The House of the Morning
Europe has always been a punching-bag for the right: a straw man to help put the superiority of American values in high-relief (or alto-relievo for my fellow rocket salad eating snobs). As a cultivated man of letters (no seriously, it says that on my degree), I have always taken a certain amount of umbrage with these criticisms. It is hard not to look across the Atlantic at that socialist paradise of moral depravity and not sigh wistfully.
But nothing brings out my dormant American jingoism quite like the issue of pay toilets (with the World Cup coming in at a distant second). After all, what more basic human dignity can you afford a visitor than the right to use the facilities in a dire time of need?
When I studied abroad in Spain in 2002, fast food restaurants were veritable American embassies for their lax requirements to use the lavatory. If we wanted to create a Marshall plan for the 21st century, I think we could singlehanded rescue the Euro (and if we are being modest, Western Civilization as well) by installing Halliburton porta-potties up and down the Seine.
At one point in my latest trip to Europe (there have been so many, it is sometimes hard to keep track), a boulangerie (a bakery for you philistines) owner balked when one of my fellow travelers asked to use the privy. Apparently soliciting her fine establishment and ordering quatre sandwich did not meet the threshold to be worthy enough to use the garderobe (restroom… will you please try to keep up for once).
Most curiously, the only free toilet I discovered in my travels was near the bus station in Angers. To call it a toilet is a bit of stretch as it was quite literally just a freestanding urinal affixed to the side of a building without any enclosures. As I was relieving myself in this most precious of necessariums, pedestrians ambled on right behind me and buses picked up their passengers with a full on view of my backside.
For a continent that prides itself on humans rights and privacy, Europe is rather incontinent in its handling of both in regards to the reredorter (seriously just Google it).
But nothing brings out my dormant American jingoism quite like the issue of pay toilets (with the World Cup coming in at a distant second). After all, what more basic human dignity can you afford a visitor than the right to use the facilities in a dire time of need?
When I studied abroad in Spain in 2002, fast food restaurants were veritable American embassies for their lax requirements to use the lavatory. If we wanted to create a Marshall plan for the 21st century, I think we could singlehanded rescue the Euro (and if we are being modest, Western Civilization as well) by installing Halliburton porta-potties up and down the Seine.
At one point in my latest trip to Europe (there have been so many, it is sometimes hard to keep track), a boulangerie (a bakery for you philistines) owner balked when one of my fellow travelers asked to use the privy. Apparently soliciting her fine establishment and ordering quatre sandwich did not meet the threshold to be worthy enough to use the garderobe (restroom… will you please try to keep up for once).
Most curiously, the only free toilet I discovered in my travels was near the bus station in Angers. To call it a toilet is a bit of stretch as it was quite literally just a freestanding urinal affixed to the side of a building without any enclosures. As I was relieving myself in this most precious of necessariums, pedestrians ambled on right behind me and buses picked up their passengers with a full on view of my backside.
For a continent that prides itself on humans rights and privacy, Europe is rather incontinent in its handling of both in regards to the reredorter (seriously just Google it).
posted by d l wright at 3/28/2012 01:15:00 PM
3 Comments:
I saw some of your Dad's photos on the social networks. Looked like a good trip. How long were you there and where all did you go and why have you never set up an Instagram?
Do I still need to set up an Instagram? Or are you SO over that now?
Well, of course I'm totally over it now. But that doesn't mean that I don't still use it all the time.
So, yes. You probably should. It's much more interesting and relevant than Google+
Of course, so is the toaster I'm working on that will automatically tweet when you make toast. (Kickstarter coming soon!)
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