Brown Friday
You know the drill around Thanksgiving weekend. First, you pig out on turkey, pumpkin pie, and all the other delicious Thanksgiving treats to build up your strength to watch football, then go shopping on the following Black Friday. Plumbers across the U.S. are also busy preparing for an annual Thanksgiving tradition. This one is less clean and neat than even having the dishes done and put away. Those magnificent examples of American ingenuity and ambition who keep America’s drains clog-free are call their holiday Brown Friday. You can probably guess why. On Thanksgiving, people eat and drink too much — and all that stuff has to come out the next day. Cases of clogged drains skyrocket every single year after Thanksgiving. And it’s not just toilets. Kitchen sinks, showers, and virtually any drain that can get clogged in your home are more likely to do so following the celebrations. That means plumbers generally have to clock in after Thanksgiving Day. After all, your broken plumbing is their filthy lucre for plumbers.
Why Is this Friday Brown?
Why does Thanksgiving lead to this unofficial event? We all eat and drink until we can eat and drink no more, and then we’ll eat and drink some more. Stuffing your face and stomach to the breaking point can result in predictable results once you seat yourself on the porcelain throne. The second issue is the huge amount of food residue and leftovers that get washed down the sink. “Virtually every traditional Thanksgiving dish is a drain-clogging culprit.” It’s great to get together with your entire extended family, but having 50 people suddenly strain your home’s plumbing can push it over the breaking points. Portland, Oregon was awarded the title of the most clogged up city in America in 2022, according to a report compiled by Yelp. The closest city on the top 30 list to Cleveland was Columbus, Ohio.
Avoiding Brown Friday:
Never pour oil or grease down into a drain. Wipe pots and pans with paper towels or pour excessive amounts of oil into the garbage.
Don’t put starchy and fibrous food waste into your garbage disposal. Take a minute to scoop the gunk by hand into the garbage and save an expensive phone call.
Start your garbage disposal before you drop food waste into it and let it run for a minute after you are done. If you clog the disposal blades you risk blowing the motor.
Do not flush cotton balls, wet wipes, hair, or other non-dissolvable matter down the toilet.
Keep a plunger in the bathroom to save your guests from the ‘walk of shame.’
Ask people to wait 10-15 minutes between showers. It takes time for all the soap and bodily oils to properly move through your piping into the general sewage system.
If your sinks are draining slowly or you notice any other small plumbing issues before the big meal, get them fixed before you strain your system on the big Brown Friday.
Plumbing for fun
What do plumbers, garbagemen, and economists all have in common?
They all deal with our gross domestic product.
In Soviet Russia a Man Goes to Buy a Car…
He goes to the dealer and asks for a car, to the dealer warns him:
“You know there is a 10 year waiting list?”
The man then answers, ‘OK,’ So he pays for the car in advance, and just before he leaves he asks the dealer, “Can I pick the car up in the morning or afternoon?”
“It’s 10 years away, what does it matter?”
“The plumber is coming in the morning.”
I asked a plumber what time it was…
He told me it was between 8 AM and 4 PM.
How do you tell the difference between a seamstress and a plumber?
Ask them to pronounce the word “sewer.”
There must be a special discount store for plumbers…
Their pants are always 50% off.
November 22nd Birthdays
1958 – Jamie Lee Curtis, 1961 – Muriel Hemingway, Scarlett Johansson, 1996 – Katherine McNamara
1958 – Mark Ruffalo, 1989 – Jamie Campbell Bower, 1921 – Rodney Dangerfield