>> Speaker A: They've got a wait. They've got a seating area for the bathroom, so you can wait while your friend drops the fatty. He ordered the curry on the plane. Do you know what I'm saying? Like your travel partners. And he does it every time. So dumb. Welcome back to privy. Privy is a podcast about bathrooms recorded from my home bathroom. I'm your host, hunter Hoover, and I love bathrooms.
Uh, welcome back. Thank you for being here. You have survived the spooky season, and we are well on our way to what I like to call the back half. Um, because truly, I feel like we, at least here in the states, in America, um, I really feel like we really get our money's worth for those last three months, um, the first nine months of the year, kind of slow, but I really feel like we really get wheels to the
pavement and we get our money's worth for the last three months. And boy, howdy, do the kids really sense it. Uh, I have a couple of stories to share with you, um, regarding things that have come up at the high school. Um, and I'll be honest with you, of late, I have been doing my best to not share the crass stories as much. And I'm not going to go into the slimy and the particulated and the sometimes chunky and, um, kind of sloshy and just generally visceral. Um, and just very gooey and just
warm details. I'm not going to go into all that, but what I do want to say, I want to share a couple of highlights, um, from the last week or so, um, of the high school. So the first thing is, I re entered the game as a custodian. I filled in for friend of the show and former guest Michael wall at our church, uh, for a couple weeks while he and his, uh, wife, Kimberly, went on a much deserved break, uh, on a road trip around the western half of the United
States. And it was a privilege, it was an honor to fill in for Michael. I know I did. Michael's. Michael's got this stuff locked down. But truly, uh, just the very first night, like, almost my first night, getting ready to jump back in. I was a janitor for ten years, and I'm ready to put back on the suit, if you will, and just right out of the gate, just the most bodacious clog I have seen in some time. Now, it wasn't like a level five. It was an easy
to deal with clog. It was a classic three pump clog, and you just got to push past your clogs. Like, you just have to do that. And that wasn't my frustration. The worst of it, Michael, if you're hearing this, the worst of it is at the end of our kids group evening. Um, I went into the men's bathroom to, uh, just check it for the evening. And I'll be honest. Um, this was not the cleaning night. This was the make sure it looks tidy enough for the rest of the
weeknight. And I go into the boys bathroom and there is just urine hither and yawn. Um, like, there's urine in one of the two sit down stalls, all over the seat, all over the floor, out the stall and in front of both standing urinals and onto the far
wall of this bathroom. And I'm sitting here going, this either has to be a small child struggling desperately for success or a complete jack wagon of a human who has done this on purpose and they need to get slapped in the back of the head by the mama. So that was my introduction. But then I kind of got to play honorary custodian at the high school this week. Um, at the point of recording, um, it's November 2. If you hear that, you're peeking behind the window. Um, and yes, you're
thinking, wow, he's really cutting it close. Yeah, I am. Because life's busy. And, um, we celebrated my son's birthday. Happy birthday, bud. Uh, and just had a good time. But that caused his life to be busy. And one of the things. But this happened this week at the high school. Really just when you're busy, this is what you want. So let me set the stage. I stepped out of my room to
check on some students. And as I am doing so, as I'm leaving the building, I see what is just the most thrashed looking Ralph I have seen in a long time. Now, there is vomit out the door, clean inside the building, down the hallway and into the boy's bathroom. Now, at this point, I only knew of the vomit in the building and in the hallway. So I went to the custodial radio channel. I radioed, no answer. And I'm sitting here thinking, oh, man, they're probably
swamped. I'm going to go back to the main channel and see if we can get some action over there. So I go back to the main channel and I honk off up to him. And while I'm chattering about the disaster vomit, um, kids start coming out of the men's bathroom, the boys bathroom, and saying, uh, one of the toilets is destroyed too. So naturally, I went in and got a picture uh, if you would like to see the picture of this bowl, uh, go check it out and follow Randy bowles at
Randy Bowles. Um, we've got some randy toilet shots over there, but this thing was absolutely thrashed. Um, I have not seen this much sick from the inside of a human stomach in a long time. But, man, my dude hit it. And by it, I mean both the inside and the outside of the bowl. Um, but then I played what I like to call vomit puppy guard for about 40 minutes until the custodian was able to come in,
take over. And you're hearing that and you're saying, well, Hunter, you just said you have, like, ten years experience. Why didn't you get your hand up on that ball and get a piece of that pie? And I tried my keys, didn't open the custodial closet, so I could not get the appropriate tools to handle the job myself. Um, but the guy came, he got it dealt with, and life moves on. Um, the sick has been relocated. Um, really, life is just relocating someone sick from one place to the next.
That's facts. This week on privy. As you may have seen, we are going to be finally discussing the winner of America's best restroom, 2023. Um, but as always, to do so, we can't just talk about it. We've got to go back. U in early America, trade with Europe was prominent, um, mostly because we were controlled by them, early settlers, after, um, often foisting the land from the native
Americans. Sorry, guys. Would regularly seek to settle coastal regions and areas that would be good for transporting goods and people to the coast for trade. Now, one of the. And listen, America's history, it's got some blemishes. Like, we've got blemishes. That's the facts. Every nation has its blemishes. Um, but we can either paint over the blemishes, or
we can look at them and say, yeah, that was bad. Um, but for early settlers, the locations of where the Patopsco river empties into the nearby Chesapeake Bay would be just, like, such a good spot for this. You want something that's a riverway, but that empties into the ocean. For ease of transportation of goods, the then province of Maryland established the port of Baltimore, which would serve as a tobacco export hotspot.
They just cannot get enough of that sweet sweetbacco, and they're just pumping it out of Baltimore left and right. In time, as trade persists and often increases, people begin to settle near the waterways. In places of business, they do what they often do. They set up towns, they set up a family, they set up shops, they try to start businesses. And in this case, a town popped up, a town by the name of Baltimore, formed in 1729.
At the time when Baltimore was formed, people were probably still taking a little patopsco in the Patopsco river, if you know what I'm saying. But Baltimore has jumped in and out of american history like it's always been there
since the beginning. Baltimore served as the temporary capital of these United States in 1777, when they were forced to move revolutionary hearings and meetings out of, I believe, at the time, Philadelphia, um, the first printing press was made in Baltimore, along with one of the nation's first newspapers. More pertinent to today's discussion, though, as you will see in time, I promise I'll land the plane. You're going to get that in a little bit. That one's going to pay off, I
think. In 1830, the nation's oldest railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, opened its first section, and it was the first common carrier railroad to transport goods and services and people. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, also known as B O Railroad, would be one of the famous location on Milton Bradley's monopoly, but not as famous as the reading railroad. Sorry, bno. Um, shout out
by the you if you are not. We might need to get, like, a little subgroup going here, but if you're not playing monopoly, go. You should. Um. It's very fun. Somehow they have turned what I believe to be a mediocre, subpar board game into a very fun single player game for the phone. Uh, it's a blast from the past, if you will, but Bno Railroad was not the one on the board game, the real life one. That is what the one on the board game is based on.
Um, it was a large, interconnected section of railroads which was said to link the 13 states. Early times, it was colonies, but the 13 great states with the rest of the nation. The BNO would play a role in the union's success in the Civil war, allowing the transportation of goods and troops from a lot of places throughout the northern states. You got to get the stuff to where it needs to be. You got to get soldiers to where
they can fight. They got to get soldiers away from the fighting if they've been hurt. And they used railroads, and in some cases, the b O railroad, to do so. The B O was one section of the track was home to a permanent horse
drawn stretch. It is the first US railroad to operate a steam locomotive, and it's the first railroad to offer high end, prestigious passenger trains, many of the b O's bridges, the bridges that they built to allow this very sweet tube A, ah, train, um, to go over, often waterways or other transportation sections. These bridges were often made from granite. It was expensive. They had an agreement with an experimental line of telegraph that ran from Washington DC
to Baltimore. Again, uh, a communication line that was influential at wartime. And essentially the telegraph company was like, hey, bno Railroad, you give us access to the lines and all that stuff, and you can use our telegraph all you want. And they were
like, you got it, bud. Um, and while the BNO has rich history, more so than the ridiculous space on the monopoly board, and another non bathroom related podcast could easily make a meal just on this one influential railway and the impact that it had on our american culture for our purposes. A brief history of the transportation industry of Baltimore. Um, it suffices to say the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad closed its corporate offices in 1987. That's over 150 years of operation after its
opening. But about 50 years before BNO launched its first train on the ground, Edward Warren made the first ever manned flight in the United States over the city of Baltimore in a Balloon nearby M Baltimore, the city of College park, opened the first and oldest continuously operated airport in 19. Eight. It would be nearly another 15 years before Maryland. If you don't know, that's where Baltimore is located, got its first airline facility in
1921. And maybe, like me, you hear and you read something like that, and you don't think, didn't you say that it had a thing in 1908? How the heck do they get the first one in 1921? Well, College park airport was not an aviation facility. It was a local type operation. Logan Field was Maryland's first aviation facility. And while the BNO. That's the formerly
mentioned train from minutes ago. While the BNO solidified Baltimore as a major transportation hub in the United States, connecting the midwest to the rest of Appalachia, as airports began to open and be in operation, Baltimore would begin to be connected to the rest of the world. Beginning in 1930, airlines began to add their services to the Logan field location. And as business boomed, the need for a bigger airport became more and more evident.
In 1946, they drew up a plan for a new airport 10 miles from Baltimore and 30 miles from Washington, DC. And they eventually named this airport the Friendship International Airport, and it's dedicated by President Truman in 1950. As the city of Baltimore continues to grow, so does the industry and its services. The state of Maryland brought friendship. The state of Maryland bought, purchased Friendship International Airport from the city of Baltimore for $36 million in
1972. I would argue a steal on an airport. With it came a M multi year long plan to update and modernize the airport with improved passenger terminals, Amtrak rail stations and new FFA control tower replacement and redoing of the Runway enhanced security checks, parking garages, which cost over a billion dollars between 1972 and 2000. That's a lot of upgrades. I feel like I just mass upgraded. Like when you're playing the Vidgie games and sometimes you
have that button that's like upgrade all. I feel like I just hit that button for the Friendship International Airport. Let's go. It ain't polar seltzer, but it'll do, uh, Waterloo cranberry, ain't nothing wrong with it. Also, sprite cranberries back. Everybody strap in. Hold on to your horses. Stuff's um, so good. In 2000, the airport unveiled a $1.8 billion expansion vision and, uh, we're not going to detail all these renovations in time. The expansions and the
upgrades continued to happen. In 2021, they installed a $48 million extension to Concourse A, which included new boarding gates, new restaurants, and began projects to modernize bathrooms. Later, there was proposed a $55 million as a part of a modern facelift beginning with the Concourse B bathrooms and this brings us to a highlight segment of Poo in the news. This poo in the news is brought to you
by the Cintis Corporation. It is titled now Boarding winner of, uh, Cintus 2023 America's Best restroom copyright reserved contest the BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport a round of applause for BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Woohoo. You did it. The Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is the winner of the 2023 America's Best Restroom contest. This article is from M September
20 eigth 2023. And you might hear that and go, well, this is old news, but you will note as our, um, episodes release on the fives, that is after September 25 and we have committed October to spoop key season. Here we are, um, they are the winner of the 2023 America's best Restroom contest as this year's winner, as always, the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which can we shorten the name, friends? Um, will get to properly crown their restrooms with prizes from
Cintis. This includes a cintus ultra clean restroom cleaning service and $2,500 in Cintus products and services for restroom cleaning or facility management to keep their restrooms ready for the workday. Copyright reserved. Along with a coveted spot in the America's best Restroom hall of Fame. The newly constructed restrooms at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport maximize occupant capacity while also enhancing the overall
passenger experience. The entrance welcomes travelers with aesthetic, mural and seating area while they wait for their companions. They've got a seating area for the bathroom so you can wait while your friend drops the fatty. He ordered the curry on the plane. Do you know what I'm saying? Like your travel partners. And he does it every time. He's so dumb. So dumb. And he gets the curry and you tell him every time, don't do it like it's going to liquefy your bee.
But without fail, he does it liquefies his bee and now you have a place to sit and wait while he totally decimates the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport bathroom each restroom features a state of the art smart restroom system that integrates color changing led stall showing current availability technology. This air quotes smart restroom system also provides real time inventory tracking and usage counts for custodial services. Very rad. Very
interesting. Um, I would love to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport if you are hearing this, please publish your numbers. I would love to see how many rolls of toilet paper y'all go through in a day, let alone a year. Ricky Smith, an executive director and CEO of the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, said, we're honored to be recognized by cintist and contest voters for our commitment to providing a positive passenger experience and
outstanding facilities. Passengers rank restrooms as an airport's number one amenity. That's why we work so hard to provide creative, clean and inviting restrooms to make travel more enjoyable. You can almost see the smile into the camera and the sparkle that they've added in his teeth when he says that this is the 22nd year of the America's best restroom contest hosted by Cintus. They celebrate innovative, hygienic public restrooms.
The Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was one of ten finalists. Lady da they tell about voting. We already did that. Um, the state of their public restrooms can have a large impact on public perception of a business, said Julia Walsh, marketing manager of Cintus. The Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall airport restrooms are bright and airy and the embodiment of clean with natural light and room for luggage.
We're proud to crown them America's best restroom. They tell you about who won last year and then they say you can go nominate your restroom for 2024. Now here's what I'm here to say. There's a contact info. I might contact this person to get it. Let's get it. But here's what I'm here to say. Here's my deal. So, a little bit of poo in the news. Now comes the inside baseball, where I do, um, the feedback thing. And my
feedback is this. First of all, I want to say congratulations to the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall airport for your win. You earned it. Um, and you cleaned very nice looking restrooms. That is not my grief here. That is not my concern. My concern is. And my feedback is this. Why do the airports keep winning? Like, if pure dollars and cents have anything to do with it, these airports will continue to win by stacking the vote.
I'm not saying that is what the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall airport did, but an airport has now won two years in a row. And we have talked in the past and often on, privy about some of the shortcomings of the experiment. That is democracy. And this is it. It is a reminder that we may sometimes be better suited with a representative democracy, where the folks with the most money, or in this case, the most employees, cannot stack the vote.
Now, I'm not saying, again that that's what's happening, but it seems to me fishy that two years in a row, a large international airport bathroom beat out a local mom and pop bathroom. When the local mom and pops bathroom, if they're going off, aesthetics, were much more dope to
check out. And my concern is this, as the Cintis corporation's America's best restroom competition grows in its notoriety and popularity, I believe these big wigs, if you will, are going to continue to beat out the little man. I think there's some interesting politics going on. And, uh, the other concern I have is, so, as noted, voting closed, according to the article, in the middle of August, like August 11, I want to say
it was. Yet they did not have the votes tallied and posted until September 25 or 20 eigth. It's real special because the thing is posted on the 25th, but it says that it was done on the 20 eigth. It's really nice, but it took them a month and a half to air, quote, tabulate the votes and post the winner. And I don't understand that because it's flipping digital. You go to the bottom of the excel sheet and you say tally, and it adds up each contestant's numbers,
and whoever had the highest number is the winner. They don't release the numbers. So you don't even have to have a number. You just have to have it tell you who had the most. It's not hard. So why Cintis corp. Cintus, if you're listening, I've talked about you a few times now. I would like to say that it's free advertisement, but I'm pretty sure you've got a little bit more going on than I do. I ain't out here assuming that people got a flipping
g dang clue what I'm doing. But what I do know is my challenge to you, cintist, is communicate and lay out your vote counting system. Lay all the cards out there. Let me see back behind. Let me see that sausage. Let me see how that sausage is being made. Let me see you stuff that sausage. You know what I'm saying? I want to see it. I want you to communicate how the restrooms of establishments who make way more money are
not stacking the vote. There has to be a way, maybe an email login to ensure that employees of these places are not logging in with their personal I don't know. Uh, that's not really a good way to do it. But I believe democracy demands that you clarify this, and bathrooms enthusiasts everywhere, bathroom enthusiasts everywhere demand it. I decided to do some digging and found out that Canada has their own cintus best restroom competition. And what? We're going to be
covering that in future episodes. But I asked, does Canada like airport bathrooms as well, or is this just something strange going on here in the states? Well, a quick perusal through a little press release tells us all we need to know. This article is also from the Cintus corporation. Cintus Canada from Mississauga, Ontario. Probably blew that, sorry, knicks, um, but in the 14th year, little bit less than the american best
restroom. Cintus's nationwide contest highlights businesses that have invested in developing and maintaining exceptional washrooms. Winning the title of America's best restroom is truly an honor, said Heather Rhodes, CEO of Hard Bean Brunch Company. Now had to go look this up. Hard Bean brunch company is, as you will tell by the name, not an airport. In fact, they seem like a nice breakfast spot. Canada. That's who won in 2023 in
Canada, and it makes more sense. And granted, they have fewer submissions, but I want to also note their timeline is about the same. The voting closed July 7 and they didn't post this until August 17. Like, what's going on with the Cintis corporation and their ability to not get this vote in. We got to get it figured out. But Canada has their own best restroom. Uh, and from 2010
on, I wanted to look at this. From 2010 on in Canada, the winners of Canada's best Restroom 2010 have been the 2023 winner, hard bean Brunch company, followed by Majesty and friends, Borden Park, Edmonton Westview RV park, uh, Beaver Hill, Shell. I can't read that. It's french. St. Albert, Honda, St. Albert in Alberta, Bayview Shopping center, white Court, Esso superstation, a thousand islands, duty free. Shaw Club Hotel and spa, Valley View Shell superstation, Langley Street, Lou
El Evan, Toronto. In other words, not any airports. That's what I want to highlight. There's a lack of airport presence in the canadian best restroom competition since 2002. In the America's best restroom competition, an airport has won four times, two of those in
the last two years. Thus, my theory about the increasing awareness of the America's best restroom competition and only three to five of, uh, all of the winners, um, in America's best restroom in the last 22 years came from small, locally owned companies. So to that, I ask Cintis, what's the deal? I think this next year we have a chance to find out, is it all airports
and hotels, or can the little guy still win in America? When we discuss this idea of the project of democracy, as always, it should be noted, you can nominate a bathroom for the 2024 Canada and America's best restroom competitions. Link in the thing below and let's beat them out. It is our duty, it's our duty to vote for the best restroom. But I, uh, think we need to be honest with ourselves. We want to congratulate the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall
airport, and I want to celebrate your victory. And I hope you add the Cintus prize to your history page. It was not up there as of the time of the preparation of this episode, which was October 31, the end of season, and you've been crowned the winner for over a month now, so get on it. Um, but I think we have a duty to vote on this next one. We're going to come out hot and heavy on this. This concludes an extended segment of who in the news. And this also brings us to the end of another
episode of Privy. Thank you so much for joining us. Um, as always, we would love for you to leave a rating and review. The five star options are preferred. Veterans Day is coming up, and anytime you all leave a rating and review, we give some money to the wounded warriors project, uh, to say thank you to all the men and women who have given so much up for
the freedoms in our country. If you are from outside of the United States, um, you can join us in supporting the people who have fought in our country, or, uh, do some search, find any sort of, uh, things, uh, that support the military in your country. Um, the people who fight for the rights that you have are important, and it's our opportunity to give back. So thank you. Um, we would love for you to leave rating review and a reminder
that we need to keep pooping in the free world. But that free world was not always free. You can send us an email privycast@gmail.com. Follow us on social media. We're at privycast. Um, follow at Randy Bowles. We got some stuff going on over there. Uh, and you can follow me. I'm at owlet seven on social. Um, also, just a quick reminder, go nominate and keep, uh, eyes out on social media. We're going to be, uh, doing some fun things, hopefully for
the end of the year and into next year. Keep your eyes open for that. This has been another episode of privy. Thank you guys so much for joining me here in my bathroom. Push past your clogs. Own your stank. Keep pooping in the free world. And now, as always, don't forget to flush.