I have seen newspapers, magazines, and research papers left behind in restroom stalls. I’ve even overheard the tell-tale beeping of PDA/phones being used in the stall next to mine. I know people even bring books into the restroom to relieve boredom. But over the course of the last few months I’ve encountered a first which has become a very strange trend: printed wikipedia articles.
The first time it happened to be propped up so that I could see that it was about the band Nirvana. Interesting choice. How does one go from point (a) –> I need to drop a duce to point (b) –> let me print out an article on Seattle’s hometown alt. rock heroes so I won’t be bored whilst crapping.
To date there have seen probably five or six such articles, with topics such as Nirvana, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Alexander the Great. Bonus points to the reader with the most clever theme linking those three seemingly disparate topics.
What thought process and series of events brings a person to print a wikipedia article in the first place… is your boredom in the bathroom really worth killing a tree over? Are you that sick of looking at your computer monitor? Does he print them out specifically for the purpose of reading while pop’n a squat, or is this just daily reading that happens to end up there? Does he have a cache of them readily available for the occasion? Is the whole point of printing what you want to read in the crapper so that you can leave the contaminated article behind when you’re done? Tell me, wikipooper, inquiring minds want to know.