Don's Johns and United Toilets

It's that time of year again and they start to appear. With the Fourth of July weekend coming up, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival featuring Kenya and China set up on the Mall, the big blue plastic porta potty takes it's place on the national landscape. With the throngs of visitors and out of towners already here and still expected, they become a necessity, but also a definite eyesore. They were already in place around the Washington Monument and the Capitol over the weekend. During our walk this morning they were being placed in front of the Smithsonian Castle, and along the sidewalks in front of the Natural History Museum, and the art museums. Because the museums are not open all day long, the required space for this sort of thing is quite limited. It looks like Don's Johns and United Toilets have the market share. The cute thing about it is that the doors are "locked" with plastic tabs so as to keep them all off limits until the actual day of the events. But you know it will never stay that way, and it never does. There is something tacky about seeing these out houses sitting next to our national landmarks, but what's the alternative? I can't remember the last time we needed to use one, and I'd like to keep it that way.