Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Last week, WTOP was guesstimating that as many as 2,000 to 3,000 port-a-potties were being ordered to place around the city for Inauguration Day, but today the Post gets the scoop on the actual number: 5,000! Yes, 5,000 portable toilets will be installed along the parade route and around the National Mall, more than double the 2,200 provided in 2005. We'll say one good thing about the likelihood that it's going to be a cold day in Washington on January 20 -- at least the smell of all that human waste has a good chance of being tamped down by freezing temperatures.
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We went to the Macy's at 12th & G this morning for the Black Friday morning specials. There was a sh
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unless, of course, DC weather has one of its mood swings, and that's a 60 degree day...
So if the estimated 4 million people actually show up, that's one porta-potty for every 800 people...
Woo Hoo! I get a kick out of watching steaming port-a-potties.
i cannot wait for the person who runs atop these suckers.
oh and the ones who tip them all over
Who will join me in live-streaming video from select porta-johns?
I'm assuming www.HotInaugurationPooandPeeForYouNow.com is still available?
Yes We Can.
He he he! I'm a mad scientist and I will randomly place time machines in place of these potato porta potties all over the Mall. Ha ha ha!
i cannot wait for the person who runs atop these suckers.
It might be a lively crowd that week, but it's not Preakness!
At all costs, avoid the one that looks like the Tardis. That Tom Baker may be a Doctor, but he should really seek a colorectal professional. A healthy person shouldn't make that kind of smell.
So if the estimated 4 million people actually show up, that's one porta-potty for every 800 people...
It's not like all 4 million people are going to need to use the port-a-potty at the same time...
Here's some maths for ya:
Low estimate of 1.5 million visitors
Estimate 10 hours of people using the toilets (7am-5pm)
Estimate each visitor uses a toilet once every 2.5 hours.
Therefore each visitor uses the toilets 4 times on inauguration day = 6,000,000 total toilet visits
6,000,000/5,000 toilets = each toilet must accomodate 1,200 'uses' on inauguration day.
And that's using very low-ball, conservative estimates.
Now, there is no way a port-a-john can accomodate the waste from 1,200 visits.
Anyone here remember the 'olden' days when open containers of alcohol were permitted on the Mall on July 4th? I think this would have been around 15 years ago. There used to be loads of drunk people stumbling all over the place.
I wonder how many portable toilets they had on the Mall in those days?
out on an island - Thanks for the stats! I'm currently generating a Minard-style Napoleon's-retreat-from-Moscow chart depicting the volume of poo/pee generated, deposited, and left behind for the innauguration. Unfortunately, someone's been using my abacus and slide rule to unclog the toilet. Otherwise, I'd have it ready by lunchtime.
everyone seems to forget that restaurants/hotels are going to be open... that's a lot more toilets in the equation
I'm kinda thinking that after the first couple thousand people come into the restaurant "just to use the bathroom," they're going to start saying "Customers only." Toilet paper doesn't grow on trees. Or something.
monkeyerotica: that's a cool diagram. One of my ancestors was a member of Napoleon's Imperial Guard who survived the invasion of Russia. He later emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Illinois. When he died, the French government sent a delegation to mark his grave site.
Are these porto potties going come with a new car scent or ginko?
Neither. They each get an air freshener that says "Capricorn."
So to answer your question, they'll smell like goats.
Maybe out in the Midwest somewhere restaurants and hotels allow non-customers to use the restroom, but even on a normal day here in the big city, most places won't allow that.
Also, Out on an Island, I used to go to those 4th of July drunkfests... a huge crowd, but nowhere near the inauguration estimates.
alexalexalex:
Ahh, the old days.
Fourth of July, cherry pie
Alcohol on the Mall
What year did that end?
Where will 5,000 portable toilets go? Assuming each one is 5 feet wide (a guess), then they would stretch 4.7 miles if stacked right next to each other. That pretty much circles the Mall and then some.
Out on an Island, the beginning of the end came when Ronald Reagan's Interior Secretary, James Watt, banned the annual 4th of July Beach Boys concert at the Washington Monument, because they attracted the "wrong element," and substituted Wayne Newton, instead. But it took a few more years for the alcohol ban to come along.
Damn I'm old!
Looks like everything turned out decent for the inauguration... commending the Port o let rental services that contributed to the cause... besides the mess, liquid waste didn't run down the streets of DC. lol