I recently walked into a public restroom and was immediately struck with the most awful smell. Sure, nothing surprising in that right? It struck me that one of the unwritten rules of bathroom etiquette has been engineered out of existence – the courtesy flush.

Thanks to motion-detecting automatic flushing toilets, it is nearly impossible to flush on demand – trust me, I have tested this out. I thought maybe if I leaned way forward, it would trigger… maybe leaning to the side or wiggling around – nothing works.

Hey, what can I say? When the opportunity comes to test out a theory – I do it… even if I don’t really need to give a courtesy flush.

I guess in the grand scheme of things – the automatic flusher saves water, ensures that toilets are clean, and maybe a host of other great things – but there are times when the good old-fashioned courtesy flush will be missed.