Bush's Potty Break!

How much do you want to bet that most international incidents are the result of cranky politicans who need potty breaks?




Reuters Says Bush Photo Not 'Malicious,' Reports Wide Interest
REUTERS/Rick Wilking
U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York Sept. 14, 2005.
By E&P StaffPublished: September 15, 2005 4:30 PM ET
NEW YORKWith confirmation today that an accidental photo of President Bush at the United Nations on Wednesday, writing a note to Secretary of State Condeezza Rice about a “bathroom break,” was indeed real, newspapers around the U.S. and abroad are now planning to run it widely. But many, it seems, will treat it as something more than a joke.A source at the Washington Post tells E&P that the paper is considering it for prominent play tomorrow morning, in the context that, at least in some minds, it raises questions about overall perception of the U.S. at the United Nations, right or wrong. Reuters reports extremely strong interest in the photo today.The fact is, according to Reuters -- and this has not been widely reported -- President Bush did indeed take a bathroom break after passing the note to Rice.This apparently raised some eyebrows around the room, because American representatives (among others) have a reputation for suddenly bolting, though normally for a far different reason than this latest one. Fair or not, the European press has already had a field day with the photo, often centering on the notion that Bush had to ask Rice for permission.The headline at the Web site for The Times of London, for example, reads: "Excuse me Condi, can I go to the bathroom?"Since the photo first appeared on the Web late yesterday, speculation has centered on whether the bathroom break reference was just a silly joke and who had written and passed the note.Gary Hershorn, news editor-photos for the Americas at Reuters, told E&P today that the photographer, Rick Wilking, informed him yesterday afternoon that he had observed Bush pass the note to Rice, and a little later, rise from his seat, leave the room, and then return.And while some have suggested that Wilking, a well-known photographer just back from taking some of the most gripping images in New Orleans, was out to embarrass the president, Hershorn said that the photojournalist had no idea what Bush was writing on the paper. Wilking assumed the president was taking notes on what some other official was saying.“Rick had no idea what he was shooting, or what Bush was writing,” Hershorn said. “If Rick knew what he was writing we'd have 25 pictures of this, not two.”The photo was taken at 12:08 p.m. and it was Hershorn, about three hours later, who took the trouble to examine the photo closely. It was only then that he noticed the writing and decided to put it on the wire after 4:00.The photo, as E&P observed Wednesday night in the first story about the incident, shows Bush scribbling in pencil on a note that already holds the words: "I think I may need a bathroom break? Is this possible." Wilking is a veteran Washington photographer who has long covered Bush campaigns and the White House.As for transmitting the photo, Hershorn says, "There was no malicious intent. That's not what we do."There's a simple explanation, even a serious one, for all of this, he adds. Bush, he points out, is not used to attending meetings at the U.N. and probably did not know what the protocol was for exiting a room and returning. His question to Rice was “proper” and not all that surprising, “asking someone with more experience there about protocol,” he said.Wilking told Gelf magazine today that he has not yet heard from the president—whom he says he knows very well—about the note. “I’m curious to know what the White House thinks,” Wilking said.

On an emotional note...

If the concept of "two-ply" confused you earlier, this article might drive you over the edge.

Hogla-Kimberly invests in new toilet paper line
SHARON WROBEL, THE JERUSALEM POST
Sep. 12, 2005
Hogla-Kimberly, a subsidiary of US-based Kimberly-Clark, has invested NIS 7 million into redesigning its Mollet toilet paper range in a move to widen and strengthen the sales potential of the group's value-for-money category.
"Our target is to turn the "Mollet" toilet paper range into the No. 1 brand in the value-for-money category. As a result, we expect its market share to grow from 15.5 percent to 20% over the next two years," said Eyal Malis, manager of Hogla-Kimberly's paper product range.
Under a strategic plan which commenced about two years ago, Hogla-Kimberly has invested NIS 18m. in the classification and marketing of its toilet paper into three categories: premium, value-for-money and economy. The group's production lines in Israel include Lili and Kleenex in the premium category, Mollet in the value-for-money category and Shmurat Teva in the economy category.
Malis said that customer needs have changed in recent years.
"They are demanding a product that combines quality and beauty at a good price," he said "The new Mollet product line has been designed to be attractive, young, individual and emotional as well as price attractive."
Hogla-Kimberly's strategic plan comes after competitor Sano entered the premium toilet paper market with a new super-soft version last year. Sano Soft Silk supposedly contains 10% more paper per roll than its competitors, and the price is about the same. Owned to 50.1% by Kimberly-Clark, the company has three production facilities, one for diapers and two for paper products. American Israeli Paper Mills holds the other 49% stake in Hogla-Kimberly, which dominates the disposable diaper market with a 70% share.

which led to the following discussion.........

W: Okay, why does toilet paper have to be "attractive, young, individual, and emotional" in addition to having an "attractive" price? I guess I need to go home and look at my toilet paper. How does one tell if one's toilet paper is young and emotional? A whole new way of looking at things!

G: Here's my question. If these are the same people who have to rip up toilet paper and put it on the floor, because they can't tear off toilet paper on the sabbath, why do they need "attractive, young, individual, and emotional" toilet paper. Wouldn't they be better off trying to come up with a brand of non-tear toilet paper or sabbath compliant toilet paper? I think that would be a bigger market.

W: SO TRUE!!

I had totally forgotten the Israel angle. I mean, if my stove has a "Sabbath setting" then you would think an Israeli company would put their research money into sabbath friendly toilet paper.

And you thought we were crazy...

So you don't buy the link between political theory and hygienic bathrooms? If this doesn't convince you, you skeptic you, then probably nothing will.


Rich Russians giving restrooms an upgrade
By Sophia Kishkovsky The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
MOSCOW In the heart of the city, just around the corner from the Kremlin, Cafe Freud offers insights into one of the most prominent manifestations of post-Soviet Russia: ornate, over-the-top bathrooms.
Restaurants are outdoing one another to create the most elaborate restroom in this booming city awash in oil money, with such things as gold-plated toilets, walls of padded leather, urinals with spectacular skyline views and toilet bowls resembling Gzhel porcelain, the Russian version of Delft.
It might seem to be the final validation of Lenin's 1921 prediction that the masses would one day sit on gold toilets, although as of last year, a state construction official said, 40 million Russians, nearly 30 percent of the population, were living without indoor plumbing. At Cafe Freud, guests can feast on dishes with names like Libido Sexualis (tomato-garlic soup with croutons) in one of three halls - Id, Ego and Superego - then wend their way to their respective toilets through three lipstick-red stained glass doors depicting male and female figures and suggestive plants and fruits in an abstract, Joan Miró style.
Bathrooms were deeply symbolic in Soviet times. Churches that escaped outright destruction were frequently desecrated by having their altars turned into toilets.
The perpetual lack of toilet paper - pieces of Pravda and other Soviet publications were often backups - and the filth of public toilets were mocked in the jokes that were one of the Soviet-era antidotes for despair.
In post-Soviet Russia, the symbolism has acquired new layers.
Moving Together, a youth group that loudly supports President Vladimir Putin, flushed books by the novelist Vladimir Sorokin down a mock toilet they erected in front of the Bolshoi Theater in 2002.
They accused him of an unhealthy obsession with pornography and excrement, and objected to the Bolshoi's plans to stage an opera based on his libretto.
Putin made one of the most important contributions to Russian toilet lore.
Putin invoked a famous phrase promising to flush out Chechen terrorists in the "sortir," the Russian word for an outhouse or dirty toilet.
Examples of substandard bathrooms still survive in Moscow's portable toilets, which are made of rickety plastic and staffed by mop-wielding babushkas and dot strategic spots like the approach to Red Square. They typically charge a fee of 10 rubles, about 35 cents, and have signs saying, "No discounts."
Andrei Konchalovsky, the film director who left the Soviet Union for Hollywood but now winters in Moscow, once toyed with the idea of creating a Party of Clean Public Toilets and is credited with inspiring a nearly 400-page volume on the history of Russian bathrooms and their place in world bathroom history, full of literary citations on the subject ranging from Chekhov to Solzhenitsyn.
Konchalovsky discerns deep-seated psychological complexes behind the quest for luxury toilets in the restaurants and homes of Russia's nouveau riche.
"Rich Russians, because they didn't live in very good conditions 10 to 15 years ago, sublimate their attitude to money with extravagant, unthinkable toilets and wine for $1,000," he said.
Yelena Bazhenova, a practicing psychoanalyst and member of the faculty at Moscow State University, who consulted on the design of Cafe Freud, detects even deeper currents. "In accordance to psychosexual development, our country is now in the anal stage," she said. "Restaurants have gone through the oral stage. All cuisines are now represented. Now it's the anal stage. They've started to design their toilets."
The right bathroom, she said, is vital. "It's very important the toilet be beautiful, that this stage is reflected. If a child suffers trauma, then he will have adult neuroses."
The restaurant critic for Vedomosti, a business daily, pointed to a more pragmatic motive.
"Naturally, it's because of money people are competing with each other," said Aleksei Zimin. "There is competition in food, wine and cuisine. This is another means to draw attention."
Yevgeny Katsenelson, a prominent restaurateur, waved off attempts to analyze the fancy restroom fixtures - all imported from England - at his latest hit eatery, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, which takes its name from the film by Luis Buñuel, who, coincidentally, often used toilet imagery in his films.
"I don't know why they're so pretty: It's a new tradition; I just made them," he said dismissively. He casually named beautiful restaurant toilets he had seen around the world, from Milan to Las Vegas to "Sushi Rhumba" in New York (an apparent reference to Sushi Samba, in "Sex and the City," the television series embraced by many of the Muscovites who dine at his restaurants).
Marina Putilovskaya, the designer of Palazzo Ducale, a glass-and-gilt Venetian-themed extravaganza with bathrooms to match, defends the fancy restaurants and their bathrooms. "When people see something beautiful, it stimulates them to work more," she said.
From a historical perspective, Konchalovsky says, the Russian obsession with bathrooms is a promising development. "Where toilets are dirty," he said, "things are not well with democracy."

Spasiba for being a friend...

What's that you said? Your favorite 80's sitcom isn't Night Court, it's the Golden Girls? What a happy coincidence! It is indeed a favorite for those of us Cold War children who spent our formative years watching television shows inappropriate for our age. But most importantly, it is perhaps the first nexus of hygiene and realpolitik. How? Well, our favorite St. Olafian, Rose, was concerned about nuclear war, and sent letters to Reagan and Gorbachev. In her obligatory dream sequence, she, Blanche, and Dorothy address the crowd in Red Square. Rose tells them that Dr. Zhivago is her favorite movie, and Blanche sings "Happy Birthday" to the USSR's "Mr. Number One Communist." Thus, the critical statement falls to Dorothy: "You have a very beautiful country, and I have enjoyed my stay here. When it comes down to it, your lives aren't that different from ours. Except for your toilet paper. No wonder you all look so grouchy!"

This no doubt stayed with us over the years, and we are pleased to report that one of our number has just returned from Russia and encountered no hygiene issues. Or grouchy looking people.