>>>>>>>>It actually took me a minute to realize what Grady meant by "do a foot long floater every day"
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I was trying to figure out *where* you could produce such an impressive measured example- but then I remembered the American plumbing standards that presumably are shared by the Canadians. ;-) The Brit/Antipodean example would be as twisted as their sense of humor.
>>>>>
>>>>>You've been to N America. You've seen the size of their helpings cf us normal mortals.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I still didn't get it.
>>>
>>>Everything in North America is 'oversized' including our plumbing to handle our oversized dung...
>>
>>Actually, my first cultural shock moment was the one time we entered a McD, which happened during the first dozen hours on this side of the puddle. It wasn't the overcomplicated menu, the smell of cheap edible oil (we were used to just sunflower or corn oil, other kinds were good for railway lanterns maybe), and other weird smells, nor the amount of ice they crammed into their oversized paper glasses for colored sugar water... one could see all that (sans aroma) on TV. It was the toilet. Not the size of the porcelain, that was also in the movies and more or less expected. It's the agoraphobia. The distances were just too much - I figure a regular American must become claustrophobic in most of the toilets in places I remember from back home, specially in old downtowns, where these were added as an afterthought, a century or three after the building was finished, so they were squeezed into any available space. Specially with the regulation which requires an anteroom - i.e. you can't enter straight into it, there has to be two doors between the hall and the porcelain, which makes for an interesting exercise in creative architecture... how to put all that in least space. You may have seen some of those (maybe not in Germany, but elsewhere...), now imagine the opposite shock.
>
>Talking of agoraphobia, one thing I've noticed about US WCs is their openness. We've all seen the common thriller movie scenes where the someone searches for another in a "restroom", checking under all the doors for feet while the hider brings his/her feet up onto the seat to avoid detection. Over here the doors and divider walls tend to go right down to the floor, giving a lot more privacy and security. Once, in the real Cheers bar in Boston, I was taking a "comfort break" and felt almost naked in public with all my shins visible below the door and, if someone had merely stood on tip-toe, the rest of me on display. The doors were practically like cowboy saloon-bar doors, and the partition walls the same heights. What made it even weirder was a guy outside the door who insisted on striking up a friendly conversation with me while I "rested".
>
>I once saw a James Caan film where he was some kind of secret agent, guarding somebody in some kind of military facility. The military washroom there featured a row of WCs a banque, all next to each other, with no dividers - very open-plan. Bizarre. I've since seen Housesteads Fort on Hadrian's Wall which features a similar set-up for the Roman Legions.
>
>http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/_/viewer.aspx?path=hut&name=0021n023.jpg
>
>I don't know if Tracy experienced similar in the female facilities.
>
>WRT pool depth/width etc., I like UK bowls the best. Some French ones for instance are so deep and wide that one's "floaters" remain too close for "comfort", or so shallow as to not "cover the evidence", and one has a totally different olfactory experience.
>
>>
>>update/disclaimer: I used the word "toilet" for historical accuracy. It took two more days on this continent to realize that it was an illusion caused by fatigue (we were in our 23rd hour of travel). There are no toilets, only restrooms. Wish I knew that at the time - I was so tired.

In most Army military latrines, there are stalls just like in the civilian world - just a lot more of them :o)