Weird tricks compound over time
March 14, 2025 11:42 PM   Subscribe

Common Side Effects [FF] - "Marshall meets his old high school classmate Frances and lets her in on a world-changing secret."

also see...
Cream - "The time has come for CREAM - the latest product that will fix your life. This is the story of Dr. Bellifer, a scientific genius, who after years of smashing particles together, reveals his revolutionary new product: a cream with the power to fix all of the world’s problems." (previously)

and btw:
posted by kliuless (9 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
The principal objection to higher structures with one stairway is fire safety
Characterizing the tenement house system as a process “by which the greatest amount of profit is sought to be realized from the least possible amount of space, with little or no regard for the health, comfort, or protection of the lives of the tenants,” the report lamented the poor construction and questionable building materials of many tenements [archives.nyc]
posted by HearHere at 2:44 AM on March 15 [2 favorites]


The OP link doesn't work in Canada. Is there an alternative way to see the Common Side Effects video?
posted by Mogur at 5:42 AM on March 15 [1 favorite]


"Flushed Away" was great! About 15 years ago we got so sick of plunging toilets (weekly, it seemed!) that we ripped them out and replaced them both with pretty bog standard new ones. The plungers have been sitting behind the toilets gathering dust ever since. Love it when things Just Work. Thank you, unsung toilet design heros!
posted by evilmomlady at 6:34 AM on March 15 [2 favorites]


That's for sharing the first episode. Never heard about it and now I'm hooked.
posted by donuy at 8:00 AM on March 15 [1 favorite]


We recently moved into a house built in the 70s, and the toilets regularly clog. They'll usually eventually clear, if we keep flushing, but it's a pain, and the plungers do nothing. Eventually, I bought an auger from Home Depot for $15, and it reliably does the trick, but is a hassle.
We didn't have this problem in the last house we lived in, which was built in the 2000s, nor my parent's house which had their original toilets from the 60s. (And when they replaced those toilets 5 years later, the new ones flushed better.) I never had to deal with the nasty ones from the late 90s, but I remember the episode from "King of the Hill" where Hank smuggled in some toilets from Mexico.
posted by Spike Glee at 9:16 AM on March 15


Even with modern toilets if you get one from a plumbing supply house it's going to be better than the same model from a big box store. They will have better glazing within the trap and generally better manufacturing tolerance.

I've only clogged the Gerber viper toilet we have once, and that was due to me having the tank fill stop too low after I changed out the float.
posted by Ferreous at 9:38 AM on March 15 [1 favorite]


Our house was built in 1989 and I've replaced the two most commonly used toilets with modern ones and they're SO much better even using less water. It's a pretty easy job too, especially if you have two people to lift the thing and line it up with the bolts in the floor.

The other fun thing I learned about toilets is that they're almost always the largest drain pipe in your house. So if you ever have, say, a 5-gal bucket of dirty water that you don't want to dump in the bath tub and are looking for a better option, dump it in the toilet. Once it starts going it's insane house fast you can pour liquid down the things! It's a ton easier to avoid splashing and easier to clean up if you're pouring out something nasty that leaves something behind.
posted by VTX at 9:44 AM on March 15


Thanks Ferreous. I wasn't aware of the spec difference between pro and consumer versions of plumbing.
posted by aleph at 9:48 AM on March 15


> The OP link doesn't work in Canada. Is there an alternative way to see the Common Side Effects video?

not sure if it'll work for you, but adult swim apparently has the first four episodes unlocked.
posted by kliuless at 11:59 AM on March 15


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