美国“最佳卫生间”评选进行中

美国“最佳卫生间”评选正在进行中，组织方将在获胜的卫生间举办新闻发布会，颁发“最佳卫生间”奖牌，并将其收入网络明星卫生间名录。目前，有十个卫生间进入了最后的决赛阶段，网友们将在9月19日之前通过网上投票，决定谁是最后的赢家。

It's America's competition for best public toilet and decision time is fast approaching.
One will emerge flush with（由于……而脸红） success and nine will go down the drain: It's America's competition for best public toilet and decision time is fast approaching.

Fans have until Sept 19 to cast online votes for the perfect privy¹（私人的） in America's Best Restroom contest.

Ten finalists from hundreds of nominees² are vying³ nationwide, organized by workplace supplies company Cintas.

Their charms are various.

A Las Vegas casino urinal（尿壶，小便处） incorporates a piece of the Berlin Wall. The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in Arizona has lighting⁴ that fades in and out in different colors to create a soothing⁵ atmosphere.

Another contender for throne of thrones is the Don's Johns portable toilet, initially⁶ supplied for US President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration⁷ - though whether it had served as Restroom One is unknown.

Not to be confused with the stinking⁸（发恶臭的） versions found at big outdoor events, the Don's John can pull the chain on most other lavatories⁹, boasting a television, granite¹⁰ counters, wood panel doors and hardwood flooring.

For the winner, there's the "coveted¹¹ America's Best Restroom plaque¹²", according to Cintas, a news conference to be held in the winning facility, and entry to an online restrooms hall of fame.

Sara Jo Rubin, of Rubin Communications, a publicist for Cintas, said toilets of all sorts stand a chance in this annual battle.

"The style could be elaborate（精心制作的） . It could be chandeliers. Some have had pool tables ... Sometimes it's quirkiness," Rubin said.

"The way you run your facilities is a reflection of how you run your business," she added.

Two of the finalists are in New York, and between them represent the extremes of the US restroom landscape.

At the Habana Outpost restaurant in Brooklyn, the mood is jungle, with a glass roof, hanging plants and rainwater flushing. The use of rainwater, which is collected in gutters¹³（水沟） and cisterns¹⁴, is estimated to save thousands of gallons of city water a week.

Darcy Le Fleming, the manager, said the inspiration was New York's perpetual problem with storm water overflows¹⁵, which pour raw sewage into the harbor. Habana Outpost's laid-back, eco-friendly toilet takes a small step toward putting that right.

Le Fleming said she hadn't known her restroom was nominated until a call came from Cintas. "That was very exciting," she said.

"If we win, I guess we'll have to have a big bathroom party or toilet-shaped cookies."

At the opposite end of the cubicle¹⁶ spectrum¹⁷ is the entry from Ninja, a Japanese restaurant in Manhattan modeled on an underground, feudal¹⁸ castle.

Here, the needy¹⁹ diner will wind past faux（人造的） cave walls and mini Ninja dwellings²⁰ before entering a bamboo-lined restroom.

There, he or she will find the mighty²¹ Toto, a Japanese toilet so sophisticated that one has to do nothing - or almost nothing - other than take a seat.

Alongside a seemingly regular commode（洗脸台） is a panel with rows of buttons and a digital screen that allows the sitter to operate a seat warmer, an up-from-under water jet - oscillating or pulsating²² - a deodorizer and even a blow drier.

"The seat is basically heated, not heated up so it's going to burn, but it's warm," said Lillian Buchel, 19, who works at Ninja. "It has cleaning utensils²³ that clean your behind. It also dries you."

Customers tend to burst back into the 15th century Ninja castle laughing.

"They always act surprised, but they definitely like it," Buchel said.