It’s World Toilet Day.
The United Nations marks this day each year to point out that lots of people don’t have consistent access to “safely managed sanitation.”
Since they’re bringing attention to that very large and important issue, we will turn our attention to a smaller one: there’s a bathroom at California Polytechnic State University that is unusual even for that campus.
It’s on the second floor of the school’s building 26, the graphic arts building.
It’s not a huge restroom; there’s just one stall.
There’s also a set of mirrors that seem way up on the wall just inside the door, without a sink; there’s only a shelf underneath.
The sink is the centerpiece of the room; it’s a very large round grey ceramic basin serving up powdered soap as well as water (at least after you step on a ground-level lever to start it up).
It looks like what a bad AI image generator would come up with if you asked it to design a restroom.
But there’s a whole backstory that explains why this bathroom is the way it is.
KCPR reported that this building had been home to Cal Poly’s printing engineering program.
Students there would operate very inky machines, so the school decided to give them a way to wash up that didn’t require turning on water by hand.
The bathroom had also once been next to a locker room that was later turned into offices, which helps explain the room’s size and shape.
But not everybody knows the history of the restroom, which is why there’s a very important sign on that large, low wash basin.
It reads, “This is not a urinal. Don’t even think about it.”
November 19 is National Play Monopoly Day.
Whether or not you have time today to build hotels on Baltic Avenue or pick a card from the Community Chest, you can at least take a moment to learn the names of two of the classic board game’s most famous characters.
The mustachioed dude sometimes called Mr. Monopoly is officially Rich Uncle Pennybags; his first name is Milburn.
And the police officer that sends players to Jail without passing Go? He’s Officer Edgar Mallory.
Cal Poly’s unconventional bathroom: A campus mystery revealed (KCPR)
Real names of 23 fictional characters (CNN via Archive.org)
