Cory Farley
Opinion, Reno Gazette Journal

Occasionally in this job, an item comes along that requires unusual delicacy.

It may involve people’s private lives, or their reputations. It may require the airing of unpopular views. Sometimes (whisper it softly) advertisers may be offended.

And sometimes the genius of an idea is so subtle that you don’t want to tip people off.

Also, maybe dirty words. 

Get that out of the way first: the word we’re not going to print is a four letter one meaning urinate. It begins with a P and ends in SS, and it’s used these days on television and radio, but not in this newspaper. In this space, I’ll substitute “word.”

Word has slang meanings, too. If you’re angry, you’re said to be worded off, or worded. To express contempt for something, you might say word on that. Keep that in mind while I tell you about the urinal cakes, coming to a word-pot near you.

These are ordinary urinal cakes, the kind you may see anywhere. As far as I know, they have two purposes. The official one is to suppress, or cover-up (I don’t know the mechanism). the odor word in a public restroom. They aren’t very good at that.

The other purpose is to make word splatter on your pants. They’re excellent at that.

We’ve all seen these cakes… Well, half of us have. The rest of you can imagine a disk the size of a hockey puck, but made of a sparkly material resembling mothballs.

Now imagine it in Pepto-Bismol pink, and you’ll be close.

Few of us, though, have imagined those urinal cakes as art, let alone art with social significance. The Dadaist Fountainheads did, and if they carried out their plan, people all over Truckee Meadows are making impromptu political statements as you read this.

“We’re carving WAR on urinal cakes,“ said a DF member, who asked not to be named, “and putting them all over.“

This idea, like many great ideas, started with a flash of inspiration.

“I was worded off at what was going on,” the DF said. “People found out, and a small group of artist got involved and it started to grow.“

The plan is that these enhanced urinal cakes will be deposited in public spots, and people who use the urinals will be wording on war. If everything works out, they’ll appear this morning in places as diverse as the State Capitol in Carson City, educational facilities across the region, the airport and several Reno venues.

“There was a trial run,” the unnamed source told me on the phone Wednesday, “at the Reno gazette journal.”

“No,“ I said.

“Yes,“ he insisted. “Go look. They’re there.“ 

I did. They were. 

Word.