Flush It Friday: Pittsburgh Potty
In my part of the Rust Belt, there are lots of basement toilets. They’ve become so associated with Western PA in particular that they’re commonly called “Pittsburgh potties.” Rumors abound about why these are so commonplace. Some say they were intended to be a place for sooty millworkers to scrub off and take a leak before joining their families upstairs—many are accompanied by ad hoc showers that jut directly from the pipes or make use of an extra floor drain. Others say it’s about preventing backups from immediately filling your basement with shit (if so, I can confirm this doesn’t always work as intended). Ours was also very useful during COVID, allowing guests to go in through the cellar and poopoo peepee without entering our living space.
One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that men/masc folks seem to use them more than women/femmes. Mine, as a dude-ish person, is my favorite spot to take a dump. When cishet couples stay over, typically the chick goes up and the guy goes down. Why is that? What is it about basement bathrooms, or basements more generally, that allures some but creeps out others? Given the toilet moniker of this blog, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Let’s take a gander at what all hit the bowl this week.
We got lots of good death metal from Joaquin and some trad jams from Spear:
We witnessed the premiere of Titan Rage thanks to 365:
And the Toilet Radio boys spoke with the mighty Conan:
That’s all she wrote. Scrub off those G/B/U’s before headin’ upstairs, friends.
