Toliets for the Couch Surfing set
September 7, 2011 3:51 PM   Subscribe

With the closure of Borders across the nation, what is one to do when nature calls? Just as AirBNB and CouchSurfing have solved the problem of renting out your spare room, why not rent out your bathroom to strangers with CLOO!
posted by wcfields (34 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Title Edit: Toilets
posted by wcfields at 3:52 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


I don't want to read the AskMetafilter questions prompted by the use of this site...
posted by demiurge at 3:53 PM on September 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


Dress nicely and go to a hotel lobby.
posted by 2bucksplus at 3:54 PM on September 7, 2011 [10 favorites]


Look, Borders may be closed by there are still plenty of SBUXs to poop in.
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:58 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


In New York, this is what Starbucks is for.
posted by cazoo at 4:10 PM on September 7, 2011


In New York, this is what Starbucks is for.

From my experience NYC Starbucks are for trowing up and Overdosing . 9 times out of ten a quick "Can I use your bathroom?" at any establishment will do.
posted by The Whelk at 4:12 PM on September 7, 2011


All I gotta say is that you may want to avoid using the squeegee at certain gas stations in certain beach towns on Sunday morning.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:22 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


That, and people who use open houses as an excuse to go #2 should enjoy the death penalty
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:23 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


This is what MacDonalds is for.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:23 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Do you not have public toilets in America?
posted by dng at 4:24 PM on September 7, 2011


If I had this app when I was a kid I would today be ashamed of all the horrible things I had done.
posted by munchingzombie at 4:26 PM on September 7, 2011


Do you not have public toilets in America?

Dirty communist. Of course not. We have a thriving open capitalist market for your shitting.
posted by GuyZero at 4:26 PM on September 7, 2011 [9 favorites]


Poo smelled like fresh roses. A+++++
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 4:27 PM on September 7, 2011


There are some places that have public toilets, but they're never around when you need one. No, no, I pay SBUX for an overpriced cup of coffee, it entitles me to poop when I need to. And I always tip.
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:37 PM on September 7, 2011


Is this genuinely not from the Onion?

It kind of reminds me of the old story about NASA spending a million dollars to invent a pen that wrote in zero-g, while the Russians took a pencil -- it's a hugely complex and time-intensive solution to a problem that can be solved quite easily.

The rest of the world manages to have 'clean, accessible' public restrooms that, while not free, are extremely cheap to use. Even in Toronto now we are seeing the roll-out of European style self-cleaning public restrooms; they cost 25c per use. Could the US not simply follow suit?
posted by modernnomad at 4:48 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


I like the old pay toilets. For .10 you got a much cleaner....stall, always had TP. Bottom line, it was worth it.
posted by Tullyogallaghan at 4:49 PM on September 7, 2011


So I guess I'm the only person then who's been desperately caught short without change and think that pay toilets are a thing of evil then...
posted by Hal Mumkin at 4:57 PM on September 7, 2011


That old story about the space pens is a myth, modernnomad.
posted by joannemullen at 4:58 PM on September 7, 2011 [4 favorites]


posted by wcfields

Well if nobody else will... eponysterical.
posted by one_bean at 5:03 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


wcfields: "With the closure of Borders across the nation, what is one to do when nature calls? "

Who the hell lives in a city where there's that many Borders outlets? My state had like, two.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:30 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


GuyZero: "We have a thriving open capitalist market for your shitting."

Thank you, Invisible Hand!

ew
posted by dunkadunc at 5:31 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


dng: "Do you not have public toilets in America?"

My city has one. They built it ten years ago but it cost a quarter of a million dollars and they haven't been able to afford another one since.
posted by octothorpe at 5:43 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Do you not have public toilets in America?"
Could the US not simply follow suit?


We used to have them in Seattle, and I remember SF had (has?) some.

But then then poor and addicted started using them. And we can't have that.

So they were removed and sold on eBay. I shit you not (heh).

Now the poor just poop in our streets. I guess everyone wins?
posted by formless at 5:50 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


modernnomad wrote: while the Russians took a pencil

mmm, conductive graphite dust floating around in zero g.

Why would I pay to use a toilet when free ones are nearly ubiquitous. Oh, I see, this is one of those world city problems.

P.S. In my part of the country, it's not terribly unthinkable to knock on someone's door and ask to use the restroom.
posted by wierdo at 6:07 PM on September 7, 2011


In downtown Seattle, my go to used to be the Central Library, but then they got those awful half-door stalls (again, poor people, can have them using things). Now it's Nordstrom. It's always clean, and I'm fairly certain all of the employees on that floor know half the people there are there to use the bathroom.
posted by gc at 7:00 PM on September 7, 2011


mmm, conductive graphite dust floating around in zero g.

yup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_in_space

According to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen
"A common urban legend states that, faced with the fact that ball-point pens will not write in zero-gravity, NASA spent a large amount of money to develop a pen that would write in the conditions experienced during spaceflight (the result purportedly being the Fisher Space Pen), while the Soviet Union took the simpler (and cheaper) route of just using pencils.[1] This story is in fact not true, as the development of the Fisher Space Pen was done independently of NASA, using private funds, and only sold to NASA (and the Soviet Union) after it was completed.

Russian cosmonauts used pencils, and grease pencils on plastic slates until also adopting a space pen in 1969 with a purchase of 100 units for use on all future missions.[2] NASA programs previously used pencils (for example a 1965 order of mechanical pencils[3]) but because of the substantial dangers that broken-off pencil tips and graphite dust pose in zero gravity to electronics and the flammable nature of the wood present in pencils[3] a better solution was needed. NASA never approached Paul Fisher to develop a pen, nor did Fisher receive any government funding for the pen's development. Fisher invented it independently, and then asked NASA to try it. After the introduction of the AG7 Space Pen, both the American and Soviet (later Russian) space agencies adopted it."
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:04 PM on September 7, 2011


Title Edit: Toilets

I write this about 10 times as week when I help friends with their advice columns,
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:53 PM on September 7, 2011


I guess this is ok, as long as you don't rent your toilet out to Thomas Friedman.
posted by en forme de poire at 8:00 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


(link, h/t homunculus)
posted by en forme de poire at 8:23 PM on September 7, 2011


Is this genuinely not from the Onion?

No, but this is.
posted by Rangeboy at 10:01 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Some years ago, when I was looking for a house, I arranged to meet a Realtor at a certain listing, and when I arrived, found the Realtor, and a young family with 2 kids and a newborn opening the front door of the property. The young mother asked frantically if they could use the bathroom, the Realtor acquiesced, and I wandered off to look at the kitchen. I noted that the power and utilities were off in the home.

About 5 minutes later, the young mother and her brood exited the hall 1/2 bathroom hurriedly, the young father apologized for not being able to stay to take the full tour of the home, and they all piled into a minivan, and drove off. At which point the Realtor turned to me and asked if I would like to see the property.

"Sure," I said. "About $1,000 less than I might have, ten minutes ago."

And that was putting the damage done in the waterless 1/2 bath pretty lightly...
posted by paulsc at 10:14 PM on September 7, 2011


GuyZero: "We have a thriving open capitalist market for your shitting."

LOL. Correct.

Better than Govt. mandated toilets.
posted by raymorphic at 1:00 AM on September 8, 2011


This is absolutely how Tim Hortons stays in business: selling coffee to tradespeople who need to take a shit between jobs.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:54 AM on September 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


I just told my friends who live at 200 Chambers Street what Maria Baker is doing with her bathroom.
posted by BobbyVan at 6:44 AM on September 8, 2011


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