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

[Moderator please read all of this before deciding to chop it]

I never spit , unless I am using a Urinal . I thought the urge was a personal quirk , but the more I observe , the more I see .Men who never spit seem to find the urge irresistable when standing in front of a Urinal. Not a very tasteful question I must admit , but a valid one none the less . Perhaps someone has done research on this subject . I suspect it harks back to some deep inbred territorial marking reflex . In which case it infers that we are at the command of our reflexes more than our polite conscious sensibilities would care to admit.

I really haven't the faintest idea.

Good question though.

PP

It may be a little dry, but Dr Yves Le Gicleur's 1956 work "Crachement et le pissoir: une étude psychologique" is generally considered the definitive work on the subject.

I would rather men spat in there than the street.

Or widdle in the street.

PP

Umm.... You said, "the more I observe, the more I see..."

Do you do much research?

I think the girls are jealous coz they cant spit in the loo when theyre having a pee.
Well not without some dangerous contortions.

ive never spit in a urinal before....

Though i have, on occasion, gone to the toilet in order to spit if i find it particularly necissary (rather then spitting in public).

However i have never spat whilst urinating, though it is a behaviour i have seen an awful lot in others. In fact i could list quite a number of people i know who ALWAYS spit when they're at the urinal. This is something i see much more often in my local nightclub, so i'm wondering maybe something to do with the smoky atmosphere and the chance to spit in private?

I have never felt the need to spit. As a child I was told it spread disease (TB for example) and that it was bad manners.

Jealous I ain't.

We are all aware, are we not?, Of the way in which certain animals such as cats and indeed the big-cats, mark out teratory through the spraying of urine. Cats are hunters and carnivores, not too much out there (with possible exception of humans) hunts them.
In contrast, early man, (were talking 20,000-40,000 years ago), was also (possible) a hunter (most probably small stuff though in the early days), so the answer is simple and evolutionarily explained.::

In order to cover his tracks by attempting to leave no scent as a marker for carnivores to be able to follow, it became common-place for prehistoric man (not being sexist so women as well in that case), to spit on the ground at the point where they had urinated.
Over time, and according to the theory of natural selection, those most effective at hidding their scent had an survival advantage over there less-effective peers.
Therefore through random variation it came to pass that some individuals gained the ability to produce certain enzymes in spit more effective at breaking down the agents in urine that give it its strong scent.
so, spitting in Urinals is a hark-back to such distant days on the planes of Africa.
And, as expounded by Kreature et al (1984), the feature would appear to remain in men moreso than woman as men were geenerally the hunters who traveled further afield to gather food and were by the nature of hunting near other creatures also hunting their pray but which would not hesitate to hunt the nearby men also hunting.
,./

Nice one, but I think Mycroft takes the biscuit.
Incidentally, what's special about African planes? Don't people spit on Swissair?

Mycroft can have the biscuit; I know I'me right and that is all, so to speak that counts And, the reference to Africa was because man/woman/uncertains, all, origionally evolved in Africa, before spreading to other parts of the world, some tens of thousands of years ago, well, that I think is the current, "out of Africa" hypothesis on Human evolution, but I could of course be rong?/?

"Please do not leave ciggerette buts in the urinals;- They get wet and are difficult to relight."

Sorry, in English teacher mode I was correcting your spelling- always a dangerous thing to do as I always bring in mistakes to my own posting. (who has spent much of her life on both African planes and African plains)

I have been known to tell people off that I see spitting in the street (if I am feeling brave). Perhaps these urinal spitters are men that I have told off in the past who now retreat to one of the few places I can't go to indulge themselves?

My husband told some one off the other day for spitting and the look on the lad's face was a picture!

He was so taken aback that he stood gaping and hadn't come up with anything to say, or swear, before we had walked on!

Wand'rin , given the context, wouldn't taking the cake be more appropriate, or am I just taking the p**s?

Feal free to corect my speling but I should warn you it is rather awful even when I am trying to spell properly, but, spitting in general is pretty disgusting and there does appear to be more, mainly young lads/boys, doing it now compaired to when I was a lad ::

(tring to advoid the inevitable::
ahh, when I was a lad we would have to do an extra 20 years unpaid labour in the mines if we were seen spitting in public or private, but we were better off, life was real, when we knew the meaning of work and ....) but I don't want to lower the whatsit by bringin that in....

I also told a boy off for dropping litter yesterday.

I am worried I am turning into one of those looney old people kids jeer at in the street. And I am not even 30 yet.