Numbers One and Two

It's not often two bits of bathroom-related trivia occur to me in the same day, so I figure the coincidence is good enough for a post.

1. I remembered today out of the blue that my last place of work at one point hired a private detective to figure out who was repeatedly plugging one of the toilets in the mens restroom by using an inhuman amount of paper. And that frequently felt like some kind of encapsulation of my whole experience there.


2. Kottke's "Short Digital Ramble," in which he mentions paruresis, reminded me not only of Nicholson Baker's mention of the phenomenon in The Mezzanine, but also that it was the main topic of our brief conversation (initiated by me) when I got Baker to sign one of his books after a reading at Carleton. Less awkward than might be expected.