On Bathroom Washing

Earlier this week I was at a conference at Northern Kentucky University. The conference was held in a brand new building at NKU, not a renovation. That's important for my story.

Anyway, I had to go to the restroom in between sessions, and--as every person should do--I washed my hands after taking care of...well, what it is was I had to take care of. I washed my hands at the leftmost sink, and when I finished washing my hands I needed to dry them. I took a step to the left of the sink, and one of those scary hard air dryers was there, the kind that sounds like a jet engine taking off and that dents the skin on your hand in as it dries your hand. I dried my hands and went on to my next session.

After that session I needed to use the bathroom again (Starbucks. Enough said). I went back to the same bathroom, again took care of business, and again washed my hands, this time at the middle sink. After doing so I absentmindedly put my hands underneath the dispenser to the left of the sink, waiting for the scary loud sound of air. After about two seconds and no air, I examined a little more closely what I had stuck my hands underneath. It wasn't a hand dryer. It was a paper towel holder, the kind that you have to grab the towel in the right and left hand corners and pull hard.

It seemed strange to me that--in a brand new building--there would be a paper towel holder AND an air dryer, and not one or the other. So I looked around the bathroom, and I noticed that--beside the third sink--there was another paper towel holder, a completely different kind where you have to crank the wheel on the side to get the paper towels to come out. And on the wall that faced the mirrors there was a FOURTH machine, a more traditional hand dryer, the kind where you have to poke the big, round button and that you can turn the blower up to the ceiling to use it as a hair dryer (though I've never seen anyone actually try that).

Why in the world did this brand new bathroom have four different types of dryers in it?

And why in the world would I write a blog entry about it?