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July 8, 2018

Convenient to Sanitary in 6 easy steps


In this weeks Human Rights hearing, examining what this Oldspeak phrase
 A food establishment must have washroom facilities for staff and washroom facilities for the public available in a convenient location
means for people with wheelchairs, the province has argued that 'convenient' actually means 'optimal to avoid food contamination'.  Never mind that the washroom is still for the public - if "convenient" doesn't mean "handy" then the province is off the hook for enforcing this regulation as far as wheelchairs go.  According to their interpretation, the regulation reads
A food establishment must have washroom facilities for staff and washroom facilities for the public available in a location optimized to avoid food contamination.
And in government doublethink, that means "far away from the kitchen".

I would like to help in this mind-expanding and challenging project.  I can't find an individual word that expresses 'optimally located to avoid food contamination'.  Taking the province's argument at face value, I picked 'sanitary' as a word that the regulation drafter might have more accurately used.

Can you get from 'convenient' to 'sanitary' by using thesaurus.com, clicking synonyms?  The answer is yes, and it can be done in 6 steps.

  1. convenient
    1. suitable or agreeable to the needs or purpose; well-suited with respect to facility or ease in use; favorable, easy, or comfortable for use.
  2. comfortable
    1. being in a state of physical or mental comfort; contented and undisturbed; at ease:
  3. healthy
    1. conducive to good health; healthful:
  4. healthful
    1. wholesome or salutary:
  5. wholesome
    1. conducive to moral or general well-being; salutary; beneficial:
  6. sanitary
    1. of or relating to health or the conditions affecting health, especially with reference to cleanliness, precautions against disease
Movie buffs will remember that six degrees of separation is the idea that all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other.  Maybe this is easy!

Can you do better?  Start here.  Let me know your best result!  wcreedh@gmail.com

PS I bet the province would pay a handsome reward if you can get from "convenient" to "inconvenient" in 6 steps, so the regulation would read:
A food establishment must have washroom facilities for staff and washroom facilities for the public available in an inconvenient location

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