Author Topic: Most Annoying Travel Habits  (Read 49910 times)

Offline David In Indy

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #90 on: January 13, 2009, 09:41:50 pm »
I don't know about that one, but I once heard one about a woman who flushed the airplane toilet while she was still sitting on it. The vacuum from the toilet caused her to get stuck on the seat and she couldn't get back off. I think it was an urban legend though. There seems to be a lot of those floating around lately. :-\

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #91 on: January 13, 2009, 09:47:51 pm »
Garrison Keillor recently wrote about this unsettling possibility:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/18/opinion/edkeillor.php


International Herald Tribune

How an airplane toilet can ruin your life
By Garrison Keillor
Thursday, December 18, 2008


It is rather haunting, the notice above the Flush button in the toilet on the airliner, "Do Not Flush While Seated On Toilet."

One imagines the engineers of the toilet running tests with flush dummies with big flat butts and the suction ripping the stuffing right out of them, and the engineers thinking, "Oh criminy, you mean we wasted three years on this sucker?"

So lawyers were brought in to write the warning, which had to be short enough to be printed in large type so that old geezers would see it, who are the ones most likely to flush while seated.

So they limited themselves to those seven words and eliminated "Flushing While Seated May Suck Your Colon Out Of You And Cut You A New Orifice While Changing Your Gender In Ways You Don't Even Want To Think About."

I sat down on the closed toilet seat to ponder this and saw that, from the angle of the sitter, the warning notice is not all that prominent. A person could sit there and not notice those seven words, or mistake them for something innocuous such as "Do Not Flush Wallet Down Toilet" or "Use Only As Much Toilet Paper As You Need," the sort of signage that's written by morons for idiots, and so - distracted perhaps by sudden turbulence or feeling rushed because others are waiting - he presses the Flush button and suddenly feels the toilet grip his hinder like a python seizing a rat. He tries to pry himself loose. No go.

Now the flight attendant is tap-tap-tapping on the door. "Are you all right?" she asks.

The man on the toilet, Mr. Murphy, doesn't know how to answer that question. He is, basically, all right in that he is an economist with a shining resumé, is married to a noble and resourceful woman, has three excellent children who are drug-free and on the upward path, and he is flying to Washington to interview for a high-level position in the Department of the Treasury.

On the other hand, he is trapped in the toilet.

She persuades Mr. Murphy to unlock the door. She tries to yank him off the toilet by his wrists and then she lifts up his shirttails and tries to break the seal by inserting her elegant fingers between the toilet seat and his posterior. But he is well and truly stuck.

One last yank and she accidentally pushes the Flush button again and it makes a great flubbery sound that shakes the aircraft, and now poor Murphy feels his innards being pulled downward. He faints. And when he awakens, the plane has made an emergency landing in Schenectady and six men in yellow phosphorescent coats are cutting the toilet with an acetylene torch. They lift him out, the seat still stuck to him, and right here, as he's being carried to a gurney, his luck runs out.

A passenger shoots a video with a cellphone and that is the image that makes its way around the world via the Internet. Everybody and his cousin sees it, what appears to be a Parker House roll on a plate with arms and legs.

An economist should not get stuck in a toilet seat. That is a basic unspoken rule of life. And so ECONOMIST IN TOILET is the headline in the Enquirer, and so a promising career is cut short and poor Murphy must go into exile and teach accounting courses at a secretarial school in Costa Rica.

People do what they are told not to do. It happens time and time again. Here on the frozen tundra, it is known as the Tongue On The Frozen Pump Handle principle. If you put your tongue on a pump handle on a bitter cold winter day, the tongue will freeze to the handle and you will stand there, helpless, unable to cry out for help.

Not that it would do much good - most pump handles these days are in remote rural areas. We've all been warned against doing this and yet we all know that eventually we will do it someday. Somewhere there is a pump handle waiting for me.

I've always expected tragedy to strike around Christmas. A joyful season and all ye faithful have come and then, yikes! You flushed the toilet while sitting on it and your life will never be the same.

Garrison Keillor's latest Lake Wobegon novel is "Liberty." Distributed by Tribune Media Services.


Offline Katie77

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #92 on: January 13, 2009, 09:57:25 pm »
I haven't used one since getting locked in one several years ago. Somehow the locked jammed and the door wouldn't open back up. It was a real big to do, with lots of people standing on the other side trying to figure out how to take the lock off, or flip it back up, whatever. ::)

When they finally got me out, I sat embarrassed in my seat until we landed.

Never again! Never! >:(

I only went in there to PEE for god sakes!

And you and your shy bladder too, David.......OMG.........but its hard to not laugh..... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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Offline Kerry

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #93 on: January 13, 2009, 09:59:48 pm »
I haven't used one since getting locked in one several years ago. Somehow the locked jammed and the door wouldn't open back up. It was a real big to do, with lots of people standing on the other side trying to figure out how to take the lock off, or flip it back up, whatever. ::)

When they finally got me out, I sat embarrassed in my seat until we landed.

Never again! Never! >:(

I only went in there to PEE for god sakes!

 :laugh:      :laugh:      :laugh:      :laugh:      :laugh:      :laugh:     :laugh:       :laugh:
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Offline Katie77

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #94 on: January 13, 2009, 10:00:46 pm »
And I tend to agree with Garrison Keilor........tell someoe NOT to do it, then its an open invitation to do it.....
That article is pretty funny.

And......I was surprised to hear they have such a sign, (as Ive never been in an airplane toilet).......So I was right.....you can get your arse sucked out.....I KNEW IT...... ::)
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Offline David In Indy

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #95 on: January 13, 2009, 10:00:58 pm »
And you and your shy bladder too, David.......OMG.........but its hard to not laugh..... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I know it! It's kind of funny now, but it sure wasn't then. And I had to sit down to pee too, because of all the turbulence. Thank God I didn't flush the toilet while I was sitting on it! :laugh:

Thanks for posting that article Katherine. I'm assuming it is sattire. Correct?
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Offline Katie77

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #96 on: January 13, 2009, 10:03:47 pm »
I know it! It's kind of funny now, but it sure wasn't then. And I had to sit down to pee too, because of all the turbulence. Thank God I didn't flush the toilet while I was sitting on it! :laugh:

Thanks for posting that article Katherine. I'm assuming it is sattire. Correct?

And just for professional and phycological analysis........was that BEFORE or AFTER your bladder got shy???
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Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #97 on: January 13, 2009, 10:06:09 pm »
Popular Urban Legends About Travel

An airline passenger goes into an airplane bathroom, sits down on the toilet, flushes it, and the toilet's suction keeps him/her stuck tightly to the toilet seat.


The Airplane Toilet Seat

This tall tale came from an actual 2002 Reuters news story that claimed a female passenger had filed a complaint about the bathroom onboard a Scandinavian Airlines flight. In truth, the "story" came from a real-life training exercise for airline staff. There was no actual passenger stuck on a toilet seat.



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Offline Katie77

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #98 on: January 13, 2009, 10:09:24 pm »
Popular Urban Legends About Travel

An airline passenger goes into an airplane bathroom, sits down on the toilet, flushes it, and the toilet's suction keeps him/her stuck tightly to the toilet seat.


The Airplane Toilet Seat

This tall tale came from an actual 2002 Reuters news story that claimed a female passenger had filed a complaint about the bathroom onboard a Scandinavian Airlines flight. In truth, the "story" came from a real-life training exercise for airline staff. There was no actual passenger stuck on a toilet seat.



Phooey........I still wouldnt risk it......would you??....(behind (excuse the pun) every urban legend or rumour, there is always a bit of truth)
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Offline David In Indy

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Re: Most Annoying Travel Habits
« Reply #99 on: January 13, 2009, 10:15:32 pm »
And just for professional and phycological analysis........was that BEFORE or AFTER your bladder got shy???

That was after! After after! I've had a shy bladder ever since I was a kid. I'm not sure what caused it. Maybe I was born with it. :-\

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