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During the Men’s Hockey Final, Toronto Held It

By Steve Kupferman

20100318torontowaterusagehockey.gif
Image courtesy of the City of Toronto.


During the climactic men’s hockey game at the end of this winter’s Olympics, Toronto was united by a lot more than enthusiasm for sports. As this graph of the city’s water usage during the game clearly shows, Torontonians were also remarkably synchronized that night in the timing of their trips to the washroom, with massive spikes in water consumption to coincide with each intermission in play and a huge dip in usage following Sidney Crosby’s winning goal. This was almost certainly due to toilets, citywide, flushing, and not flushing, in unison. Bladders were straining together all over Toronto. It brings a tear to the eye.
Similar graphs showing water usage in Edmonton and Winnipeg have already made the news―but this graph, from Toronto Water, our city’s water-supply agency, is the first evidence we’ve seen of game-time washroom synchronicity specifically in Toronto.
We imagine a graph of beer consumption during the game would show pretty much the inverse, if what happened afterward is anything to go by.

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Comments

  • http://undefined deadrobot

    It’s articles like these that make Torontoist lift the lid on interesting stories.

  • http://undefined historyjen

    Great piece.

  • http://undefined Craig C

    I’m relieved to know I wasn’t the only one!

  • Steve Munro

    A very long time ago, there was a late night show on CBC called “Nightcap”. There has been news reports that a phenomenon similar to the graph above occured every Sunday at 9pm (following the Ed Sullivan Show) and a bigger one at 10pm (following Bonanza!).
    Nightcap decided to do their own ratings test by having every viewer in Toronto flush their toilets at exactly the same time. The effect was quite visible on the graph which was displayed with pride on the next week’s show.