sense.
Why not wash before and after in both cases?
Microbiologists do that. Once at a convention I surreptitiously tried to track how many microbiologists did that when they were completely away from their labs. I got a woman to do the same thing in the woman's toilet. It was 100% for both.
Posted by: J Thomas at Oct 16, 2008 7:27:00 PM
Maybe people would be more interested in public toilets if we took Lenin's advice and made them out of solid gold.
Posted by: at Oct 16, 2008 10:47:30 PM
I just finished reading Poop Culture: America's grossest national product. It was a good read, probably similar to this one.
Policy application: Close the feedback loop between human waste and fertilizing crops for human consumption. The current system is path dependant toward a Victorian ideal of getting human waste as far from us as possible. This is not sustainable.
Posted by: mthomas at Oct 17, 2008 6:47:17 AM
kenyan helicopter toilets......... this is recycled in every sanitation/toilets/african slum story going. Do people in kibera and other such places do so sometimes? Probably. I've even did something similiar myself once. But why has it become a leitmotif for African sanitation. What reference does she give?
Posted by: kfc at Oct 17, 2008 4:16:39 PM
The helicopter toilet concept is in fact less disgusting than my imagination had conceived.
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Is it realistic?
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