I remember the first time this particular question occurred to me. It was when college roommie Diana and I had dinner at Outback Steakhouse 2 weeks ago. Before we left to take her to the airport, we made sure to empty our alcohol in the restaurant’s bathroom. (Outback has a wooden sign that says “Used Beer Department” on an arrow pointing toward the restrooms.) In the restroom stall (yes, I’m taking you readers in there with me. Stop reading if you’re uncomfortable, I won’t be offended.), I looked at the toilet seat and wondered the question that has been eating at me every time I entered a public restroom since then (which is a lot):

Why are public restroom toilet seats shaped like a horseshoe, instead of a complete circle like private residence toilet seats? Are they really saving that much money in the front wedge they don’t fill? “Let’s see, if we remove 3 inches from the front of 13 toilet seats, we save enough ceramic and plastic to make a whole ‘nother toilet seat for free!”

Maybe there’s a more logical reason for the missing piece. Like it saves them 0.0004 cents in cleaning product not having that extra square inch-age to cover with Pine-Sol. Or it saves the cleaning lady 0.0004 seconds in the swipe she doesn’t have to complete. Perhaps statistics show that toilet seat sitters tend to get trapped by the suction created when they shove their butts into the toilet, and public entities are just trying to prevent lawsuits filed by trapped women with robust heinies. Or maybe it has something to do with those wax paper toilet seat covers, altho I happen to know that those things work just as effectively on full toilet seats that go aaaall the way around the rim of the bowl.

Theories, anyone?