h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This site has some examples - http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin_Vulgar/Texts/Pompeii_Graffiti.html

and this one would seem to imply it was found on toilet walls...

"Cacator cave malum, aut si contempseris, habeas Iovem iratum. "

Watch it, you that sh1ts in this place! May you have Jove's anger if you ignore this.

Great find - thanks. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I'll include it. It certainly broadens the scope of the entry.

I'm with McKay - I feel quite happy that things seem finally to have reached my level.


I know for certain of an instance where the management posted it's own bit of graffiti in the mens toilet:

We aim to please.

You aim too, please.


My personal all time favorite though (from a mens room at my alma mater) is:

Weni Widi WeeWee



And now for a nit-pick or two:

>>Public bathrooms are intended to provide a degree of privacy to their various operators.<<
'operators' seems odd - how about 'visitors'

>>especially common in the bathrooms of lower income or lower class establishments<<
That seems strong. How about 'less refined' establishments.

Excellent Entry

Good for you!

If you want foreign ones, I was just reminded of one of the most common German ones:

In dieser Schüssel wohnt ein Geist
Der jeden, der zu lange Scheißt
Von unten in den Hintern beißt!


(Translated literally and word for word, like Mark Twain would :

In this bowl lives a ghost
who everyone that too long sh*ts
from below in the behind bites )

Thanks pailaway, I've fixed those things as you suggest

Mala, I'd like to include the one, but the translation is a bit difficult to work around. Mark Twain, that fool Also, does it rhyme in the original German? It looks like it does, but I know nothing about the German language.

Yes, it rhymes.

A better translation might be:

A ghost lives in this bowl
and if someone sh*ts too long,
he'll bite him in the bum

Or, for a slightly looser, but rhyming translation:

A horrid ghost lives in this pit
And if you take too long a sh*t
He'll bite the parts you use to sit.

(Or in the gents', perhaps "He'll bite that tempting dangly bit )

Not bad. I'm afraid to take too many liberties, lest a German speaker scold me for it. So I'll add that top translation into the "Scary" section (It's about s after all!) Thanks very much.

Aww, I like the rhyming one better.

It's only been *very* slightly modified, the only real change is "pit" for "bowl" - the rest are synonyms

Okay, if you insist

I do, I do. And that's an official, gen-OO-ine translation, since I work part time as a translator So if anyone complains, blame me!

, just noticed a mistake in the original - the "s" on "scheißt" shouldn't be capitalised.

Fixed. Thanks.

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Well done

Thanks.

Woohoo! Now this is the kind of thing an alien would really need to know when visiting here - what to make of the writing on the stall

Congratulations!

I prefer of course the Public Convenience to the Public Bathroom: a public convenience rarely if ever contains a bath and one should never take relief in a public bath. The water is said to turn red.

Just remembered that we all seem to have forgotten the "bog standard" - well, it is the classic here, found on nearly every toilet in the country.

Men are like toilets - occupied or full of sh*t.

Of course, this is sometimes ammended with "- or for the opposite sex"

Oh, well, too late to do anything about it now