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the one time i visited NYC i naively tried to use a public toilet at a subway station. entered the stall -- faecal matter coating every surface. filthy is an understatement.

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I once saw a subway car where someone had not just defecated, but had defecated on each and every seat individually - and with amazing uniformity. Standing in the next car for the remainder of my commute I worked out that either multiple people had to have participated (entirely possible there is public defectors club around here someplace) or one super-constipated individual had cleared out the entire length of an average human’s large intestine. Could one person be that backed up and not only walk around but have the control to squat over each seat and leave a uniform amount? The smell was horrific so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an art project. I wonder if someone cleaned that car, or if they just rolled it into the ocean one dark night.

Cleaning the subway cars overall is a joke - they have people with mops at the terminus stations and they get 30secs to 2 minutes to mop the first and last cars before they go out again. All the cars in the middle just accumulate debris and stains until the train is taken out of service for regular maintenance.

One side effect of the pandemic is I have to leave the apartment so infrequently that I can take Lyft everywhere and still come out ahead of what I used to spend on metrocards - I don’t miss riding the subway at all.

Try the Rest Rooms in the city Emergency Rooms where there is all that and blood, too everywhere or the police stations even in the time of COVID and AIDS!

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