A Question
Disclaimer: This question relates to defecation and the associated practices and is therefore compliant with the Bertmonkeysex Universal Mandate Supporting Egregious eXcursus (BUMSEX)

Gentlemen (or, indeed, ladies): when heading to the conveniences at work for a tom tit, frequently one is given a choice of several cubicles. Nearest to my own office, for example, the gents' offer a choice of three.

So, this morning, when entering the first choice of cubicle, I found that the previous occupant had left it in a rather unpleasant state - i.e., a Chariot of Fear - I backed out and chose the next one along.

However, as I backed out, I looked over my shoulder to check if anybody had seen what I was doing. Fortunately nobody else was around, but it begged the questionprompted me to wonder - which is what I wish to ask you - why did I feel so self-conscious about it? Is this normal?

Your thoughts, please.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:03, 13 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Entirely normal
If you'd been caught coming out of there they'd have assumed you were responsible!

Our urinals are blocked at the moment and there's a hideous smell in/outside the toilet, I've been trekking down to Stores to use their bogs.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:05, Reply)

By self-conscious
do you mean proud?
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:05, Reply)

I would like to suggest a moritorium on answers to this question
until SC has learned what "begging the question" means.

/pedant.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:06, Reply)

No, slightly embarrassed
But I take Sam-I-Am's point - someone else has soiled that throne; why should I be expected to use it? All it proves is that I'm not a coprophile.

Edit: Enzyme - have I misused that? This would suggest I've been misusing said phrase for several years. That's even more embarrassing than backing out of a soiled cubicle.
Edit 2: Yes, I have misused it. To quite a preposterous extent, in fact. Consider it corrected.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:07, Reply)

Pedantry ahoy!
www.b3ta.com/questions/peeves/post155924.

The relevant bit is this:
"Begging the question" (petitio principii) does NOT mean "raising the question". Rather, to beg the question is to commit the fallacy of presupposing in the premises of an argument that which is to be shown in the conclusion.
Allow me to demonstrate. "I think, therefore I am," says Descartes. The argument here would look like this:
P1: I am thinking
P2: Thinking things exist
C: Therefore I exist.
The problem here is that, if the existence of "I" is the conclusion of the argument, it really oughtn't to be in the major premise. The argument is, therefore, invalid; and the reason it is invalid is that it begs the question. "Begging the question", in other words, doesn't really have a great deal to do with asking anything.

(For the nonce, what Descartes should have said is:
P1: There is thinking going on
P2: Thinking things exist
C: Therefore I exist...
... except that he shouldn't. This argument is invalid because now the problem is that the "I" has come from nowhere. The point is that "I think, therefore I am" is a crock whichever way you look at it.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:11, Reply)

More pedantry alert
You need to take the full stop off the end of that link ;)
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:12, Reply)

SoSIS
Done. Ta.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:13, Reply)

I bow to your greater understanding of English idiosyncracies.

(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:13, Reply)

We all know you went in there, took a deep sniff,
and that satisfied your craving for another 30 minutes.
(The Oscillating Gibbon is eating curried squid, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:13, Reply)

Looks like
it's still there to me, I still get the 404!

www.b3ta.com/questions/peeves/post155924
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:14, Reply)

@SoSIS
That's odd. It's what happens to me as well, and all I did was copy and paste the URL.

Meh, I believe, is the operative word.

*goes off to fix*

EDIT: Done!
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:15, Reply)

@ Gibbon
However powerful the odour, it can never give me the same hit as a night in a room with you and your magmatic undercrackers.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:18, Reply)

send an email
to the whole company asking for the cuplrit who has made a mess to clear it up.

We have someone or someones unknown who seem to take delight in depositing nose scrapings on a wall in the urinals.
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 8 Jan 2009, 12:22, Reply)