"Debbie Rodman, the keeper of a 3,694-day streak, once stood on top of a toilet at Yellowstone National Park in an attempt to receive enough Wi-Fi..."

"... to solve the Crossword. Ten years in, 'it’s been part of my daily routine for so long, I will never voluntarily give it up,' Ms. Rodman, 67, said. 'Someday when the lights go out, that’ll be how my streak ends.'"

From "What It Takes to Keep a Puzzle Streak for Years/Meet the players who persist through childbirth or intense athletic feats to ensure they solve Wordle and other puzzles every day" (NYT gift link).

"Perhaps because they have so many kids, they said they aren’t the types to hover over their children and check their homework."

"And as it is physically impossible to shuttle their children to extracurriculars all over town, they are often free to do what they want within a two-mile radius. In short, because they are not capable of meeting the expectations of parenthood in the modern age, they do not try to. 'We have these childless friends come over and they’re like, "You always seem so calm,"' Mrs Korczynski said. 'They say, "You ignore most things, but if something’s going on then you can hop on that."'  There are, of course, downsides. Every morning the children struggle to get into the one bathroom they share with each one banging on the door, yelling for the shower (the parents have their own). Dinners are like battles royale — 'they know if they’re late there might not be any food left,' said Mr Korczynski."

From "Why we decided to have seven children Americans are having fewer kids, worried about the high cost and uncertainty of the world. But for John and Sasha Korczynski, raising a large brood has been a leap of faith." That's in the London Times, but the family lives in the U.S. — in Florida.

How will they pay for college? "I think this is where having a big family comes in handy for college, because they do give you better financial aid packages."

Jeffree Star demonstrates how it's done.

On TikTok:

"Putting up a tent does nothing but make people upset that they’ve come to a state dinner but they never get inside the White House. The only bathroom facilities..."

"... for a tent are porta-potties. Setting up a kitchen out there is hugely expensive. When the tent is up, the helicopter [Marine One] can’t land. And the grass dies."

Said Gahl Hodges Burt, quoted in "A Pile of Rubble: After 123 Years, the East Wing Is Gone/Critics are outraged over President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing to make way for his $300 million ballroom. Others say it was time for change" (NYT).

Gahl Hodges Burt, who was social secretary for three years under President Ronald Reagan, said that tearing down the East Wing to make space for the ballroom was an unfortunate necessity, and that change was overdue. Since the State Dining Room holds only 140 seated guests and the East Room has space for 200 at most, recent administrations have taken to erecting enormous tents on the South Lawn for ever larger state dinners. Ms. Burt, a board member of the White House Historical Association, added that larger spaces for East Wing offices are “very much needed.” The White House has said that office space is included in Mr. Trump’s plans for the ballroom.

"A boy in a sports jersey stands with smaller girls on a court and then is seen, shirtless, inside a bathroom with them. A girl in a towel shrieks in terror."

"'Abigail Spanberger is as extreme as it gets,' says the narrator of the television ad that recently began airing in Virginia. A year after Donald Trump’s presidential campaign unleashed $37 million in transgender-themed issue ads against Democratic rival Kamala Harris, Republicans are returning to the cultural flashpoint ahead of next month’s elections, including Virginia’s race for governor, and plan to highlight it again in the 2026 midterm contests. 'Where is our common sense?' Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor, said in an interview when asked about transgender athletes competing in female sports. 'If I have to tell you that water is wet, we’ve got troubles.'"

From "Republicans Target Democrats Over Transgender Policies in This Year’s Races/Ahead of critical midterm elections, GOP revives culture war strategy used by Trump in 2024’s presidential campaign" (Wall Street Journal).

Here's that anti-Spanberger ad:

#VAGov: Dick Uihlein-funded group Restoration of America PAC is up on TV with this spot --

Female voiceover:

"Abigail Spanberger is as extreme as it gets..."

"She's apparently all in on a horrifying gender mutilation. An irreversible sterilization of children" pic.twitter.com/gD0ytXwUIn

— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) October 14, 2025

What a terrible issue for Democrats! They can't seem to back away from it.

"I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as..."

"... me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days. Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them. However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right — nay, obligation — to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created."

Writes JK Rowling, on X, responding to a video you can see at the link.

Rowling has kept a silence as long as her antagonists were children, but now she's decided to speak — to write — and no one can out-write her. She continues:

"A public toilet neutralizes and suspends the dualism between … what remains private and what is meant to be shared."

Wrote Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele in the notes for the Fall 2025 Runway Show, which had a set with "red toilet stalls, where models changed in and out of gender-fluid looks."

Quoted in "The Next Big Thing in Pop Culture: Public Bathrooms/In fashion, film and beyond, restrooms have become sites of creative inspiration" (NYT).

The NYT instructs us to think of a public bathrooms as "an apt setting for art exploring identity, the body and discretion"... which is so not what I'm looking for in a public bathroom. Ah, but I'm talking about basic human needs, not art. Art is supposed to challenge you and to upset you, if you are bourgeois.

"Separate bathrooms every time for me. I loathe double sink bathrooms."

Sniffs one commenter at the London Times article, "Mick Jagger’s £5.5m Marylebone flat — buy a part of rock history/The apartment the Rolling Stone shared with Marianne Faithfull was a notorious party pad in the Swinging Sixties, handily located near Harley Street’s clinics."

Another commenter sniffs at the sniffer: "Sinks are in a kitchen. Basins are in a bathroom."

I wasted some time trying to understand why Mick Jagger would want someone using the sink — uh, basin — next to him, but this is just some house Jagger rented over half a century ago. But I'm still blogging this because 1. I'm amused by one commenter out-sniffing another, 2. I'd never paid attention to the basin/sink distinction (if it even exists in America), and 3. The double sink issue. I browse enough real estate listings to know there are people out there who think 2 sinks in one bathroom is a nice feature. Why?! The only decent use I can think of is in a children's bathroom, but who are these kids who can't brush their teeth the old fashioned way, huddled around one sink? 

"More than a dozen transgender activists... were arrested Thursday after storming a women’s restroom inside the US Capitol complex."

"The activists were protesting a new rule unveiled by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last month requiring individuals to use single-sex facilities that correspond with their biological sex.... Demonstrators staging the sit-in held banners that read 'Flush Bathroom Bigotry' and 'Congress Stop Pissing On Our Rights' as they directed chants at Johnson and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)...."

From "Capitol Police arrest Chelsea Manning, more than a dozen others, after transgender bathroom protest" (NY Post).

So, political protesters go where it's not legal for them to go in the U.S. Capitol?

Protesters trespass on/in a government building — an American tradition.

Sounds like January 6th.

How about a big massive sweeping pardon for everyone, Joe?

***

Note to commenters: You are not the first one to think of jokes about Chelsea Manning "leaking" documents and "taking a leak," so please don't imagine you are.

"The land was so steep, he said, 'it was just a guardrail and a cliff.' But the view over the city was breathtaking."

"And when [he] crept up to the edge of the 0.15-acre lot, he could see that it wasn’t actually a cliff. There was land below, but the hillside fell away like a black-diamond ski run.... 'Obviously, it’s incredibly steep,' [said the architect]. 'But steepness doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not buildable. What makes it buildable is the geology. And we’re pretty fortunate in L.A. to have really steep lots that are actually pretty healthy below the surface.'"

From "The Tiny Lot Was So Steep It Was Almost Vertical. But That View..." (NYT).

Very interesting design making a lot out of what was so close to nothing that it only cost $45,000 to buy the lot. There's even a swimming pool, tucked in behind the house, with an underwater window that looks into the kitchen. And the shower has a transparent glass wall looking out over the city. The caption reads:

Because no neighbors have views into the house, the shower has a wall of clear glass that allows Mr. Arnold to take in the view.... “It’s like showering outside,” he said.

No neighbors. But there's a whole city out there. Yes, the buildings are pretty far off, but people have telescopic lenses, a subject I wrote about in 2014, in "Speaking of naked...":

"Madison, Wis., led the way for U.S. cities, with 35 per 100,000."

From "Why Are Public Restrooms Still So Rare?/Cities in the U.S. and elsewhere have made strides, but challenges remain" (NYT). 

Interesting factoid: "The temperance movement to limit alcohol consumption led cities to build public restrooms in the late 1800s and early 1900s: The thinking went that men wouldn’t need to enter a bar to use the bathroom."

But these days, we don't think of public bathrooms as bulwarks against vice. Quite the opposite: We're picturing sex and drugs. 

Trump, in a 2016 practice debate, purportedly drew a "blank stare" from "the group," when he said "Cocked or decocked?"

From a Daily Beast article, based on the forthcoming Maggie Haberman’s book "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America"

According to an excerpt obtained by The Daily Beast, a week before the second debate unfolded in St. Louis in 2016, Trump’s close adviser at the time, Reince Priebus, presented the aspiring political figure with a question on same-sex bathrooms. 

In playing the role of a female transgender student, Priebus asked Trump whether this hypothetical student could still use the girl’s bathroom. 

Without missing a beat, Trump said he had a question. “Cocked or decocked?” Trump asked. 

Here are my TikTok selections of the day. 8 of them. Let me know what you like best.

1. A demonstration of skill.

2. Sister Monica — an Episcopal nun — describes her mother's Southernisms.

3. He's got a message for architects.

4. The paradise that was high school in the 80s.

5. When a Gen Z person is kidnapped.

6. "If you're not in medicine: Try reading this...."

7. A straight man who just wants to wear high heels and a skirt.

8. "Hey, bear. It's okay."

"The £1 billion palace boasts helicopter pads, an underground ice-hockey rink, a tunnel to the beach and a spa with a storage area for therapeutic mud...."

"Its lavatories are fitted out with gold-leafed Italian lavatory brushes worth £650 and £900 lavatory paper holders. While only the best is good enough for Putin’s needs, one in five households and about 3,000 schools lack indoor plumbing, according to the government’s own figures."

From "Vladimir Putin’s love of luxury, from designer watches to £650 lavatory brushes/The Kremlin likes to portray the Russian president as a man of the people — just not one of the 16 million living below the poverty line" (London Times).

3,000 schools without indoor plumbing — that's what got me.

"This $1.775 million Washington, DC home has an 'Actual theater set piece" built into the living room wall as well as a bathroom made from poured concrete."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zillow Gone Wild 🏡 (@zillowgonewild)

(You have to click on the tiny arrow in the middle of the right side of the photo to see the other photos, which are absurd. The first photo makes the place look great!)

"I miss the momentum of already being out of the house when the workday ends, so I don’t have to overcome the inertia of the couch to head out somewhere else."

"I miss industrial-strength Wi-Fi that always works. I miss the daily reminder that my work takes place in a real world full of people and places, not an imaginary world within my computer. And I’m sick of taking from my own cache of toilet paper when I use the bathroom during the workday. Sure, the stuff in the office restroom isn’t exactly plush. But I’m not there to linger over the pleasures of lavish bathroom supplies. I’m there to work—in a place where my employer subsidizes my trips to the toilet, just as the heroes of the labor movement intended." 

From "Why I Still Love the Office/An unapologetic defense" by Christina Cauterucci (Slate).

"In a surreal scene of chaos and glee, hundreds of Trump loyalists roamed the halls, taking photos and breaking into offices."

"No police officers were in view. In a room where there were images of mountains and maps of Oregon on the wall, a man in a leather jacket ripped a scroll with Chinese characters. A young man put a framed picture of the Dalai Lama in his backpack. 'We’re claiming the House, and the Senate is ours,' a sweaty man in a checked shirt shouted, stabbing his finger in the air. Nearby in the first-floor Crypt, the heart of the Capitol building, the police appeared to be overwhelmed. One wiped tear gas from his eyes. When a man approached to ask where the bathroom was, he said softly, 'We just need you guys to get out of here safely.'... Another officer stood by a stairway, watching everything unfold and answering a few questions, including directing a woman to the bathroom. One protester came up to him and shouted in his face, 'Traitor!' When another man approached to apologize to the officer, the officer replied, 'You’re fine.' 'Everybody’s been OK today, except that guy,' he said, motioning to the yeller. Most of the crowd in the Crypt just milled around. A young man in a red Trump hat smoked a cigarette. Several men shouted and screamed. A man in a backpack with two American flags jumped underneath a chandelier, yelling, 'Whose house,' as the crowd answered, 'Our house.'"

From "As House Was Breached, a Fear ‘We’d Have to Fight’ to Get Out/What unfolded on Wednesday was a tableau of violence and mayhem that shocked the nation, one of the most severe intrusions of the Capitol since the British burned down the building in 1814" (NYT).

The chant "Whose house/Our house" is very familiar to me from the Wisconsin protests in 2011, when opponents of the newly elected governor, Scott Walker, lay siege to the Wisconsin Capitol building (which looks a lot like the U.S. Capitol building):

 

The text at that video says:

That's In February, I was deeply moved by the fact that in spite of there being 13,000 Protesters at the Capitol, everyone was allowed to enter. I asked my girlfriend how this could be. She replied that the Capitol was "our House." When I returned from a road trip a couple weeks later I, and the rest of the public were all barred from entering Our House though lobbyists could enter without much problem. Walker had stolen the most profound Democratic feeling I've ever had. He had stolen Our House. The "Whose House? Our House!" chants outside Our House grew as did the crowds (to over 100,000). I felt moved to write this song....

I love these reviews of sinks in various public bathrooms.

 Here's a link to a page of all the reviews (at TikTok). I'll just embed the one that got me started — a review of the sinks at the Museum of Modern Art:

"[O]ne of the biggest obstacles to dining in a restaurant, renewing a doctor’s appointment or going back to the office is the prospect of having to use a public restroom..."

"... a tight, intimate and potentially germ-infested space.... Laura Maxwell is eager to find an entertainment option that would let her take her children, ages 11 and 13, out of the house safely. Maxwell, who lives in San Luis Obispo, would happily return to the Sunset Drive-In, but...  'Bathrooms are a problem,' she said. 'They’re huge contact places, and if you’re shedding the virus, it’ll be all over. Maybe they could just open up without bathrooms and people would know in advance and make the decision not to go, or to wear Depends.'... 'Americans have always had a fear of contamination from public restrooms,' [said the president of the American Restroom Association.] 'What we’re seeing now is part just heightened anxiety, but it’s also part reality-based. Public restrooms in this country generally have open toilet seats — no lids — and high-pressure flushes create a plume of droplets that extends at least six feet.'... Going away: Push-button soap dispensers, and those high-velocity hand dryers that can blow germs across an entire room.... Outdoor venues might seem to be the easiest to reopen, but whether they are sports stadiums, concert facilities or parks, visitors still eventually need to go.... The American Hiking Society has recommended that people limit their walks to places in their neighborhoods, in part to avoid having to stop to answer nature’s call.... Even police officers are having trouble finding a place to go during their shifts. Coffee shops are closed, and fire stations formerly hospitable to other first responders are taking a newly cautious approach. In Manchester, Maine, the fire station restroom was closed to the state and county cops who usually pop in. 'No law enforcement,' said the sign on the door."

From "The need to go is a big barrier to going out. Why public bathrooms are a stumbling block for reopening" (WaPo).

I'm surprised WaPo didn't bring up the gender equity problem: Women need bathrooms much more than men do.

"Picture this. It’s early March 2020. You’re in a bar petting a dog you don’t know, drinking draft beers..."

Picture this. It’s early March 2020. You’re in a bar petting a dog you don’t know, drinking draft beers, then you follow it up by putting your fingers in some big dirty marbles, wearing used shoes and using a public bathroom pic.twitter.com/qRMnV6rUSc

— caitie delaney (@caitiedelaney) May 17, 2020