sniffnoy | Of plumbing and signage

So it happened that yesterday the second floor was flooded, and all people entering or leaving Pierce had to go by means of the basement.

It was known that this was the result of a toilet (or perhaps urinal), but it was not known which one. And so it was decreed that until this could be determined, none of the toilets (or urinals) in Pierce were to be flushed.

(Did people still use them? Yes. But also, largely, they flushed them, I believe.)

Now to get out the message, someone among the housekeeping staff put up signs in all the stalls, and above the urinals. These signs read "Do not flush the commode." I think you can see the problem. "Commode" is not a very common word. "Do not flush the toilet" would have been much clearer. (And I don't think it has to do with urinals not being "toilet"s, as I'm pretty sure they're not "commode"s either.)

But it gets worse than that. See, it wasn't even written very clearly. And so when I was putting up the minutes yesterday, I saw George go into one of the stalls; he flushed the toilet before exiting, and I told him, you know, you're not supposed to flush right now, flooding in 2nd floor, hence "Do not flush the commode" signs. And he said, "Oh, is that what that said? I thought it said 'Do not flush the commando', and it was some meme or joke I didn't get."

(Many of the signs are still up, but I think it's OK to flush now.)

-Harry