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Here's an inaugural fact: Porta-potties went largely unused

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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:47 PM
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Here's an inaugural fact: Porta-potties went largely unused
Here's an inaugural fact: Porta-potties went largely unused

By Katherine Tandler and David Coffey | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Among other things, the inauguration of President Barack Obama was "the largest temporary toilet event in the history of the United States," an official of Don's Johns, the firm that provided most of them, said Wednesday.

Here's the mystery, however: Did it have to be? According to Conrad Harrell, vice president of Don's Johns in Chantilly, Va., most portables were about a quarter full Wednesday morning. Harrell had thought they'd be half full, as they are after most events.

Adam Carter, the operations manager for Alpine Portable Restrooms of Round Hill, Va., was puzzled, too. He said Wednesday that he'd "found whole rolls of unused toilet paper in some."

Here are the possibilities: The planners overestimated demand. The crowd was so dense that people couldn't get to them. The crowd chose to use Smithsonian museum restrooms, the better to escape temperatures in the 20s. Or the crowd thought ahead.

The evidence appears to support all those theories, and also to suggest a slight lack of enthusiasm.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/60475.html
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WI_DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:50 PM
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1. I wonder who is in charge of keeping track of porto-potty waste?
sounds like a job for Bush.
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DeepBlueC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:50 PM
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2. umm, because they are FREEZING?
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Dennis Donovan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:51 PM
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3. I mean, ewww. I can't use one - can't even walk into one...
:puke:

I think I'd rig myself up like the crazy Astronaut chick before I'd use a porta-potti.:D
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Johnyawl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:07 PM
Response to Reply #3
12. Those of us who spend our lifes in the construction industry have the opposite problem
If I'm not surrounded by plastic walls, I get constipated!

:hurts:

I never noticed that particular smilie before, it's kinda disgusting.
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LibDemAlways Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:34 PM
Response to Reply #3
17. The past couple of years my teenager has attended
Edited on Thu Jan-22-09 01:35 PM by LibDemAlways
a rock festival called Warped Tour. It's always held in a place where there is no access to a decent bathroom. The organizers just set up a bunch of port-a-potties thinking the kids won't mind. Because of the distance from my home, I always buy myself a ticket, find someplace to sit and wait it out while my daughter and her friends watch the various bands and visit the "merch" booths and signings.

My teen has kidneys of steel and can go all day without having to use a bathroom. I just suffer. I simply can't bring myself to go into one of those things. By the end of the day I'm in really bad shape. I understand exactly where you're coming from.
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meli224 Donating Member (108 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:52 PM
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4. that is really not surprising.
it was obvious that with that huge crowd there was no way people would be trying to get through all those people to go do their "business"
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Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:53 PM
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5. Perhaps it's because the Obama supporters aren't full of -- well, you know what. n/t
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Renew Deal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:53 PM
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6. That's not true


But besides that, the ones I went into were full of waste.
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Harry Monroe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:54 PM
Response to Original message
7. 1.8 million Depends diapers
Did anyone think of checking into a spike of the sale of Depends Diapers last Tuesday?? Just sayin' is all!! How else to explain it??:silly: :hurts:
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143tbone Donating Member (468 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:59 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. There's probably a lot to what you say at least with activists.
Many activists, knowing that they might get arrested at a particular action, will use diapers because they know they might get stuck on a bus for hours and the cops won't let you go to the bathroom.
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Occam Bandage Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:56 PM
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8. "Lack of enthusiasm?"
"Eh, I'll shit later. This ceremony isn't that good."
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Terran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. Yeah...
That makes no sense to me either. If anything it would be the opposite; extreme enthusiasm distracts you from having to pee!
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theboss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 12:57 PM
Response to Original message
9. I can't pee when I am freezing
So...there you go.
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kwassa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
13. Who is going to partially undress and sit on a 25 degree toilet seat?
Edited on Thu Jan-22-09 01:22 PM by kwassa
Our strategy was that we pretended that we were going to have a medical procedure the next day, and had nothing to eat or drink after midnight the previous day.

It worked.

Then we went to a good Thai restaurant later that day for a late lunch, where I consumed Thai beer to make up for the liquid deprivation.
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thrift_store_angel Donating Member (184 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:23 PM
Response to Original message
14. It was because it was too cold to use them.
They were easy to get to, they were kind of out of the way where no one was around. It was just waaaaaaay too cold to remove clothing from any part of the body. I took some really interesting pictures trying to find the buttons with my gloves on.
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OneBlueSky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:29 PM
Response to Original message
15. had a similar experience back in 1969 . . .
the Hudson River Sloop CLEARWATER had just been launched, and the Fourth Annual Hudson Valley Folk Picnic and Festival (now the Clearwater Fest) was scheduled for early September at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown NY . . .

since the event was just a few weeks after Woodstock, the local cops were in a panic, with visions of hundreds of thousands of people descending on their little town, so they were overly cautious . . . although we assured them that we were expecting 1,000 to 2,000 people, they demanded that we rent over 20 porta-potties and have them available . . .

so, there on this little winding road heading down to the river were this army of potties . . . by the end of the day, I think three or four had been used . . . but they sure looked nice, standing at attention like good little soldiers . . .
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LiberalEsto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:32 PM
Response to Original message
16. The crowd no longer had B*sh
to scare the crap out of them.
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slackmaster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
18. Another vote for "I can't pee when it's freezing"
I believe people drink a lot less fluids in cold temperatures.
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seemunkee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
19. I wish there had been one near where I was
I left home at 3:30 and didn't get to a portapotty until 1, and there was a line to use it.
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