My bathroom doesn't have shit on the walls nor the ceiling, which is more than can be said of a very high percentage of public restrooms I've been in.

You might be the victim of gangstalking, then.

I am also pretty sure that the toilet seat is probably much cleaner than the doorknob to the bathroom or the stall.

It's true. I use public toilets a lot and my method is to shit on my hands and then slam-dunk it in the toilet.

you ever think how dirty the mint trays are at restruants? millions of customers shitin, pissing, and than not washing their hands than on the way out the door, a lil fresh me up, and theyre free! gots to have me one. ps dont eat the urinal cake

The horror stories my mother could tell from working in an automotive factory. She clearly mentioned to me on many occasions after work that the bathrooms were absolutely rancid to the point that the supervisor had to call in all of the workers of a line to a mandatory meeting on how to use the bathroom properly. The form of irresponsibility came as shit was being smeared up on the walls because some of them didn't even know what the toilet paper was for, large puddles of diarrhea were pooled next to the toilet, and there were even mentions of people standing and squatting over the toilets that most of the contents never made it inside (aside from some of them never washing their hands.) Afterwards, it clearly did little to persuade the foreign workers that they hired - many of them still retained their poor hygienic and toiletry skills after being re-evaluated.

I used to know someone who worked at Filenes in Boston., She said that at least one person shit in the women's dressing rooms every week. One time a woman went in with some jackets and put a used tampon in the pocket of one.

I worked at a record store for a while and somebody shit on the floor without getting cuaght (amazing, because it was a tiny store) and then hid it under the little rolling step thing we had for people to look at the high shelves.

People are filthy, but being exposed to it is how you keep your immune system working well.

Also, what Crackersmack says about the handles.

This isn't unrealistic at all if you live in even a small city. Hell, at a practice space I had a few years ago, there was a full size turd on the toilet seat for an entire month.

The real issue is the completely unreasonable level of fear that a little bit of filth inspires in so many people in the US. Unless you're licking the toilet seat you've got nothing to worry about, and the only person I've seen licking a public toilet was so coked out that illness was the least of his worries, really.

A couple months ago I was at a theater in Cambridge and someone had shit on top of a pipe that was at least 7 feet off the floor. I don't even know how that happened.

People shit all over the place.

Cambridge MA? That's right next door. We should hang out, get some drinks, decimate a public bathroom!

Friend of mine's dad caught E.Coli from a toilet seat at a fast food place.

Shitting on the restroom's floor, or pipes, or mirror is safer.

Zircon is correct, people shit...everywhere.

the world is covered in shit and semen

Kabbage, I don't live there anymore but I'm still in town quite a bit.

I had e.coli once, it's the worst. Not sure how your friend's dad caught it from the toilet seat, though, since you have to, you know, get it in you mouth.

Maybe he was the coked out guy who I saw licking the toilet at The Model in Allston 6 years ago?

Jesus god in heaven. I lived directly across from The Model up until about a year and a half ago. I actually think that might been home to the biggest shithole bathroom in the city (O'Briens was a contender at times, though, and The Sil on a Friday was something special)

Zircon: Email me, we should hang out next time you're in down (jduane [at] gmail dot com)

I wonder if these people think that like, the next person is going to use their tissue barrier? I imagine the prospect would seem horrific to them. Yet, there it is.