Peek a Boo

This past December, my dad went into the hospital for an operation and was there for a week.  During the endless waiting, you find yourself getting well-versed in the various waiting room bathrooms and their assets and disadvantages.  One, in particular, struck me as strange because the stalls were staggered, with the one closest to the door furthest back in the room and the back wall of the next one about 2 feet forward from there and so on.  The unfortunate result of this was that the inch and a half gap where the side wall mounted to the back wall was a vector perfect view of your neighbor's ass.  While you can expect to see many strange things in public restrooms, this is one view that you DON'T generally expect to see...ever...anywhere.  I don't know who the architect was, but they should revoke credentials for something like that.

Another MAJOR restroom design fail is the IHOP in Huntington, Long Island.  When you walk in, there is a urinal immediately to your right and a sink in front of you.  Further to your right is the stall.  Now...with a LOCKING stall...you would think this is a multi-person bathroom.  Not so...as I found out when I was standing at the urinal when the door opened.  What you don't really realize when you start using the urinal is that there is no wall between the urinal and the door.  So...anyone entering...and the 3 tables of pancake munching folk behind him...can watch you pee...FROM THE URINAL'S POINT OF VIEW.  You would think that in this day of computer aided design...someone might have been able to head that one off at the pass.

To contrast that, you MUST go use the restrooms in "The Mall at Short Hills" aka "Short Hills Mall".  To call it a "stall" would be demeaning to this structure which, from all appearances, seems to be a hermetically sealed mausoleum.  The plastered walls go all the way to the ceiling and the doors are solid room entry doors so there is no peeking under the door to see if the stall is occupied.  Once inside, the outside world is completely shut out and you are free to go about your business blissfully unaware of everything going on around you.  I'm pretty sure a family of 4 could survive a nuclear attack in there.