The Stall Call

A few minutes ago, I went into the bathroom. Upon entering, I heard someone engaged in a convivial discussion about his preferred North Carolina beach.

My initial assumption was that this gentleman was engaged in lighthearted sink conversation. One of the first rules of male bathroom etiquette is that conversations should only occur at the sink, unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example: you notice a venomous spider crawling on some one's shoulder, or your shirt is on fire and you need help, etc.)

As I entered, I quickly realized that this individual was not at the sink.

He must, I thought (naively), be at the urinal. Frivolous urinal talk is a universally frowned upon, although normally tolerated, offense. This guy was not at the urinal.

Cross-stall talk, I thought. This guy is flaunting conventions with total impunity! But there was only one stall door which was closed.
Schizophrenia, then! But how has he managed to keep a job if he is completely insane?

But he wasn't schizophrenic. The last words of his conversation were: "Look, I've got to run. I'll call you back after lunch." Then, he flushed.

I witnessed a stall-call.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Have you ever stall called?
2. If your answer is 'no,' are you lying?
3. What rules of bathroom etiquette do you observe?
4. Is bathroom etiquette a means of 'social control' used by the culturally elite to 'manipulate' us?

Blog Trivia: before this post, there were no pictures of toilets photoshopped into phone booths to be found on google images. I feel like this is my first real contribution to the internet.