Californianing: La Taza de la Raza 3: Local Fast-Food Joint Creates Conundrum
Having recently posted the second installment of the ever-popular Throw-Your-Used-Toilet-Paper-on-the-Floor series a few short weeks ago, I was forcibly reminded of the cultural "Paradigm Shift" my state is undergoing just last night.
I was bringing Wry III peaceably home from his first night of church-summer Bible school, when (as is normal for 6-yr-olds) he mentioned he had to go to the bathroom right now. I turned into one of the local Burger Kings, not even considering the possibility that anything could go awry.
Yet, as Wry III availed himself of the facilities (dancing impatiently as he tried to unzip), I saw, in the stall something that still gives me the same electric thrill I experience when I spy a camel spider or large centipede in my house. Luckily for me, I have subscribed to Cockerham's Postulate: "Always Bring Your Camera":
Bien Venidos a Todos a "Burger King!"
Aieee!
Now, ladies, I am not reacting to the stain(s) on the toilet seat. No — despite years of cleaning up after myself, I am resigned to dealing with other people's messes in men's rooms because let's face it — other men are mostly more stupid and careless than I.
No — I am reacting to the trashcan in the corner, near the toilet.
To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi: "That's no trashcan — it's a latrine!"
Yes; it's the California way of dealing with an influx of persons from countries that don't have working toilets or reliable water supplies — put a trashcan in there, so those people won't throw used toilet paper on the ground.
No "biohazard" stickers; no sirree. No containment of any particulates; not even a loose-fitting lid, for goodness' sake. Just you, me and the used toilet paper, all cozied up in a closed, stuffy environment.
***
Here's where the conundrum begins: Do I, or anyone else not recently removed from a 3rd-World site, want to eat in a restaurant that caters to the wipe-butt-throw-on-ground crowd?
The thinking runs along these lines: someone's got to clean this mess up, emptying the waste cans (now s—tcans), and that somebody is 100% likely to be the folks working for low wages in the kitchen.
So now we have a vector that looks like: Customer Poop --> Food Handler
And — I'm just sayin' — there's no guarantee said Food Handler has "washing his hands" as any sort of priority in life. Just sayin'.
It seems to me this is a public health disaster waiting — no, already happening.
I wonder how OSHA's going to feel about this. In California, they will no doubt be gripping their skulls in pain and confusion. For, here is the crux of the conundrum:
(1) It's an obvious public health and business safety issue
(2) It's "cultural discrimination" to think that flushing crappy paper down a toilet is somehow better than throwing it aside for the food-handlers to dispose of in the trash/dumpsters.
What to do? What to do?
***
Me? Now I have to do a bathroom check before I go to the counter/table in any restaurant.
Not only do I find this vexing for me, but now the safety of my children depends on me doing so.
I'll let you know what OSHA says.
***
UPDATE: Nothing from CAL OSHA, which referred me to the County Dept of Health, which referred me to Environmental Health Administration, which referred me to the local office, which referred me to another local office, which referred me to the EHA inspectors, and then refused to take a message. We'll see how the local paper reacts to some information I sent them.
***
UPDATE:
Burger King unveiled a $200 burger for charity in London... no word yet on whether the London Burger Kings have chamberpots next to their loos for the unwashed to put their unmentionables in...
Posted by WryMouth at 18 Jun 2008, 6:15 AM 
Categories: Californianing, Astonishing Tales, Environment, Start Spreadin Manure
Categories: Californianing, Astonishing Tales, Environment, Start Spreadin Manure
Michty! When you said there were papers on the floor, I didn't realise they were actually sullied. There are some folks here who inexplicably pull out reams and reams of the stuff,in a fit of closet rebellion, or to strew across the seat for hygiene reasons, but that's about all.
As to yer pic,I am hoping now that there was really no scientific basis to the miasma theory of contagion. There seems not, and the cholera was in the water table, but - I am not entirely convinced. Smells can make you feel off-kilter. And germs can float. Just don't breathe or sneeze while yer in there.
BTW, that is one funny-looking, minimalist toilet. Where is the cistern? Maybe it is a men's room thing.
Miasma or no (and no; I don't think there is), I am nay sure that sitting in a room with poor circulation, next to a stack of stranger's poo, can be considered healthful. This, setting aside what is (for me) the worse problem -- who do these rubes expect to clean up after them?
Even in outhouses, I was taught to throw the refuse down into the hole. From where do these people come?
BTW, no comment yet from the county health offices (I've been routed through four of them so far). I sent the picture to the local paper, just to see if they'll run with it. Papers usually love "ick" stories.
Yeah, the theory holds no water...I just like the word miasma. It is a shame it has fallen out of use. It comes to mind, when one is closeted in confined unhealthy places. Was once a student nurse, and used to will the cleaning staff to come and empty the clinical wate bins piling up in the small and stuffy examining rooms.
Yep, I don't undestand why the papers are not going down the hole either. That is a conundrum indeed. Absolutely see yer point about the minimum-wage non-handwasher who is likely to be accessing all areas. Ick indeed. Hope the papers run yer story.
I am reminded of the portrait of Lord Kitchener
A' ra best in yer quest.
Dr Bob - I don't know if ladies' loos fare any better. One is just so happy to find a lady with a mop, glowering as you leave muddy footprints on her shiny floor. At least you know things ar clean in there, for the moment. And - I read this bit of research rcently - if you go into a public toiulet where there are several cubicles, the one nearest the door is least used. Peeps avoid it, thinking everyone else will have chosen it. I think I mentioned this to Dr Bob. Just don't like the idea of the cctv which must have been used in collating the data!
Row'n: I fixed the portrait link for you, but I am afraid there's been some sort of mistake. The "portrait of Lord Kitchener" mostly looks like Uncle Sam.
And, miasma or no, I am wagering that London of the 1850's was prolly a worse place to live, health-wise, than London after the popularization of modern plumbing and waste disposal.
Of course, given the recent hue and cry over Global Weather Change, we may get a chance to see what living in 1850's London was like, if the Carbon Luddites get their way.
Hmm.... "Carbon Luddites." I like the way that sounds.
Now, Rowan: for extra credit today, try to work the word "phlogiston" into a casual conversation, and also "Carbon Luddites."
Cheers.
Don't mean to steal Rowans spotlight................well,ok yeah......how's this,Wry........."Ploh n' me gist went to ton to see my favorite band,"The Carbon Luddites".
Carb on luddites? Come to Phlogiston Towers! Go for the burn,detox - regain yer pure elemental form.
You get:
0 points for eschewing "carbon" in favor of "carb on" -- okay; well 1 point for effort.
10 points for "Phlogiston Towers"
100,000 points for the "go for the burn, detox" comment.
Congrats!
Yo! (Do I get points taken away for having had to google "phlogiston"?) This place is an education.
There so ought to be a band called "The Carbon Luddites". You musical types need to form one!
Uncle Sam would be perfect. Get yer vacationing seniors photoshopping, printing and fly-posting in every potentially dodgy cubicle.
Interesting - I don't think we have a similar iconic figure representing British nationhood, who everyone would recognize. ">http://www.digischool.nl/kleioscoop/john%20bull.jpg"> John Bull mayhap, but he is just so nineteenth-century. And rebellious Scots would probably aim their 'wee' at him, as he's quintessential England.
">http://www.sonofthesouth.net/uncle-sam/john-bull-uncle-sam-poster.htm"> Here are the guys congratulating eachother at finding a sanitary cubicle at the Nationaliconsfest.
Thanx for fixin ma linkz! Hope these ones work. Have been most careful. Apologise in advance fur any errurz.
:'(
Link one: http://tinyurl.com/5z9ege
Link 2: http://tinyurl.com/56f5wd
It's official. You are the worst url-cutter-and-paster this side of the Atlantic. But only if you go around the long way.
Thanks for the add-ons to my post(s); they are always positive upgrades!
;o/
I am sorry. My hotlinky html comes from a reputable source and works for me on other templates. I will just cut and paste in future, and not try to be nifty. Howevurrr... If there isn't a 'preview comment' option, one is left open to the chill blast of one's hotlinking inadequacies. Jist sayin...
Bravado...where did that come from? :0)
I am as technically unsavvy as yersel' in these things, turns out. I use a "template" to format the blog, and can only make the most rudimentary of changes. No 'preview comment' for you... until I transfer this hodge-podge to another server, someday.
As for you? Cut and paste away... I can get enough of a sense from the snippets to see how to fix em, if I feel so inclined. I can "edit" html code better than I can generate it.
P.S. am I the only one who mentally pronounces "html" as "hot meal?"
"Bravado...where did that come from?"
Ye Gods, woman; yer a SCOT! That makes you about the only European left with any bravado -- well -- you and the Irish.
Enjoy it while it lasts!