In Amsterdam Schiphol airport bathrooms, and many other public facilities, many newly arrived visitors take notice of the fact that each urinal has a fly in it---enameled into the porcelain (or whatever the material is). Cute, or quaintly weird, or ironic (considering the proclivities of flies), or only in Amsterdam (or Holland), are the usual bemused reactions. Probably most Dutch don't even know why they're there.

There is a very good reason for this---it (supposedly) improves the aim. If the gentleman sees a fly, he'll naturally aim for it. Someone actually did studies on this, and found that the fly-in-urinal approach reduced spillage by 80%.

Think about this next time YOU aim for the fly :-)

Funny, that. Ironic too, because a relevant thing happened to me yesterday evening.

Last night, went out for post work drinks with a few of the birds I work with. After putting a few back, I went to use the restroom and discovered that--instead of the ubiquitous Schipol piss fly--the urinal had a full-on painting picture of a Jaws-like great white shark coming out of the ocean (of piss), mouth agape, sharp teeth shining....the picture took up the entire face of the urinal.

I don't know...I thought it was the strangest thing to piss on though. Almost intimidating! For god's sake men, don't miss in this bathroom, or Jaws is going to take away your manhood!

What kind of statistics do you have there for the SHARK, axxxtw?

~uber.

I encountered the piss fly for the first time a few years ago in a pub in Maasbree, in south Holland. I was crosseyed drunk and managed to hit that bloody fly on the porcelain.....and strangely satisfying!!!!!!!

BB

i just read this out loud to my husband and he goes "well duh!" - all boys like aiming!

who knew?! ;)

I always forget about those flies until I've landed at Schipol and use the bathroom. I'm always like, oh yeah! They have flies painted on the urinal.

The first time I saw one I couldn't work out if it was a fly or a tulip.

Thanks for the information though as I have often wondered why they were there.

Dave

DELETED

I saw a report on a bar where you could choose a video of someone to piss on, such as Sadaam Hussein.

when bush visited the netherlands this year the dutch young socialists distributed stickers with his head on which read 'Go Ahead Piss on Me - Im Pissing on You' designed to be stuck in urinals. i have kept one for posterity (or something).

regards from amsterdam

withnail