Found these three articles on the Register today, and as I have nothing much else to write about at this time I thought that I’d share these amusements with you!
Italian police seize musical toilet
Italian police have seized a musical toilet which plays the country’s national anthem when flushed. Prosecutors claim the offending porcelain – produced by two local artists for the Bolzano Museum of Modern Art – should not give forth with the “Fratelli d’Italia” because it’s “a national emblem which should be protected”. The museum’s defence team counters that “while the anthem has patriotic and sentimental value, it is not a national symbol”. A court will rule on the matter later this week.
‘Sexist’ Austrian urinals dumped on eBay
Four “sexist and misogynist” urinals have been removed from a public toilet in Vienna 
and offered for sale on eBay, Reuters reports. The offending pissoirs – lovingly sculpted by local artist Rudolf Scheffel and installed in “toilet-bar Vienna”, next to the National Opera – caused a bit of a rumpus during the run-up to the 1 October parliamentary elections when they were “used by political party supporters attending rallies nearby”. Although the urinals had been in service for three years, this political exposure provoked women’s groups to slam the offensive porcelain, which resulted in its removal. The seller promises: “Each urinal will, of course, be meticulously cleaned. The artist himself will sandblast it, brush the mouth’s teeth, and give them a new varnish.”
Satnav orders German into toilet
An “overly obedient” German driver followed his car’s satnav system’s instructions to “Turn right now!” and duly exited the highway “about 30 metres before the crossing he was meant to take” before piling headlong into a portaloo, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Mind you, this is not simply a case of a moment’s lapse in concentration: before destroying the toilet, the bloke “drove his sport utility vehicle off the road into a building site”, then took it “up a stairway” before totalling said convenience. The cybernetic capabilities of the WC are not noted, but there is the suspicion that the satnav was acting under instructions to deliver its victim to the nearest man-eating dunny. Mercifully, the driver’s unswerving obedience to his electronic master resulted in the toilet being instantly disabled. His car was also damaged and he copped a fine for his trouble.
