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Something I read today reminded me of this..
Back in the 70s, our next door neighbor worked for the Forest Service. He had to deal with a lot of remote sites and told us about a really *bad* idea someone forced on them.
Now. most remote campsites and installations have outhouses. And a longtime problem was the seats in them. Wooden ones would rot, they'd get chewed on by porcupines for the salt they'd absorbed from people, idiots would carve things into them, etc. And some idiots would set fire to them (mostly by ripping them off and using them as a source of dry wood for a fire, but sometimes in place.
Plastic seats didn't rot and didn't interest the porcupines. and they made lousy firewoord. Still didn't stop the graffitti asrtists nor the vandals would burn things into them.
So a "solution" was arrived at (in Washington DC) and imposed from above. Naturally, it was from someone who'd never been out to these sites. And who apparently didn't realized that they were unheated, and many wear used year round.
What was this "wonderful" solution?
Cast aluminum toilet seats.
Picture sitting down on one of *those* in mid winter. You might have trouble getting up before spring thaw!
Back in the 70s, our next door neighbor worked for the Forest Service. He had to deal with a lot of remote sites and told us about a really *bad* idea someone forced on them.
Now. most remote campsites and installations have outhouses. And a longtime problem was the seats in them. Wooden ones would rot, they'd get chewed on by porcupines for the salt they'd absorbed from people, idiots would carve things into them, etc. And some idiots would set fire to them (mostly by ripping them off and using them as a source of dry wood for a fire, but sometimes in place.
Plastic seats didn't rot and didn't interest the porcupines. and they made lousy firewoord. Still didn't stop the graffitti asrtists nor the vandals would burn things into them.
So a "solution" was arrived at (in Washington DC) and imposed from above. Naturally, it was from someone who'd never been out to these sites. And who apparently didn't realized that they were unheated, and many wear used year round.
What was this "wonderful" solution?
Cast aluminum toilet seats.
Picture sitting down on one of *those* in mid winter. You might have trouble getting up before spring thaw!
