I'm not Annabel but I think she meant she doesn't sit on airplane toilet seats, which I don't do in any public bathrooms as well. I squat or put cover it with toilet paper.

Anyone see Oprah on 4/13 about germs in ones own home - had microbiology guy culturing sponges, mattresses, etc. He told one woman her toilet would have been a cleaner place to drop a carrot than her sink. Now it is not even safe to stay home!

To "singlegalzzzz" and any other "squatters" here who tinkle over the seat: I certainly hope you clean up after yourself - thoroughly. My #1 pet peeve about traveling are those of you who leave a mess for the next person on that seat. It's one of American women's dirtiest little secrets and desperately needs to be cleaned up.

Regarding the spelling corrections, I have come to regard the spelling police as a tradition on Fodors. When I see something incorrectly spelled, I wait and see who will pounce, and how they will present their corrections (nice, nasty, or neurotic, "I'm just being helpful" or "How stupid can you be? or "This is driving me nuts!") Have any of the spellers seen the movie "Spellbound"? It chronicles the lives of 8 kids who make it to the Natl. Spelling Bee one year and it is very funny.

BRAVO CASSANDRA! Seat-sprinklers beware: if you walk out and leave me a wet seat, I'm going to call LOUD attention to you. If you can't be clean, at least be ashamed. Talk about discusting dizgusting revolting -- if you've ever hovered over a seat and left it a mess, you can't say a WORD about any hotel bedspreads, bathroom floors, or people who don't wash their hands.

I am a mature adult posting and I am mature enough to clean up after myself.

However, not sure if I'm posting to a civil mature crowd - one mention of anything and nasty accusations abound. So, only American women leave dirty toilet seatcovers, huh?

Frankly, I'm sick of the nastiness, vicious meanness, and accusations on here. That's why I posted a reply. That's why I am not going to hang, around much. Not that it matters much.

To Cassandra and cfc, hope you do what you preach.

Peace out.

Why is this thread so irresistible? (god I hope I spelled that right)... Nothing like obsessive compulsive phobias to bring out the opionions. But it's been educational, thanks to posters like Borealis who offered a little microbiology lesson.
However, the best travel advice I've gleaned here is to know the hangups of my travel companions lest they "infect" my good times!

"singlegalzzz," if you do clean up after yourself, great -- you could hang from the light fixtures to t.c.b. for all I care. Wasn't aiming "nastiness" specifically your way, just agreeing with Cassandra, who I don't think was being nasty to you. And no, Americans aren't the only ones who leave toilets dirty... far from it... but they do tend to pretend they care about cleanness and antiseptics and such more than anyone else. Anyone remember the old toilets that had purple UV lights to sanitize public toilet seats?

I just can't help myself!!! The toilet seat problem is very universal, and is also a big pet peeve of mine. I never sit on a public toilet (thanks to my mom's warnings), and although I do not leave sprinkles - I will not clean up after someone else, so bottom line, make sure before you go shouting at someone in public you are sure of the culprit.

By the way, shouldn't this be a separate thread???

Here's a little gem that's came my way on the net recently and I think it deserves a home here:

Subject: Dedicated to any woman who has used a public toilet!!


My mother was a fanatic about public toilets. As a little girl, she'd bring me into the stall, teach me to wad up toilet paper and wipe the seat. Then, she'd carefully lay strips of toilet paper to cover the seat. Finally, she'd instruct, "Never, never sit on a public toilet seat!!"

And she'd demonstrate "The Stance", which consisted of balancing over the toilet in a sitting position without actually letting any of your flesh make contact with the toilet seat. But by this time, I'd have wet down my leg. And we'd go home.

That was a long time ago. Even now in our more mature years, The Stance is excruciatingly difficult to maintain when one's bladder is especially full. When you have to "go" in a public bathroom, you find a line of women that makes you think there's a half price sale on Mel Gibson's underwear in there. So, you wait and smile politely at all the other ladies also crossing their legs and smiling politely. And you finally get closer. You check for feet under the stall door. Every one is occupied.

Finally, a stall door opens and you dash, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall. You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter. You hang your purse on the door hook, yank down your pants and assume The Stance. Relief. More relief.

Then your thighs begin to shake. You'd love to sit down but you certainly hadn't taken the time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold The Stance as your thighs experience a quake that would register an eight on the Richter scale.

To take your mind off it, you reach for the toilet paper. The toilet paper dispenser is empty. Your thighs shake more. You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on-that's in your purse. It would have to do. You crumble it in the puffiest way possible. It is still smaller than your thumbnail. Someone pushes open your stall door because the latch doesn't work and your purse whams you in the head. "Occupied" you scream as you reach out for the door, dropping your tissue in a puddle and falling backward, directly onto the toilet seat.

You get up quickly, but it's to late. Your bare butt has made contact with all the germs and life forms on the toilet seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper, not that there was any, even if you had enough time to. And your mother would be utterly ashamed of you if she knew, because her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because frankly, "You don't know what kind of diseases you could get".

And by this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, sending up a stream of water into a fountain and then it suddenly sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged to China. At that point, you give up.

You're soaked by the splashing water. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a Chicklet wrapper you found in your pocket, then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.

You can't figure out how to operate the sinks with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past a line of women, still waiting, cross-legged and unable to smile politely at this point. One kind soul at the very end of the line points out that you are trailing a piece of toilet paper on your shoe as long as the Mississippi River!! You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and say warmly, "Here. You might need this!"

At this time, you see your spouse, who has entered, used and exited his bathroom and read a copy of War and Peace while waiting for you. "What took you so long?" he asks, annoyed. This is when you kick him sharply in the shin and go home.

This is dedicated to all women everywhere who have ever had to deal with a public toilet. And it finally explains to all you men what takes us so long!!


(Author unknown)

There are many reason to freak! I swear we spent the night on "used"sheets one night in what was supposed to be nice small hotel-husband thought I was wrong (hope so). He pulled blanket back at a chain motel and found blood on the sheet...boy, did the manager fly to change it! Those are the two instances that come to mind that were blatant to me.

It's a good thing bacteria doesn't have as long a life as this thread.

Seriously, ladies, let's start a movement. IF EVERYONE WOULD SIT DOWN, THE SEAT WOULD NEVER BE WET!!! Think about it! (Yes, this is a pet peeve of mine as well, LilyLace, Cassandra, cfc.)

As for spelling, I really do try to control myself. 999 times out of a thousand I do NOT correct other posters. But I think I'm doing someone a favor when they don't know how to spell one of their favorite words, don't you? (Loved Spellbound.)

Borealis: Unfortunately, the old saw "if it dries, it dies" has been proven untrue; baceria (including staph and enterococci) were found to survive for months on fabrics and plastic, the only materials tested.

Maybe the Italians have it right by just putting a hole in the floor for public restrooms.

Put me solidly (no squatting allowed) in the camp of those who would love to throttle the "sprinklers", and my guess, considering some of her posts, is that Annabel is among those who sprinkle and run!

If it's any consolation, Anonymous, enterococci is a streptococcus, but usually nonpathogenic. Anyone's kids ever cultured swabs from your kitchen counters for high school science fairs? You'd be astounded at what grows on that agar from a seemingly clean counter. You really aren't as clean as you think!! Oh, and when was the last time you cleaned the "dirtiest quarter inch" in your kitchen? Truth now...and yet we all survive, and relatively healthily even!!

Very funny, peterboy, as is this whole thread. I would like to hear from someone who works in the hotel industry: what do they do when they travel? I've talked to many people who worked in restaurants who say all sorts of terrible things about what goes on in the kitchens, but they still go out to eat. I wonder about people who work in hotels????

Peterboy - your little gem made me laugh so hard I had tears streaming down my face - thank you for my laugh of the day.

Anonymous - please re-read my explanation of things microbiological, and pay special attention to the difference between pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. Note also that "old saws" may have a germ (;-) !) of truth to them, but are often too broad and general, so that even one exception proves them to be false.

Jayne1973 - you are a very clever =D> - I am indeed a microbiologist \/

Boealis, the study that refuted the drying/dying principle was strictly about pathogenic bacteria, and they were tested on fabrics that resemble airline upholstery. One of the reasons for the spread of nosocomial infections is resilience of pathogenic bacteria on unexpected surfaces.

Borealis--since you are now the offical board scientist, can you answer one question?
My sister (who although is not a scientist yet is on her way to grad school to play with telomers and such) says that there is nothing you can catch from a toilet seat and the paper cover is merely psychological. It sounded good to me and since then I never worry about paper, squatting, etc. Is she right? Lets say the toilet was covered in random invisible germs. There is nothing you could pick up that would make you ill or feel discomfort--correct??

While I was on a trip to Guangzhou, China, in the restaurant where we were eating, the "Western" toilets were out of commission. We were asked to use the Chinese ones. Surprise, the bowl is in the floor, with grid marks on each side for where you put your feet. And yes, then you squat. Not great for pants, as you had to pull them up to your knees to prevent them gettting wet. We also had a bit of a discussion (and a laugh) as to which way you were supposed to face (toward the handle or away from the handle? Away is correct.) Certainly solves the problem about whether to sit or not...

As far as germ phobic...I had a neighbor once who was more than a bit over the top (OCD & a bit Agoraphobic as well, I think). Her husband would go grocery shopping, and once he got home, he would have to stand outside the open front door of the apartment, open and unwrap each item purchased, and hand it over the threshold to his wife who would immediately re-wrap it and put it away. They did the same thing with mail. And despite all this, her kids were always sick.

I've traveled around the world, and the only quirk I have is that bedspread thing. My first boyfriend's family owned a motel and he told me all about them long ago.