Of Bathrooms and Mirrors
The city of Sulphur Springs, in northeast Texas, is home to 15,500 brave souls.
They have more Baptist Churches than cattle, which I suspect is because in Sulphur Springs not many people get along with each other, especially the Baptist. A quick Goggle search finds 8 Baptist churches in Sulphur Springs.
And that doesn’t even count the Pentecostals, the Free Will Assemblies, and the little known Sisterhood of Saintly Finger Waggers.
Sulphur Springs is about 70% white and votes 70% Republican.
Sulphur Springs got itself national attention this week. Not for its low school taxes or the fact Goodwill Industries is listed as one of the major employers in the city.
Nope, Sulphur Springs got on national news for spending $54,000 on a potta potty. A glass porta potty, with one-way mirrors.
In all fairness, I will admit that Sulphur Springs ain’t no damn prissy art mecca or nothing. But ….
They were modeled after Italian artist, Monica Bonivicini’s art piece – ‘Don’t Miss A Sec’ from 2004, which was located outside an art museum in Switzerland.
Sounds kinda prissy to me.
I don’t known any decent self-respecting Baptist lady willing to bare her butt right in front of God and the town drunk on the theory that she can’t be seen. But, the guys in Sulphur Springs have that all figured out.
For those residents concerned with safety due to the new restrooms, there are several cameras on the square watching everything that’s going on, said Maxwell.
In a related story, the Chamber of Commerce announced that Hunka Humpin’ Adult Movies, the country’s largest amateur movie producer, has leased space in downtown Sulphur Springs.
Thanks to Carol for the heads up.
The Sulphur Springs city fathers will be no doubt gratified to realize that they’ve provided a nice spot for their teenage kids on dates to stroll downtown and … ahem … hang out, so to speak. But that’s all right. They’ll be “watching everything.” Videotape, too? Webcam perhaps? Example:
http://www.pussers.com/t-webcams.aspx
(Then pick #5)
1Uuuuuuhhhhhhh?
2Uh oh, that appears to be an accessible toilet. Better alert Santorum that the UN is installing see-thru toilets for the disabled in Texas.
3I always did want to have a public record of every time I need to pee, especially if it comes with the option to have voyeurs watching if I have enough light to see what I’m doing. (Do they understand how “one way glass” works at night?)
4Texas making lots of news these days: http://agonist.org/todays-theres-dumb-then-theres-texan-republican-dumb/#comment-240348
5Good grief y’all, even the Aggies haven’t come up w something that silly! I guess they didn’t want real people
6to really use it!
@Aggieland liz…
Most Aggies, although some are “ignorant” most are not stupid.
As far as Texans are concerned….. most are not either stupid, or ignorant …….
And then…….. You have these folks……. who falll into both the “stupid” and “ignorant” category, and the entire country laughs.
7I think that’s what happens when you have a lot of any kind of churches in a town….
People forget to think.
8Somehow, I don’t think they’re going into that (water) “closet” to pray, y’all. But then, the Baptists don’t tend to emphasize that particular verse. *schnort, schnort*
9An, good old Suffer Sprangs.
10I’m assuming the one-way mirrors don’t make it possible to see into the toilet, so am I right that if you use that facility, you’ll be able to see everything going on around you while you’re doing your business? Or is this just a mirrored mini-building that you can’t see in or out of?
11I would be more concerned with how a giant mirror box will impact traffic. I know I feel totally confident seeing headlights reflected back at me where I am not expecting any when I drive at night…
12