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"“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”"
(set 16 hours ago)
Location: Great Britain
27,162 posts, read 13,449,232 times
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The French Police used to take the names of people urinating in the streets but have given up after 2000 cases involving Mustafa Pee and Ivanka Tinkle.
Meh, this is an issue anywhere in big cities. I've seen some guy defecating on the road in between two parked cars in Washington DC. I just looked away and continued onto my favorite dumpling place.
Driving down a highway you'll see car pulled over to the shoulder and a guy having a pee.
Alleyways, sidewalks, in back of buildings, fields, etc... They just by and large don't see anything wrong.
Years ago now before Lycée Français de New York moved from their old home in a stately mansion on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan was on my way to work when I spied a French father holding is young son over a tree bed. The lad was having a pee!
This was about 8AM in the morning in a very wealthy part of NYC (Just off Fifth Avenue east of Central Park). Because of the fencing surrounding tree bed the father had to lift and hold his son several feet in air.
Where are the public bathrooms in the States? There used to be some in the 1960s. Rest stops and welcome centers have them, but I haven't seen one in a city in decades.
Starbucks, department and other retail stores, hotels, etc... All will usually allow one to use the facilities if asked nicely. Especially for females who seem always in need of a "nice clean bathroom".
Have posted this before in response to French "relieving" themselves in streets or whatever, but here goes again...
First in Paris and France in general public restrooms are not common as one would think. Yes, many of the tourist attractions and or establishments in areas dominated by them have WC, but that isn't always the case.
Two, within French culture (or at least parts of it) it simply is not done to ask for the loo when visiting someone's home. The WC or bathroom (plenty of older French homes and apartments still have separate rooms for the WC (Water Closet - toilet) and another where the bathing appliances (sink, bathtub, shower) are located.
This is borne out of another aspect of French culture; that one is to be in control at all times of one's body, thoughts, appetites, etc...
Years ago there was a craze in the USA about "French parenting". That is how French children will sit quietly for hours without pestering their parents, and or when refused something (a snack or whatever) simply go back to same. This as opposed to the American child's response of nagging, whinging, having a tantrum, etc... Again it is being taught "control" at an early age.
As it relates to bodily functions hundreds of years ago a young noblewoman was traveling with king Louis XIV and his court when she was suddenly caught short. Obviously asking the carriage be stopped was out of the question, so the lady held, and held her water.
Finally the entourage stopped (to rest the horses IIRC), and the lady made her excuses and with aid of her brother (a gentleman also attached to the court) who provided a shield/cover was able to relieve herself.
From then the idea of "restraint" now extended to the royal court. Where previously people (even nobles and royalty) often just pissed themselves where they stood or walked, went into a nearby corner or whatever. Some ladies simply squatted and a servant slid a slop jar under their skirts.
Needless to say Versailles for all its glory under the Sun King stunk to high heaven. Servants scattered hay or straw on floors in efforts to sop up the urine from the great nobles/royalty.
This idea of restraint applies to French today in that they largely (unlike Americans) snack as they walk about the streets. Nor do they carry around large bottles of water everywhere. I mean if you are going to drink all that water, everyone knows sooner or later it will need to come out...
How's this any different than breastfeeding in public that is all the rage now? I have no problem with open air urinals at all, and I wish some cities in the US would adopt such a practice. San Francisco comes to mind.
San Francisco was experimenting with a certain kind of paint. They do the walls with this paint and when the person pees on them, the urine is bounced back to the pee-er. San Francisco also tried the port-a-potties with the doors on timers. I guess that didn't work out?
it's awful, for sure, but it's what price we pay to live in the crowded societies we do. we aren't going to ban alcohol use, (probably the main culprit of this over-weaning urge)..... so we adapt, we invent, we install, we modify the environment and when all that fails, we move out into the country. i don't know about others, but i have this amazing control syndrome, (even while others much younger than my almost 70 years are wearing diapers) had it all my adult life. I HATE using public toilets...not going to get gross, but you know you entered them too..... and somehow no matter how much water i drink while away from home, it's only as the car enters the driveway, i climb my stairs, unlock the door, do I have to run to the bathroom!!!!!!! It's a psychological training pant i somehow developed. LOL
lol, obviously the op never travels to major cities either. Go to my hometown of NYC and then we'll talk.
I love our "superiority" complex.
I can remember when I first moved to NYC there were no places to go at night in large areas around Herald Square. Some bars, but they really threw a fit if you walked in and straight to the men's room and then out again...lots of yelling.
So guys peed in alleys or freight entrances to stores. Alleys stunk of urine until it rained or snowed.
no no....it was open in the back. It was literally like pissing on a wall in public, with your back exposed but it had a receptacle to contain your pee.
Like this:
[
Seeing a guy's back and knowing he's taking a leak is offensive!?
America has become incredibly prissy - note that word is pRissy - in the past couple of decades. It's true, I think, people get out of bed and the first thing they do is sandpaper their skins so they can be sure to be offended by something.
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