Urinal - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917) is one of the most influential pieces of modern art.
• Police in Nassau County, New York adopted talking urinals in an anti-drunk driving initiative. Using Wizmark, a talking urinal screen, police can provide bars with free pre-programmed urinal screens urging patrons not to drink and drive.
• The bullet-damaged brick wall from the St. Valentines Day Massacre was disassembled where it had been originally constructed at 2122 N. Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois, and reassembled in the men's restroom of a bar called Banjo Palace in Vancouver, British Columbia, where it served as a urinal wall.
• Ernest Hemingway converted a urinal from Sloppy Joe's bar into a water fountain for his cats. The fountain remains a prominent feature at his former home in Key West, Florida, a popular tourist destination in the town.
• Some urinals for men incorporate "fly targets": images of flies that are either printed on labels stuck to the inside of the urinal or embossed directly into the porcelain. Men often feel a compulsion to aim their urine stream at the fly, and thus the fly target helps prevent them from urinating outside the basin or bowl of the urinal. Maintenance crews at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam reported in 2005 that adding a fly target to urinals reduced bathroom cleaning costs by giving men something to aim at. The urinals at Terminal 4 of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City have fly targets. These are replaced every month because they slide off.
• Pissoir, retitled Urinal in some countries, was the first feature film directed by John Greyson. It was released in 1980 and takes place in a toilet.
• Gabriel Chevallier's 1934 satirical novel Clochemerle deals with the ramifications of plans to install a new urinal in a French village.
• As of 2008, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus offered its customers the option of installing urinals in its A380 aircraft.