10 December 2017
We’ve been in the USA for over two weeks now and yet I’m still coming to grips with the fairly extreme (and not always consistent) level of automation in public toilets — also referred to as ‘bathrooms’ by the locals.
I know that in Australia we have automated taps in most such places, however here it extends to the soap dispensers and paper towel dispensers as well most of the time. So if you would like a bit more soap or three sheets of paper towel to make sure your hands are clean and dry, that requires holding your hand in exactly the right place, on multiple occasions. Even most of the urinals and toilets flush automatically. Maybe they are actually not automated and I have just been heightening the powers I have in using The Force! Who can really tell.
This morning I used the public toilets in Minneapolis Airport and went to wash my hands. I saw what appeared to me to be three taps and no soap dispenser. So I wandered down to the next bank of basins where an airport security guard was grooming himself. I leaned across in front of him to reach for some automatically dispensed soap and excused myself. He didn’t say anything and then it occurred to me he was probably wearing a gun (or at least a taser) and was probably getting a bit edgy!
I then returned to the original bank of basins and realised that I had been looking at two taps and one soap dispenser — all of which were nearly identical! Then, just as you start getting used to automated towel dispensers you come across some manual ones and find yourself holding your hands underneath while nothing happens and looking pretty silly.
Lucky I’m not the last Jedi!
← ← Previous · Contents · Next →