I got so many compliments on my previous “who invented” post that I figured I should write another. However, this time I will tackle an invention I know everyone uses, or has used at one point.

In a society characterized by the continual paranoia of new germs, why do some builders/architects still insist on using the hated, disgusting, waste-of-paper, pull-open bathroom doors? Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem touching everyone else’s post-potty hands? I know we all feel obligated to thoroughly wash our hands, (light sarcasm), but I still feel uncomfortable gripping the door handle, or even worse – the doorknob, on my way out of the bathroom.

The doorknob is worse because I dip back to the teachings of my early ancestors and use a foot or an elbow to pry the door open. If I am wearing a long-sleeve shirt I will pull use cloth between the knob and my skin, but sometimes I have to tough it out and touch everyone’s knob.

“All employees must wash hands before returning to work.”

Yeah right. The only bathrooms where that sign adorns the wall seem to be the same establishments where the employees do not really look like they are working. And, that being the case, no one can ever really “return to work,” as the sign suggests.

Am I over-analyzing this? Maybe.

Nevertheless, I have touched too many germ-ridden exits to just sit back and let this be. In the planning of a bathroom, perhaps the architects should consider what people do in there and devise some crazy scheme where a door is not necessary.

What if the bathroom were strategically tucked away around a corner? Oooh!

I know it can be done – I’ve seen a few.