Archive for Toilet Humor
Bathroom Habits: The Unending Toilet Paper Debate
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The Professor’s obsession with issues of toilet performance is world renowned, but it must also be acknowledged that many other factors are involved in having a pleasant (or unpleasant) bathroom experience. The most frustrating and frequently debated issue of them all must be toilet paper orientation: over or under?
The debate itself is as old as the rolls of toilet paper themselves (which, incidentally, date back to 1871) but the Professor was delighted to find an informative article loaded with detailed infographics illustrating the advantages of each orientation as well as important moments in toilet paper history. It’s an interesting article that just might give you pause the next time you need to change the roll.
American Standard Design Center Visit: Innovation with a Side of Toilet Humor
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Design bloggers tour the American Standard Design Center. To see more photos of the trip, click the photo.
Earlier this month, the Professor was fortunate enough to spend a day at the American Standard Design Center in Piscataway, NJ with a select group of the movers and shakers of the design blogger world. It is a pleasure to share their insights, reflections, humor, and excellent photographs of the trip:
Paul Anater, who blogs at Kitchen and Bath Residential Design, was especially impressed with some of the company’s unique and functional designs and the fashionable digs the bloggers enjoyed in New York.
For J.B. Bartkowiak of Building Moxie, the trip offered opportunities to reflect on design, innovation, performance, and the impact that brands can have when they build intimacy with customers.
Meanwhile, the engineering department’s space age 3-D copier was a big hit with Laurie Burke of Kitchen Design Notes. (The Professor also appreciated the occasional plumbing pun she threw in for good measure, naturally.)
Andie Day (and her photographer’s eye) especially loved the great views and fashionable setting of the rooftop of the Standard Hotel, where the bloggers gathered the night before their Design Center tour.
American Standard’s many green initiatives, including the eco-friendly Design Center and strong emphasis on water conservation, were particularly appreciated by Saxon Henry of Roaming By Design.
Saxon and her business partner Rich Holschuh also wrote about the company’s fixture fixation, the “stylish verve” of the American Standard design team, and shared a video of a portion of the tour on the site for their social media consultancy, Adroyt.
Great shot of everyone: Laurie Burke, Rich Holschuh, Saxon Henry, Andie Day, Paul Anatar, J.B. Bartkowiak. To see more photos from the trip, click the photo.
Many thanks to everyone who attended! The Professor had a marvelous time getting to talk plumbing with everyone and truly appreciates everyone’s thoughtful commentary.
American Standard: The Groovy Years
Posted by: | CommentsThe Professor is honored, once again, to be part of the Bathroom Blogfest. This year’s theme, in a nod to Mad Men, is “Stuck in the 60′s,” an era when the Professor was in potty training, not toilet science.
American Standard was already a mature market leader, however, following a merger of the American Radiator Company and Standard Sanitary Supply Company in 1929 (see American Standard History). American-Standard, as it was then known, was an early leader in advanced toilet engineering, as seen in this 1968 ad featured on AdClassix.com.
Courtesy of AdClassix.com
If you think the ad is groovy, American Standard was doing quite innovative marketing at the time. Ever hear of an industrial musical? The Professor hadn’t either, but they were popular from the 50s to the 80s and were typically songs created to rally employees and excite customers.
American Standard actually cut an album in 1969! You have to listen to this classic cut called: My Bathroom.
That would have been a tough era for the Professor. Not a singer.
It was also a tough era on the environment, with toilets still sucking down a full 7 gallons of water for each flush. Contrast that with H2Option, the American Standard siphonic dual flush toilet which uses just ONE gallon on the lowest setting while outperforming the old water guzzlers.
Note: This post is part of the 2010 Bathroom Blogfest, now in its fifth year. This edition has brought together 33 bloggers from the U.S., Canada, the UK and India. For more information about the blogfest, visit Bathroom Blogfest. Look for the tag “#BathroomEXP” on flickr, del.icio.us, Technorati, Twitter and Google, or ‘Like’ on Facebook. A list of participants is below.
| Blogger | Blog Name | Blog URL |
|---|---|---|
| Susan Abbott | Customer Experience Crossroads | http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/ |
| Paul Anater | Kitchen and Residential Design | http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com |
| Shannon Bilby | Big Bob’s Outlet | http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/ |
| Shannon Bilby | Carpets N More Blog | http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/ |
| Shannon Bilby | Dolphin Carpet Blog | http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/ |
| Shannon Bilby | From The Floors Up | http://fromthefloorsup.com/ |
| Shannon Bilby | My Big Bob’s Blog | http://blog.mybigbobs.com/ |
| Toby Bloomberg | Diva Marketing | http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/ |
| Laurence Borel | Blog Till You Drop | http://www.laurenceborel.com/ |
| Bill Buyok | Avente Tile Talk Blog | http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/ |
| Jeanne Byington | The Importance of Earnest Service | http://blog.jmbyington.com/ |
| Becky Carroll | Customers Rock! | http://customersrock.net/ |
| Marianna Chapman | Results Revolution | http://www.resultsrevolution.com |
| Katie Clark | Practial Katie | http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/ |
| Nora DePalma | American Standard’s Professor Toilet | http://www.professortoilet.com/ |
| Nora DePalma | O’Reilly/DePalma | http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/ |
| Leigh Durst | LivePath Experience Architect Weblog | http://livepath.blogspot.com/ |
| Valerie Fritz | The AwarepointBlog | http://www.awarepointblog.com/ |
| Iris Garrott | Checking In and Checking Out | http://circulating.wordpress.com/ |
| Tish Grier | The Constant Observer | http://spap-oop.blogspot.com |
| Renee LeCroy | Your Fifth Wall | http://yourfifthwall.com/ |
| Joseph Michelli | Dr. Joseph Michelli’s Blog | www.josephmichelli.com/blog |
| Veronika Miller | Modenus Blog | http://www.modenus.com/blog |
| Arpi Nalbandian | TILE Magazine Editor Blog | http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian |
| Maria Palma | People 2 People Service | http://www.people2peopleservice.com/ |
| Reshma Bachwani Paritosh | The Qualitative Research Blog | http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/ |
| David Polinchock | Polinchock’s Ponderings | http://blog.polinchock.com/ |
| Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond | Scarlet Opus Trends Blog | http://trendsblog.co.uk/ |
| David Reich | My 2 Cents | http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/ |
| Sandy Renshaw | Around Des Moines | http://www.arounddesmoines.com/ |
| Sandy Renshaw | Purple Wren | http://www.purplewren.com/ |
| Bethany Richmond | Carpet and Rug Institute Blog | http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/ |
| Bruce Sanders | RIMtailing Blog | http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/ |
| Steve Tokar | Please Be Seated | http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/ |
| Carolyn Townes | Becoming a Woman of Purpose | http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/ |
| Stephanie Weaver | Experienceology | http://experienceology.blogspot.com/ |
| Christine B. Whittemore | Flooring The Consumer | http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/ |
| Christine B. Whittemore | Simple Marketing Blog | http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/ |
| Christine & Ted Whittemore | Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog | http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/ |
| Christine B. Whittemore | The Carpetology Blog | http://carpetology.blogspot.com/ |
| Linda Wright | LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms | http://lindaloo.com/ |
Bringing Life Back to a Soaked Cell Phone
Posted by: | CommentsEven very smart, together folks like the Professor occasionally do something clumsy – like drop a cell phone in a toilet. Everyone knows that water usually means death to a phone, but this helpful guide offers some great tips – like using canned air and a bowl of uncooked rice – to draw moisture out of your cell phone.
Hopefully the Professor won’t have to try out any of these suggestions anytime soon, but it’s good to know that there are some great ideas out there for when they are needed.
Anticipated Toilet Shortage Clogs Up Music Festival
Posted by: | CommentsIt may surprise you to know that the Professor is a big music fan and a regular concert-goer. So the recent news that the famed Glastonbury Festival (held every year in the English countryside) will be taking a year off in 2012 – due to an anticipated toilet shortage, of all things – was saddening to read.
The shortage is being caused by the 2012 Olympics being held in London, as it is expected that most of the portapotties in England will be needed there, with the rental price skyrocketing for the remaining available loos. The Professor must acknowledge that the Olympics is a entirely worthwhile event and an exciting event for Londoners, but still, the idea of missing out on that annual fix of great indie rock and funk performers is quite depressing. In the meantime, the Professor will be flipping through the rolodex of toilet suppliers that is always kept close at hand to see if the UK might have its Olympics and music festival, too.
Toilet Owned by J.D. Salinger on eBay – Any Bidders?
Posted by: | CommentsMemorabilia owned by celebrities and notable personalities is all over eBay, but one item in particular recently caught the Professor’s eye: a toilet – being sold in unwashed condition – that belonged to J.D. Salinger. If you can meet the mind-boggling asking price of $1,000,000, it could be yours. The toilet dates from 1962, and you can tell just by looking at it how old it is – check out the size of that tank!
This commode dates from a time when toilets used 10 gallons of water per flush (gpf) or more. Today’s high-efficiency toilets by comparison use as little as 1.28 gpf, and they are much more streamlined and attractive to boot.
Overall the Professor finds the idea of owning a used toilet that belonged to a deceased celebrity a little unsettling, notwithstanding the urge to use “Plunger in the Rye” as the headline for this post. It is hoped that whomever wins the auction will “enjoy” the piece as memorabilia and won’t try to hook this water-guzzler up to the household plumbing.
For the birds: Swedish City Builds Bird Toilet to Protect Marina
Posted by: | CommentsToilets aren’t just for people: officials in central Sweden’s Karlstad municipality recently constructed a special pontoon to serve as a seagull lavatory to help protect boaters at the local marina from the “unwanted deposits” the birds were dropping all over the area.
The pontoon was painted and anchored in an area specifically designed to attract the birds. It is hoped that the gulls will choose to sit on the ledge and leave their droppings on the pontoon rather than all over the boats (and boat owners) in the marina.
The Professor wishes Karlstad residents all the best in their bird toilet-training efforts and looks forward to hearing how successful the project was.
Bathroom Reading Month: Do You Read On the Toilet?| BlogHer
Posted by: | CommentsBathroom Reading Month: Do You Read in The Bathroom? | BlogHer.
Do you read in the bathroom? Many people multitask on the toilet, which isn’t too surprising, consider how many people text and drive.
A 2008 study sponsored by American Standard shows that people are doing a lot of things inside their bathrooms besides the obvious.
1. A full 88 percent use at least one electronic device in the bathroom.
2. More than a third read their mail — both snail mail and e-mail.
3. 15 percent talk on the phone, and three percent watch TV.
Who Invented the Toilet?
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s pop quiz time. Who invented the toilet?
A. The Professor (thanks, but way before his time)
B. Thomas Crapper
C. Sir John Harington
Crapper’s got the name, but Sir Harington wins you the game.
Harington invented his water closet design in the 16th century. It was truly a throne fit for a king… or queen. Harington’s godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, had the first one installed in Richmond Palace. Harington’s modern flush toilet model flourished, becoming a common fixture in Europe over the 18th and 19th centuries.
Toilet design has continuously evolved since then. In 1992 the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring new toilets to drain just 1.6 gallons per flush, instead of the average 3.5 gallons. Manufacturers, such as American Standard, are seeing how low toilets can go to conserve water resources and save consumers money without sacrificing performance.
Visit Discovery News to learn more about potty pioneers!
On Saving (Seltzer) Water at the Brooklyn Farmacy
Posted by: | CommentsLike most people, the Professor enjoys a treat now and again, and nothing hits the spot like an old-fashioned chocolate egg cream. And in Brooklyn, New York, there is now a great new place to have one, thanks in part to the assistance of the TV show Construction Intervention. The shop is called the Brooklyn Farmacy, and proprietor Peter Freeman was about to give up on his dream of opening a neighborhood ice cream shop in a beautiful 100 year-old pharmacy because of the daunting amount of renovations the building required.
A chance encounter with the casting director of the television show saved the day, and Peter agreed to let the crew of Construction Intervention renovate the shop for an episode of the show. The Farmacy’s electrical wiring was re-done, structural problems with the building were fixed, a long soda counter was installed, and two new bathrooms that now feature WaterSense-certified toilets and faucets from American Standard were built.
Having comfortable and inviting bathrooms was important to Peter, who wanted a safe, clean environment for neighborhood kids to wash their hands before digging into a slice of his strawberry-rhubarb pie. The Professor also notes that the new water-saving fixtures also compliment his eco-friendly philosophy of buying locally and sustainably made products.
Congratulations, Peter! The Professor tips his hat to you.
