17 Comments

1. That darned Utah Mormon cultural hegemony!

   Comment by A-P — November 10, 2007 @ 9:07 pm

2. My guess is, given the detail of the instructions, that this sign is not the first “version” to be posted.

   i.e., “wipe the seat or rim with new toilet paper.”

   Comment by Eddie — November 10, 2007 @ 10:16 pm

3. I can’t decide which is my favorite: when it instructs users to wipe themselves, or when they’re told to use NEW paper to wipe the seat.

   Comment by rc — November 10, 2007 @ 10:21 pm

4. Is this really in *every* bathroom stall? I have a feeling you’d have a tough time getting the sisters to follow the first rule.

   Comment by Jacob J — November 10, 2007 @ 11:14 pm

5. That’s pretty funny in a “funny ’cause it’s true” kind of way.

   What word is obscured by the flash in the fourth line of the third point? As it apparently ends in ‘h’, it would be sweet if it was…well, you know.

   Comment by Peter LLC — November 11, 2007 @ 5:49 am

6. That is really funny and true and also necessary. I’m an American living in Lagos, Nigeria right now. Missionaries called from Nigeria most often serve in other areas in West Africa (often other parts of Nigeria), and are trained in the Ghana MTC. Many of these Nigerians haven’t been living in homes with plumbing and aren’t accustomed to toilets. Every day I see many men just walking down the street and whipping it out to pee wherever they happen to be — often they don’t even bother to turn and face a wall or anything — they just pee into the street. I can see the need for the explicit instructions.

   Comment by CAW — November 11, 2007 @ 12:57 pm

7. Similar issues in Iraq. They eventually solved the problem by just creating completely separate bathrooms for Iraqis and Americans.

   Comment by Eric Russell — November 11, 2007 @ 1:22 pm

8. My brother-in-law is from Thailand. His mother married an American and moved to the United States when he was 11. His father still laughs about how he found footprints on the toilet seat for nearly a year after moving here. Getting used to western-style plumbing can be tricky.

   Comment by FoxyJ — November 11, 2007 @ 2:59 pm

9. Peter LLC,

   I admit I wasn’t sure what the word under the flash was at first, but after trying out a few possibilities I decided it is the word “each.” Probably not as funny as what you are thinking of.

   By the way, what does LLC stand for? This is a common acronym where I work so in my mind your handle always reads “Peter Last Level Cache.”

   Comment by Jacob J — November 11, 2007 @ 6:38 pm

10. I recently was in LAX and related to my wife that the first time I was ever in that airport was on the way home from my mission. I served in Brazil and there it is the custom to not flush toilet paper.

    I distinctly remember the overwhelming sense of panic as I searched in vain for a trash can in the stall to deposit used toilet paper in. Here I was with used toilet paper and nowhere to put it!

    Eventually I realized that I could simply put it in the toilet. What an extraordinary idea!

    My wife was not impressed with my story.

    Comment by a random John — November 11, 2007 @ 8:54 pm

11. My ward in Chicago had a sign like this in Spanish. My Spanish isn’t great, but enough to know that it contained similar instructions about flushing toilet paper, not throwing it away in the garbage.

    Comment by Ben — November 13, 2007 @ 11:07 am

12. That’s funny, I always assumed it was “Peter Limited Liability Company.”

    Comment by MCQ — November 13, 2007 @ 1:52 pm

13. aRJ, I used to live in Ecuador and it was forbidden to flush TP. I once remember the panic of accidently dropping toilet paper in the toilet! I was sure the entire sewage system was going to end up in my apartment.

    Last year I was in Malaysia, and now I’m in Saudi Arabia. I love toilet signs. They have great ones in foreign countries. Last week I took a picture of one from a stall in Bahrain, but it was no where NEAR as good as this one!

    Comment by meems — November 14, 2007 @ 9:49 am

14. Somewhat related, MSNBC does a fair article on the LDS church, focused mainly on Africa. I’m as shocked as you are.

    Comment by V the K — November 19, 2007 @ 10:30 am

15. That reminds me of the first night I spent in Guatemala on a trip there a few years ago. After I checked into a reasonably nice hotel, the manager explained to me how used toilet paper goes into the garbage can, not the toilet. It would have never crossed my mind that’s what the garbage can was for. So I can see why someone from a place like Ghana (or what I imagine Ghana to be) might needed to be reminded of the “modern” way of doing things.

    Comment by Copedi — November 30, 2007 @ 11:07 am

16. In the Brazil MTC there is a sign in the shower stalls (in portuguese only) stating that it is inappropriate to urinate on the shower floor. Apparently many Brazilians are not used to taking warm showers…

    SAM

    Comment by WhiteEyebrows — December 17, 2007 @ 10:10 pm

17. Perhaps there are missionaries going there who are not familiar with the “western toilet”. This sign is totally understandable in this case.

    Comment by blond one — June 12, 2009 @ 10:21 am