This saying sounds familiar! Triggered by a sign at an Airbnb we stayed at recently I got curious to see if I could find its true origin. The search yields plenty of signs with a rich selection of designs and also contents. Amazing what people can envision to flush – beyond the expected items that have common presence in a bathroom there are self-written poems, T-shirts, diapers, kittens and puppies, old phones, your ex’ sweaters, gum, unpaid bills, junk mail, goldfish, old phone bills, cherry bombs, leftover salad, frogs, love letters, random socks, your money, toys and bowling balls…..this is when I stopped searching. Upon some consideration it is fair to say that flushing things down the toilet puts them out of sight immediately and cuts off all other sensations associated with it. (Note: That may not hold if you are the owner of the device that clogs during the

Traveling is a rich opportunity for observations – here I am combining two airport stories. Airports are places for a lot of “goodbyes” and “welcomes”. As we were marching towards the TSA station there were two older women looking and waving after their friends that had entered the maze of ribbons guiding the queue. They were standing side by side right in the entrance of the maze. An airport is a busy place! When we wanted to enter, they were blocking the path and had clearly no intention of leaving soon nor any awareness of where they were actually standing. So, after some seconds of hopefully courteous patience I ask them to excuse us for wanting to walk in and they let us through with no complaints. After we passed security, we proceeded to our gate. Along the way we noticed a water station and decided to fill our flasks,

At Frankfurt airport I noticed interesting devices today. They looked like an inverted umbrella that sits on a tube that sticks out of a box about 12”x12” square and about 3 feet high. They could almost go for a lamp for indirect illumination. Upon closer look I noticed the label, which said something about water leak management. Turns out that is what they help to do – if a water pipe under the ceiling covers leaks the management company can place these water catchers – they funnel the water dripping from the ceiling into the storage container and prevent a puddle and slipping danger on the floor – in essence a sophisticated bucket. There were quite a number of these in the tunnels in the airport – rail terminal connection.  I must assume that the size of the container determines the time it can take to fix the leak or