seperis | a narrow, narrow escape

So today I narrowly avoided a hideous death by anthrax, also known as baby powder.

Okay, just go with this. You are a public employee. You go to the bathroom to do what things in bathrooms need to be done. And then you find--white powder.

Fine. White. Powder. On the toilet seat. You know, too late to do anything about it.

Now granted, there's a better chance I was--in contact--with a heroin-coke mix left by a disgruntled third floor Dell employee than weapons grade anthrax, but work with me here. You don't find that on the toilet seat except in certain very specialized venues that usually aren't in builds that there are state employees in. So of course, I cleaned up (already doomed), ran to my office (feeling my death hovering), to look up how long I have to live and spent the rest of the day feeling martyred and wondering if there had been any new antibiotics introduced into the fight. By the way, I've got like, a week before respiratory collapse, since when it comes in powder form, it's inhalation and oh my God, if there was a clever plan to attack public servants, they aren't starting on a toilet seat. That wouldn't be clever. That would be a waste of a substance that, if I read correctly, is worth more than many small countries. They'd poison themselves first.

Probably powder. Very fine, white powder. On the toilet. Do people use powder on the toilet?

Well, this has been an interesting day.

They might have used it in the stall and it just fell on the toilet?

I'm going with that. Because honestly, this is so not how I wnat to go out. I mean, people will be fake-lj-death-ing my name for forever for this one.

you have no idea how badly i wish a terrible, no good, nefarious friend of yours knew your lj password right now.

SO SORRY JENN HAS PASSED ON WE HOLD CANDLELIGHT VIGIL AT THREE PM TOMORROW PLS LOG YOUR CONDOLENCES BELOW NO GIFTS/FLOWERS PLS DONATE INSTEAD TO DELL REHAB PROGRAM

GOD AT LEAST TRY FOR A COMMEMORATIVE TV OR SOMETHING.

...but you already HAVE a tv.

*reasonable*

...good point. Carry on.

AND THE ANTHRAX CURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE.

Right after the big anthrax things, we had a pile of suspicious white powder in the Dental library. Now of course it was plaster for doing dental molding and of course terrorists aren't going to be attacking a dental school in Philadelphia, but... it was near the start of the term and no one was studying too frantically, so I nodded with authority and called the number we had been given over email that week for reporting possible hazardous materials. And had to spend the next few hours outside.

Much like the time one of the students changed the wallpaper on one of the computers to a tasteful silhouette of a naked couple holding hands (with the guy having a rather prominent erection)... and since none of my co-workers knew that you could just right-click to change the background, I mysteriously had no idea either. And then we had to call in a computer tech from the other building. Meanwhile, it was as if none of out graduate students had ever seen a(n outline of a) penis before.

But enough of all this giggling - I hope you are not dying. Good luck.

Nope, still giggling.

Maybe if you panicked about it loudly enough you could shame one of your co-workers into confessing to using the powder and then you could ask for specifics. :)

I told my super, who bravely sent someone else in to check it out. In other words, there will be many of us.

So I probably shouldn't tell you about the L&O Criminal Intent episode where the woman is poisoned because of tainted coke put on the chair she ... uses when have internet sex with her boyfriend, right?

:-)

I saw that one! With the wedding planner and hen party thing?

Actually, I seem to recall seeing white powder on the seats at my school too. I always kind of assumed it was either baby powder or cleaning supplies.

Really? Huh.

Some people do use baby powder in such a way that it gets on the toilet seat. Trust me on this.

I am *really* into this explanation.

My grandmother used to dust the inside of her bra and underpants with scented powder. Evidently it was really helpful back before air-conditioning.

~

*nods* Mine, too.

Huh. I suppose this explains the big thing of powder my grandmother used to have sitting behind the toilet in one of the bathrooms in her old house. (Given that I most clearly remember it in the context of being bathed by her as a wee visiting grandchild and being powdered up with same after she dried me off, I think it was mostly specifically for after-bath full-body use. But I hadn't made the no-AC connection to body powder.)

As others have noted, it's a summer thing. For example, let's say you're a chubby girl, and the insides of your thighs rub together, get sweaty and chafe. A little baby powder makes walking un-painful again.

...As others have already said. Oh, well.

The particle size is key if the anthrax is supposed to be inhaled. It's actually really tough to get it the right size where it'll stay in the lungs. Too small, and you just exhale it right back out. Too large, and it gets caught in the mucus membranes of the throat and nose.

And so long as you take antibiotics after exposure, the anthrax won't develop to the point where you get sick.

It's probably baby powder, though.

It was pretty far from respitory areas, also.

I know that some people powder the insides of their thighs to prevent chafing? I don't know if baby powder is the powder in question, but it might well be.

I'm really beliving this interpretation a *lot*.

Sometimes toilet paper holders scrape tiny, powdery pieces off the sides of a roll of TP; how the ensuing dust might get on the seat is a question best left to the philosopers. :)

--Jessica

Yeah, my imagination does not want to go there either. *winces*

My assumption would be baby powder, because I know some people (ie my mum, hence my total assumption of "nothing to worry about") use it to stop thighs from chafing or buttcheeks from rubing. So, yeah, used in a toilet makes total sense to me.

now, if you'd been working in the mailroom and found powder? then I'd be more suspicious. (Mind you, I work in a prison, so my first assumption would still be "probably baby powder" because no-one here is worth the cost of anthrax and cocaine is far more likely to be snuck in through stamps. Before I worked here, I never would have suspected poeple soak writing paper and stamps in drugs to get them in. Learn something new every day, huh?)

...really? Wow. Okay, *that* is cool.

*laughs* I thought so.

Clorox?

Oooh. Hmm. Does it have a smell?

To be fair, this is the bathroom with the mysterious always-light-under-it door too. Which has been said to me, without evidence, does hold cleaning supplies. I've just never seen it before.

Though I'll be honest--when in the bathroom, my awareness level is fairly specific. I might not have noticed.

I think it might be Oxygen Bleach cleanser, which is in powder form. They use that in the bathrooms at my workplace, and I always end up finding white powder on the faucet. It smells... clean.
http://www.cleansweepsupply.com/pages/item-cpm14278ea.html

Having said that... if I don't see further LJ updates from you, I'll call 911!
*is very helpful*

*grins* I'm comforted. REMEMBER TO SEND LIPGLOSS WHEN THEY ANNOUNCE MY DEATH!

my grandma uses powder in the bathroom, because she's of the 'I don't need a bath' old lady school. ::sigh:: so, uhm... yea, I see fine dusting of the stuff all over :(

Ahh, yes. Hmm. This sounds more and more reasonable.

Some evil bitch powders her anatomy just before leaving the office at the end of the day and leaves talcum powder all over the toilet seat and floor of the ladies room... did you know that talcum powder can be VERY slippery if you step on it in a shoe that has a leather sole? I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE.

How do you tell someone to knock that off w/o coming off as some sort of note-leaving, passive-aggressive jerk?

*twitch so much* Okay, that would piss me off.

Is Gold Bond Medicated Powder and somebody has heat rash on their upper/inner thighs.

Been there, done that, left dust everywhere.

In fact, it was probably me.

So go find a chunky chick wearing a skirt who smells of menthol.

If you were in my office, I would be a lot less bored. *grins*

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