Eh? What?!

[hmmm_tea]

The sign in the toilets in Starbucks opposite the Globe says

Please only flush toilet paper down this toilet*

Surely this defeats the whole point of it?

* or something very similar I can't remember it word for word

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

It sounds like they mean you can't put toilet paper down it by any method other than flushing, which is ok.

Sorry.

What they *meant* was no other paper, nappies, sanitary towels[1], etc.

What's that you say? But you used your common sense in reputdiating *my* intepretation :)

[1] Insert HHGTTG joke here.

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

It sounds like they mean you can't put toilet paper down it by any method other than flushing, which is ok.

You're right. Perhaps that wasn't the wording I saw then...

Several hours, a rapper practice and a couple of pints probably meant it wasn't likely to be...

Shall check out what the wording was next time I'm in there. But I when I read it, it certainly seemed to read that toilet paper was the only thing you were allowed to flush down the toilet...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Most people writing signs are a bit vague on word order, assuming people will understand what was meant. I don't think it's worth checking.

But, to play devil's advocate, if we understand your sentence from context, why can't we equally well understand their suboptimal sentence from context? :)

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's worth checking.

What?!?! You don't think the wording of the toilet paper sign in Starbucks is the most important thing in the world?!!!

What's wrong with you?