The end of civilization, so to speak

[bazodee]

Irish budget airline Ryanair is considering charging £1 for lavatory use. Here's the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/trave ... t-use.html

[ToLiveIsToFly]

Irish budget airline Ryanair is considering charging £1 for lavatory use. Here's the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/trave ... t-use.html

Can you opt to just use a jar or whatever?

[MarleysGh0st]

Would they rather their passengers not use the lavatory?


And, from reading the article, is "spending a penny" a Britishism for using the lavatory? I don't think I've heard that one before.

[bazodee]

From "The Phrase Finder"

Meaning

To use a public lavatory.

Origin
This refers to the (former) use of coin operated locks on public toilets. It was used mostly in the UK and mostly by women (men's urinals were free of charge).

Such locks were first introduced, at a public toilet outside the Royal Exchange, London, in the 1850s. The term itself is later though. The first recorded citation of it is in H. Lewis's Strange Story, 1945:

"'Us girls,' she said, 'are going to spend a penny!'"

'Spend a penny' has now gone out of use, partly because charges have changed and partly because it was always a coy euphemism, which now seems rather dated. The writing was on the wall for this phrase, so to speak, from 1977, when the Daily Telegraph printed an article headed "2p to spend a penny".

[Bob Juch]

From "The Phrase Finder"

Meaning

To use a public lavatory.

Origin
This refers to the (former) use of coin operated locks on public toilets. It was used mostly in the UK and mostly by women (men's urinals were free of charge).

Such locks were first introduced, at a public toilet outside the Royal Exchange, London, in the 1850s. The term itself is later though. The first recorded citation of it is in H. Lewis's Strange Story, 1945:

"'Us girls,' she said, 'are going to spend a penny!'"

'Spend a penny' has now gone out of use, partly because charges have changed and partly because it was always a coy euphemism, which now seems rather dated. The writing was on the wall for this phrase, so to speak, from 1977, when the Daily Telegraph printed an article headed "2p to spend a penny".

The reason men's urinals were free of charge is because they were open-air and the partition came up only about 42".

Spoiler

Yes, really!

[Rexer25]

From "The Phrase Finder"

Meaning

To use a public lavatory.

Origin
This refers to the (former) use of coin operated locks on public toilets. It was used mostly in the UK and mostly by women (men's urinals were free of charge).

Such locks were first introduced, at a public toilet outside the Royal Exchange, London, in the 1850s. The term itself is later though. The first recorded citation of it is in H. Lewis's Strange Story, 1945:

"'Us girls,' she said, 'are going to spend a penny!'"

'Spend a penny' has now gone out of use, partly because charges have changed and partly because it was always a coy euphemism, which now seems rather dated. The writing was on the wall for this phrase, so to speak, from 1977, when the Daily Telegraph printed an article headed "2p to spend a penny".

Not quite completely out of use; my in-laws still say that.

[ulysses5019]

I wonder what's up with the Ha'penny Bridge (Half Penny) in Dublin.

[minimetoo26]

I wonder what's up with the Ha'penny Bridge (Half Penny) in Dublin.

Well, if it went from "spending a penny" to spending a pound, I suppose the toll on the Ha'penny Bridge is now 50 pence....