In 2006, Jennifer—the co-founder of popular parenting/consumer advocacy site Z Recommends—took her two-and-a-half-year-old to the bathroom at the local Toys R Us store. What she didn’t know was that this particular store featured the awesome striking power of the Action Toilet Stall with Collapsible Mom Trap! As she closed the door, the entire partition fell over on top of her and her daughter. Jennifer managed to protect her daughter from harm, but in the two years since the event, she’s developed chronic pain from the accident—and the response from Toys R Us has been “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
bathrooms
By 7.30.08
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It’s really not a good week for Delta: when a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta prepared for landing early this morning, the crew discovered the body of a 61-year-old woman locked in a bathroom. Cause of death is still being determined. [SFGate] (Thanks to Gino and Lee!)
UPDATE: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Corporate Office Apologizes For Franchise Owner's Refusal To Let Girl With Diarrhea Use Their Bathroom
By 6.24.08
Yesterday, we wrote about a mother whose five-year-old child had diarrhea and was refused bathroom access by a local Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. She emailed us today to say she received a call from the Chief Operating Officer of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Refuses Bathroom Access to 5-Year-Old, Who Then Has Diarrhea In Front Of Them
By 6.23.08
A reader writes: “Last night we were out with friends and went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at Bella Terra/Huntington Beach. We were eating outside as my 5 year old daughter got an uncontrollable urge to use the bathroom and began crying and screaming ‘diarrhea, diarrhea.’ I ran into the store with her in my arms, begging to use the bathroom and they refused multiple times.”
That New Shower Curtain Smell Is The Smell Of Chemical Pollutants
By 6.13.08
A new report says that the smell given off by new vinyl shower curtains is chock-full of dangerous chemicals, reports the Los Angeles Times. Researchers tested PVC curtains purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart, and found that all of them contained “high concentrations” of what’s technically known as “bad stuff”—”One of the curtains tested released measurable quantities of as many as 108 volatile organic compounds into the air, some of which persisted for nearly a month.” Update: the report is receiving criticism from some medical and science experts, including a spokeswoman for the CPSC.
JetBlue Forces Passenger To Sit On Toilet For Flight
By 5.13.08
Talk about crappy service! JetBlue is the number 1 and the number 2 airline! A man from NYC is suing JetBlue “for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California,” reports CBS News. We’re not going to judge the airline too harshly until more of the story comes out, just in case it turns out to be another upset passenger overstating the situation—but if it’s true, it’s going to be hard for JetBlue to wipe this story from the public’s memory for a while. Especially with all the joke opportunities.
You Shouldn't Go Without The Online Bathroom Finder
By 4.29.08
Thanks to the good folks at Imodium, you can plan your potty stops with this online bathroom finder. Their site says, “To put your mind at ease, it’s good to know where the bathrooms are — even if your diarrhea is under control. So plan ahead. Enter the ZIP code or city and state where you’ll be, and find out where the bathrooms are.” Once you enter the information the site produces a local map with small, aptly-colored light brown squares to show you each bathroom’s location. Combine this with an iPhone or similar mobile device and you will be the Rand McNally of restrooms. Thanks, Imodium!
NYC's New High-Tech Public Bathroom Is Freaky, Robotic
By 1.26.08
For years, New York City was a grim place to be when you had to use the bathroom, since there are almost no public facilities (not counting Starbucks). But earlier this month the first of 20 high-tech pay toilets opened in the city, in Madison Square Park just north of 23rd Street. Now the next time you visit the city and need to answer nature’s call, grab a quarter and head over there to experience the strange combination of a $100,000 prison cell/car wash/elevator/Louvre. It’s the cheapest “experience” you’ll probably find in the city.
Premiere Bathrooms Swindles Parkinson's Afflicted Elderly For $15,000 Bathtub
By 10.3.07
“My grandmother informs them once they are done that she will not be paying them any more money, and that this has gone to the states attorney’s office. On hearing this, one of the installers gets on his cell phone and calls his boss. They talk, he hangs up and walks into the bathroom and proceeds to take off the tub door. He walks out of the bathroom with this door and my grandmother says what are you doing and grabs the door…”
Charmin Rolls Out Shorter Ultra Big Rolls
By 4.15.07
Charmin Ultra Big Rolls have shrunk by 1 centimeter, but don’t expect the price to drop anytime soon. The discoverer of the change has an interesting take on the smaller Ultra Big rolls:
The fabulous news here, obviously, is that America’s collective butt is getting smaller, and the folks at Proctor & Gamble are merely keeping pace. They’ve narrowed the width of Charmin, the veritable Rolls Royce of Toilet Paper, purely in response to our nation’s decreasing posteriors.
Dear Passenger: We're Sorry You Had to Piss in the Barf Bag
By 3.21.07
SkyWest Airlines has apologized to passenger James Whipple, who used a barf bag to relieve himself in-flight.
